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
Lady Howard writes to Mr. Villars to tell him how wonderful Evelina is. Evelina is both extremely beautiful and extremely innocent—something Lady Howard finds surprising, as she says that beauty is usually a sign of “falseness.” Although Evelina has not been educated in high society, she is naturally polite because she wants everyone around her to be happy and comfortable. Evelina also gets along well with Maria Mirvan, Lady Howard’s granddaughter.
Authenticity and natural emotional responses (often referred to as sensibility) were prized in the 18th century, as people believed these traits were signs of virtue. Lady Howard suggests that Evelina’s beauty is natural, not something she enhances with unnatural things like makeup or fashion. Evelina is also innocent and, therefore, does not try and use her beauty to her advantage to get her own way. In this sense, she is “artless,” or authentic. Eighteenth-century British society was also preoccupied with strict behavioral codes, like etiquette. Although Evelina does not know formal etiquette, her innate sensibility means that she cares about how other people feel, and this leads her to be naturally polite and considerate toward others.
Themes
Literary Devices
