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 to Evelina. He is baffled to hear that Sir John Belmont has a second daughter who is set to inherit his fortune. Mr. Villars can only assume that Sir John married again after Evelina’s mother, Caroline’s, death. Still, since Evelina is Sir John’s legitimate heir, Mr. Villars says they must find out who this other daughter is, otherwise Caroline’s reputation could be further damaged. Mr. Villars is further concerned that this will damage Evelina’s reputation, which is already at risk because of her perceived illegitimacy.
Sir John Belmont lived a debauched and immoral life, seducing and abandoning several women and destroying their reputations in the process. In 18th-century Britain, even an innocent woman could have her reputation destroyed if a man accused her of premarital sex or misconduct of any kind. Mr. Villars fears that if people find out that Sir John married again after he impregnated then abandoned Caroline, it will confirm people’s belief that Caroline and John were never married and further ruin both Caroline and Evelina’s reputation. Children often inherited their parents’ reputations in this period, and people considered illegitimate children to be corrupt or unworthy because they were conceived in an allegedly sinful manner.
Themes
Although Mr. Villars regrets that Mrs. Mirvan could not take Evelina to meet Sir John, he thinks that she must immediately go to see him with Mrs. Selwyn. Mr. Villars also sends them a letter to Sir John that Caroline wrote before her death and will send Mrs. Clinton—who was Caroline’s maid—to go with them. If none of this convinces Sir John that he is Evelina’s father, her physical similarity to Caroline surely will.
Mr. Villars wants to clear Caroline’s name, which would also help clear Evelina’s. Caroline’s reputation was ruined after Sir John seduced, impregnated, then abandoned her. Although Caroline and John were married in secret, Sir John denies the marriage and does not admit that Evelina is his daughter. 18th-century society was misogynistic, and even an innocent woman like Caroline could have her reputation destroyed by an accusation of premarital sex. Caroline’s damaged reputation affects Evelina too. If people believe that her parents were not married, they will think she is illegitimate and therefore inferior and unworthy of her inheritance.
Themes
