Evelina Flashcards
What form is Evelina written in?
Epistolary
Quote describes Evelina’s innocence?
Innocent as an angel, and artless as purity itself.
‘Angel’ reference is repeated. Eg Mr Macartney
Sensibility vs language =
Authentic vs inauthentic (or at least, limited)
What year was Evelina written?
1778
What year was Richardson’s Pamela written?
1740
I can write no more now. …
I have hardly time to breathe –
How does Evelina describe her letters?
As a ‘town journal’
What quote shows the limitations of the epistolary form, along with the urgency it creates?
I can write no more now. I have hardly time to breathe –
What is Evelina’s reaction after receiving Orville’s (fake) letter?
I cannot journalise.
What quotes show the limits of expression (within the epistolary form)?
I can write no more now. I have hardly time to breathe –
I cannot journalise.
What quote shows the unreliability of the epistolary form?
Upon a second reading, I thought every word changed - it did not seem the same letter.
Upon second reading…
I thought every word changed - it did not seem the same letter
What’s the subtitle of Evelina?
The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World
What genres does Evelina participate in?
Conduct literature
Sentimental literature
Epistolary
What effect does the hyperbole have?
Becomes more comic, so distances the didactic effect.
Reader laughs at absurdity, but therefore becomes complicit in xenophobia or cruelty.
Hyperbole is in tension with what?
The sentimental genre.
Sentimentality can seem hyperbolic to contemporary readers, but it is meant to be genuine.
Example of hyperbole of emotion
My feet refused to sustain me
I sunk, almost lifeless
Example quote of absurdity of events:
He hauled into the room a monkey!
He hauled into the room a monkey! …
full dressed and extravagantly à-la-mode!
What is the poem that shows the association between monkeys and France?
Canning ‘New Morality’
How Do We Ape Thee, France
The association between France and monkeys was about what?
The erosion of British morality as Britain imitated French fashions and manners.
‘How do we Ape Thee, France!’ is from what poem?
Canning’s ‘New Morality’
What quote shows the inadequacy of language in Evelina?
– But alas! –
(Typographical features replace words
I cannot journalise
How does the genre of sensibility describe the body?
The meaningful body
The sentimental genre shows what about the authenticity of emotion?
emotions expressed in 'the meaningful body' can't be faked. While language (epistolary genre) can be manipulated.
The novel opens with letters between who?
Rvd. Mr. Village and Lady Howard
What quotes from Mr Lovell show Evelina’s struggle with identity?
I cannot learn who she is.
A person who is nobody.
How does the epistolary form participate in identity?
Compensating for lack of voice/agency in real world.
(But it’s broken my Mr Villars’ letters)
Self-fashioning?
Introduced not my Evelina herself.
Lovell says Evelina is: ‘a person…’
‘Who is nobody.’
What does Evelina say about her lack of identity?
She sat like a cypher, whom to nobody belonging, by nobody was noticed.
What’s the importance of the following quote being in part 3?
She sat like a cypher, whom to nobody belonging, by nobody was noticed.
She has finally realised the full extent of her vulnerability in the world, as well as realising her lack of identity.
What does cypher mean?
An empty signifier.
It can be a physical, written sign. Eg. A zero (plays on idea of empty written communication.)
Also, a puzzle - to decipher.
What quote shows Evelina’s goal and simultaneously establishes the idea of woman as commodities?
Properly owned
What three names does Evelina have?
Anville
Belmont
Orville
(Never signs Orville)
What is Evelina’s mother’s name?
Caroline Evelyn
In what ways does Evelina’s name show her lack of identity?
Anville is almost an anagram of Evelina
It changes very frequently.
Orville and Anville cycle?
Evelina’s mother is called Miss Evelyn. What’s the significance of this?
Evelina’s name doesn’t belong to herself. No identity.
Equally, her mother is the only person to properly claim Evelina. And name mimics this.
She sat like a cypher…
whom to nobody belonging, by nobody was noticed.
What quote in Evelina mimics Fantomina’s ‘the blame was wholly hers’?
I was wholly dependent upon you
What is Evelina’s goal in the novel?
To be ‘properly owned’
Eg. Women as a commodity.
Finding her identity.
What quote shows Evelina’s dependency on Villars (generally on other people)?
I was wholly dependant upon you.
What street does Captain Mirvan live on? And what’s its significance?
Queen Anne street
British monarch declared war against the Spain
Eg. His xenophobia.
What quote shows Evelina’s high level of empathy?
I most heartily pity him
What quote shows Evelina’s comedic social blunder?
Scarce could I forbade laughing.
What were licentious men (such as Sir Clement Willoughby) known as?
Rakes
What quote shows Evelina laughing?
‘Scarce could I forbear laughing’ at Mr Lovell’s ‘foppish’ countenance.
Why is the reader complicit when Evelina ‘scarce can forbear laughing’? And what is the significance?
Laughs with Evelina.
Conduct literature: laughing in safe environment of book means reader can learn not to do it (like Evelina) in reality.
How is the old woman in the race shown as a commodity.
She ‘did not belong’ to Lord Merton
Also, the absurdity of the race they are forced to participate in
What quote shows the way letters are open to interpretation?
Upon second reading, I thought every word changed - it did not seem the same letter.
What war had sharpened tensions with France?
Seven year war
Ended in 1763, 16 years before Evelina.
What’s the surname of Evelina’s cousins?
The Branghtons
Quote where Evelina chooses not to laugh at Madam Duval.
This narrative almost compelled me to laugh, yet I was really irritated with the Captain.
How does the young Mr Branghton describe what Polly does by sitting in the shop window?
‘Shewing yourself’
