Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Evelina: or, The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sensibility, Etiquette, and Appearances
Gender, Reputation, and Marriage
Inheritance, Class, and Nobility
Innocence, Guidance, and Experience
Summary
Analysis
Mr. Villars writes back to Lady Howard: he will allow Evelina to visit Howard Grove, but he is concerned about letting her go to London. Mr. Villars feels that Evelina is emotionally sensitive and that her situation is very precarious because she is considered illegitimate (her father, Sir John Belmont, denies his marriage to Evelina’s late mother, Caroline.) Evelina, therefore, will not inherit her father’s fortune, and Mr. Villars does not want her to see lavish city lifestyles, which she will not have herself.
The countryside, where Evelina has been raised, was associated with innocence and purity during this period, whereas the city was associated with corruption and sin. Mr. Villars worries that the innocent Evelina may be corrupted if she goes to the city. Evelina’s emotional sensitivity is a sign of her innate sensibility, or the ability to be empathetic and to have strong emotional reactions. Sensibility was extremely fashionable in the 18th century and was believed to reveal innate virtue. Premarital sex was considered sinful during this period, and illegitimate children were therefore viewed as inherently corrupt and could not inherit their parent’s wealth or noble titles.
Themes
Mr. Villars says that he will send Evelina to Howard Grove with her nurse, Mrs. Clinton, and advises Lady Howard that Evelina should go by the surname “Anville.” He warns Lady Howard that Evelina has been educated in the country and therefore knows nothing about sophisticated city life. He hopes that Lady Howard will still find Evelina pleasant company, however.
Evelina has a false name because her father, Sir John, falsely claims that he never married her mother, Caroline. This means that, in society’s eyes, Evelina is illegitimate (her parents were not married)—and since premarital sex was considered sinful, illegitimate children were viewed as inherently corrupt. Fashionable 18th-century society was rigidly ordered around etiquette, or manners; as Evelina has been raised middle-class in the unfashionable countryside, she has not been educated in etiquette. Mr. Villars worries that this will make Evelina stand out or make people believe that she is not virtuous, since etiquette was seen as synonymous with virtue.
Themes
