Main Points:

We began class with a discussion of Mrs. Selwyn.  She seems an odd character as she is constructed in a very queer way.  She is masculine and rough in a way that makes her a sort of anti-role model for Evelina.  Mrs. Selwyn provides a sort of lesson or warning for what Evelina could become if she is not incorporated into the heterosexual realm of romance and society. 

The class discussed thoughts and answers to the questions, “What is this book about?”

°         Social location of class and where it comes from

o       There is much anxiety about class throughout the novel.  This is specifically evident in the characters of Mme. Duval, the Mirvans, and Evelina.

°         Leisure

o       The development of a class of people who now have leisure time is a major focus of the novel and also reveals class status.

°         Family

o       The novel examines the relationship between the biological family, the family one constitutes for himself, and the larger world.

°         Dangers of Innocence

o       At first, Evelina does not know how to read other people and this allows other characters to lead her, such as Mme. Duval.

o       We compared the novel to a bildungsroman, a novel of development, and found that Evelina’s story is more than a coming of age as she develops in a way we haven’t seen in any previous novels.  Evelina experiences a move from innocence to experience.

°         Moral fabric of society

o       Society is painted on a large scale in the novel, and we discussed the bizarre scene involving the Captain and the monkey which serves as a commentary on society. 

In Evelina, the letters become part of the plot.  The letter to John Belmont, the forged letter from Lord Orville, and the letter from Caroline Evelyn all drive the plot. 

We spent some time discussing the poem that circulates about Evelina in the pump room (332).  It is a corny poem, but so explicit that it embarrasses Evelina.  Although anonymous, when compared to earlier examples of Macartney’s poetry, this poem is so different that it could not be his work.  The poem has to be Willoughby’s work, and it is another step in his attempt to win her over.  Although infatuated with Evelina, because she is not independent and independently wealthy, Willoughby couldn’t imagine marrying her while Lord Orville transcends this problem. 

The mechanics of the novel, specifically the pace, shifts between Volumes II and III.  In Volume III, Burney shows events happening faster than the pace of letters, and Evelina starts making decisions on her own.  Ultimately, the letters become less important than live action.

We finished discussion with the letter from Caroline Evelyn, which serves to resolve all problems.  Kept in a drawer for 18 years, Caroline was seemingly able to imagine exactly this situation.  When John Belmont receives the letter, he still does not care until he sees Evelina.  This scene, on page 372, is very theatrical, and seeing Evelina trumps the letter.  At the end of the novel, Evelina plans to return to Mr. Villars, and so ultimately the family of affection trumps the biological family. 

Close Reading

“While we were engaged in a most delightful conversation, a servant brought me a letter, which he told me he had, by some accident, been mislaid. Judge my feelings, when I saw, my dearest Sir, your revered handwriting! My emotions soon betrayed to Lord Orville whom the letter was from: the importance of the contents he well knew, and, assuring me I should not be seen by the card-players, he besought me to open it without delay” (403).

This letter ultimately reveals Reverend Villars’ consent to the marriage of Evelina and Lord Orville, although at this point that approval is superfluous to the actual fact. We discussed in class how this relates to the mechanics of the novel – in the third volume, time does not always keep a consistent pace with the plot, letters become crossed and information is delayed. This ultimately leads to the conclusion that reality has become more important than the letters themselves.

In this passage, we see how Mr. Villars had been pushed to the background. Evelina carries on a “delightful conversation,” having already decided to marry Lord Orville before awaiting a response, and then we discover that the letter has been mislaid (hearkening once again back to our days with Haywood and Richardson). Yet the letter commands all of Evelina’s emotions, which she does not bother to hide, revealing a persistent love and respect for her absent guardian.  The attentiveness and knowledge of the letter on Lord Orville’s part also reveals a closeness and compatibility with Evelina.   There is great urgency to read the letter immediately, although in terms of action, its content is of no consequence. The emphasis is therefore placed on emotion over plot. Although Evelina has grown out of her past in many ways, from gaining social grace to gaining her real name and a new husband, she remains connected to her past. As the communication pace breaks down, the characters are drawn closer together in their reality (Evelina is soon on her way to see Mr. Villars), so it is no coincidence that shortly after this happens, the novel draws to a close. As the present has become the most important time, there is no need to relate events, and the novel ends. This natural and practical progression also strengthens the seeming reality of the novel.

