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
Sir John writes a curt letter to Lady Howard and tells her that, although she may believe that he is a “devil” and that Mr. Villars is a “saint,” this is not the truth. He further writes that he knows nothing of Evelina but wishes her the best and hopes that Mr. Villars’s attempts to find Evelina a fortune will be more successful elsewhere.
Although Evelina is Sir John’s child, Sir John suspects that Mr. Villars is a social climber who wishes to trick him and steal his fortune. Eighteenth-century British society was strictly ordered by class, and social mobility was largely impossible. In spite of this, many middle and lower-class people aspired to join the nobility and often adopted false identities to claim noble connections or inherit wealth that did not belong to them.
Themes
Literary Devices
