Evelina Final Paper

In Evelina, Francis Burney examines the implications of the culture of politeness that flourished in the first half of the eighteenth century. She reveals the system of politeness, as a means to social reform, to be largely ineffectual. Burney depicts, quite well, what happens when people come together for the sole purpose of self-display. She examines the effects of a social system on various characters from various walks of life. Through various characters in Evelina, she makes arguments for the ineffectiveness of the system of propriety.
According to Patricia Hamilton, the rise of politeness in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century can be attributed to a desire for stability, unity, and order in an age of political, religious, and economic upheaval. This was achieved through a change in manner of conversing and dealing with people. And putting the needs of the group before one’s own. The notion that society needed a widespread reformation of male manners arose particularly among the aristocracy. Politeness as defined in the early eighteenth century comprised of two parts. First, was in reference to language. One should not only use courteous language, but refrain strictly from language that would offend any party present. The second was the practice of accommodating oneself to the feelings of others. According to conduct literature of the time period, a gentleman consistently accommodates the needs of others. According to John Locke good breeding was inner virtue manifested in outward behavior (Hamilton 422). Locke focuses on teaching youth to govern their actions based on reason, while also recognizing that good breeding is based on sensitivity to social contexts. Later in the eighteenth century a new theory developed that the genuine concern for others stemmed from a refined sensibility. The culture of politeness carried a high value on authenticity rather than show, emphasizing that external behavior should spring from and be congruent with inner moral virtue (Hamilton 5). According to Hamilton, this idea was printed in early century conduct literature and was met with fears about effeminacy throughout the century. Through her ultimate model of male politeness, Lord Orville, Burney examines the idea that authentic moral virtue is attainable only by coming to terms with and tapping into their more feminine like qualities; in order to preserve the harmony of the entire group. Lord Orville’s traits such as propriety, sensitivity, and compassion are inherently feminine. In Evelina, Lord Orville is Burney’s depiction of a sentimental model of male politeness. Evelina records in her letters to Villars, “The conversation of Lord Orville is really delightful. His manners are so elegant, so gentle, so unassuming that they at once engage esteem, and diffuse complacence.. he is most assiduously attentive to please and to serve all who are in his company; and, though his success is invariable, he never manifests the smallest degree of consciousness. (74). Lord Orville is and does not pretend to be the graceful, charming, and considerate gentlemen he represents. This is what makes Lord Orville authentic in contrast to characters like Lovel, Sir Clement, and Lord Merton; whose ideology of politeness represents everything that is wrong with the system of politeness. Lord Orville’s consistent acts of compassion and sensitivity toward Evelina—despite the disparity in rank between the two—demonstrate Lord Orville’s possession of innate moral virtue. His acts of compassion are brought upon by spontaneous feeling, yet he is able to suppress his feelings when civility demands it. When Sir Clement forces Evelina into his own carriage after the opera, Lord Orville’s inquires as to her arrival at Mrs. Mirvan’s merely out of concern for Evelina’s safety and reputation. He is able to suppress his anxiety over Sir Clement’s probable ulterior motives in the opera house, and instead heads, immediately, for the Mirvan’s. His

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