We had also some pages before (387-389) learned the truth about the supposed letter from Lord Orville, which was actually from Sir Clement Willoughby.  This revelation too, was at this point superfluous, as Evelina already knew that the letter was not from Orville, and suspecting it was in fact from Sir Clement.  In addition to this, Evelina presented her mother’s last letter to Sir John (384) only after he had accepted her. These late clarifications, along with Mr. Villars’ tardy consent, again draw the action together as the novel closes. While all the information comes together and the truth is revealed, there is no longer conflict or need for letters.

Close reading 2

p. 332-333

Here again, we have a manipulation in the epistolary form of the novel. There is a transgression between the private to the public, as Sir Clement Willoughby intrudes into Evelina’s private space by showing her a poem about her, written secretly by him, and then circulated through public social circles.  Evelina cannot bear to have her emotions known. She very rarely says what she feels, she rather adheres strictly to rules of propriety. Although her emotions are read easily by her fainting and crying fits, she never purposefully puts herself forward. Sir Clement Willoughby, on the other hand, is the opposite, and is constantly putting himself forward to intrude into Evelina’s private space. This can be seen as she calls a meeting with him “insignificant,” while he insists “nothing is insignificant where you are concerned” (330).  In this scene, Sir Clement forces Evelina to accept the letter in front of Lord Orville and others.  Sir Clement proclaims the wish to conceal the poem for Evelina’s eyes only at this point, trying to “avoid suspicion” (333), yet he only draws more attention by forcing a private letter into her hand in a public place. The inconsistency once again reveals his duplicitous character. Evelina notes that “the conversation was left to conjecture” (333). Indeed in this novel, very little is declared outright. The rules of propriety enforce a strict code; Evelina is forced to submit to all of her superiors, and cannot say what she truly feels to either Lord Orville or Sir Clement. “Conjecture” continually creates conflict.

Close Reading 3

“The Miss Belmont, then, who is actually at Bristol, passes for the daughter of my unhappy mother!” (366) 

The revelation of Miss Belmont seems to serve the key purpose in the novel "Evelina", being that it gives an explanation to the absence of Sir John Belmont and his seeming negligence of his daughter.  The introduction of Miss Belmont seems to be somewhat strange, she comes in so late and is barely seen throughout the rest of the volume.  She seems to be a simple tool that Burney uses to explicate the so-called coldness and cruel father, Sir John Belmont.  The circumstance of Miss Belmont allows Burney to give the heroine, Evelina, a more sympathetic father, who the reader previously had viewed as heartless.  In the circumstances, however, John Belmont is given a new character and is shown to have been quite good to the girl he thought was his daughter, though not overly affectionate.  In the case of Miss Belmont, she peripherally illustrates the good nature of Sir John Belmont, giving the reader the satisfaction of Evelina having a good father, though not as good as the faithful and steady Mr. Villars. 

Reference 

In Volume III of Evelina, the place referred to as the pump-room in Hotwell acquires a certain amount of significance.  For example, it is the seat of the gossip concerning the discovery of the anonymous poem praising Evelina’s beauty.  In this way, the pump-room further serves to highlight the difference between Evelina’s simple upbringing and the social world in which she now finds herself.  The footnote in the class edition of the text defines the pump room as “the room in which visitors to the Hotwells socialized and took the waters, and where a band played each morning during the season.”  For additional information about the actual water in the pump rooms in Bristol, one can visit the following website: http://www.about-bristol.co.uk/wat-01.asp.  In class, Professor O'Brien and several students discussed having been to a pump room in England, maintaing that the water itself was not at all agreeable to the palate.  Essentially, however, pump rooms are important to the story because they were a gathering place of the nobility and thus denoted a certain degree of sophistication.  Interestingly, when I googled “pump- rooms,” a fair amount of the hits contained references to Jane Austen novels.  Specifically, some sites discuss the importance of the pump rooms in Bath to Northanger Abbey, which we will be reading next.