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Volume 1, Letter 19
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
That evening, Madame Duval says she has a cold and goes home early. Evelina and the Mirvans have tickets to a play, and Sir Clement meets them at the theater. The group has seats in a box near the stage, and Lord Orville sees them and comes over to say hello. The first play is bawdy, however, and Evelina and Mrs. Mirvan find themselves deeply embarrassed by the rude jokes.
Evelina’s reaction to the play highlights her innate sensibility, an 18th-century concept associated with empathy and emotional sensitivity. These qualities were further associated with virtue and refinement. As purity was also considered virtuous, especially among women, Evelina’s natural embarrassment at the play reflects her emotional sensitivity and her natural purity, as she has an aversion to the play’s sexual content. For Burney’s contemporary audience, this would have characterized Evelina as a virtuous heroine.
Themes
Evelina is relieved when the first play ends. She is surprised, however, when Mr. Lovel unexpectedly enters their box and sits down with them. Mr. Lovel greets Sir Clement and Lord Orville, then turns to Evelina and makes a sly joke about her conduct at the ball, where she refused to dance with him several nights ago. Mr. Lovel then says that it is clear Evelina was raised in the country. He sarcastically surmises that city etiquette must be quite new to her.
Mr. Lovel implies that Evelina is ignorant because she was raised in the country and is therefore unfamiliar with fashionable etiquette, or manners, which were important in 18th-century London. People from the country were believed to be innocent and naïve compared to savvy and fashionable city-dwellers. Although Mr. Lovel mocks Evelina for being rude, he, too, behaves impolitely as he enters the Mirvans’ box uninvited. He’s only polite to Sir Clement and Lord Orville because they’re noble and he wants to impress them, all the while insulting their companion Evelina. Although Mr. Lovel claims to care about manners, he himself is often rude.
Themes
Evelina blushes, embarrassed by Mr. Lovel’s comments. Mr. Lovel says that he hopes the city has not affected Evelina’s health, and Lord Orville retorts that anyone can see from Evelina’s fair complexion that she is perfectly healthy. Mr. Lovel insinuates that Evelina wears makeup, and Mrs. Mirvan indignantly tells Mr. Lovel not to be insulting. Lord Orville says that he, for one, finds it easy to tell if a woman’s complexion is real or not.
Mr. Lovel implies that Evelina has been corrupted by city life. He guesses that Evelina is from the countryside (which was associated with innocence and purity in this period) and wants to insult her by suggesting that the city has made her vain and coquettish. Wearing makeup, although common, was considered a sign of vanity in women. Mr. Lovel’s comments are insulting because women’s purity was highly prized in this period, and insinuations of vanity or flirtatiousness could damage their reputations.
Themes
Changing the subject, Sir Clement asks Mrs. Mirvan if she enjoyed the play, and she replies that it was a little too bawdy for her taste. Captain Mirvan scoffs at this and says it is the only truly witty play he has ever seen. Mr. Lovel casually exclaims that he doesn’t even know what play was performed—he only comes to the theater to be seen in public. Captain Mirvan thinks this is ridiculous and mocks Mr. Lovel for paying for theater tickets every night just to ignore the play.
Captain Mirvan demonstrates no sensibility, an 18th-century term which suggested emotional sensitivity and strong reactions to suffering or to offensive things. Mrs. Mirvan, on the other hand, is sensitive to the play’s bawdy material because she is sensible—whereas Captain Mirvan thinks it is funny. Captain Mirvan points out Mr. Lovel’s vanity and pretentiousness, as Mr. Lovel only cares about his reputation and does not have any naturally sensible response to the plays he goes to see. He just wants to maintain the appearance of sensibility and appreciation of the arts because it is fashionable, an attitude which Burney implies was common among 18th-century Londoners.
Themes
Literary Devices
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Mr. Lovel leaves them, and Evelina thinks how silly he is to pretend that he has not watched the play when he obviously has, since he knows all the characters. On the way home in Mrs. Mirvan’s carriage, Mrs. Mirvan observes that Mr. Lovel is clearly still very offended because Evelina refused to dance with him at the ball several weeks before. Evelina is worried by this, but she thinks indignantly that young people should be given a guide to manners before they are introduced to society.
Although 18th-century society was preoccupied with sensibility, Mr. Lovel demonstrates that many fashionable people are pretentious rather than genuine—they care more about keeping up appearances than they do about being authentic. Evelina inadvertently insulted Mr. Lovel because she does not understand fashionable etiquette, a strict social code which governed social interaction in this period. Using Evelina as an example, Burney makes the point that etiquette is an unnatural, learned skill and that it is unfair to expect inexperienced people to understand it.
Themes
