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
Evelina writes back to Maria and dispels Maria’s claim that Evelina is in love with Lord Orville and misses him now that she is away from London. Evelina says that she does not have any special feelings for Lord Orville and is mainly concerned because Mr. Villars has noticed her sad looks and has become unhappy himself as a result. Mr. Villars’s acquaintance, Mrs. Selwyn, has invited Evelina to stay with her at Bristol—but Mr. Villars became so distraught when this was suggested that Evelina turned down the invitation.
Evelina demonstrates natural sensibility (an 18th-century term associated with empathy and emotional sensitivity), as she seems to care more about Mr. Villars’s unhappiness than her own. Although Evelina is back at her childhood home— where she was once happy, carefree, and innocent—her experiences in the city have changed her and made it so that she cannot return to the pure happiness she once experienced there.
Themes
Literary Devices
