Evelina: Neverland Nightmare

Francis Burney’s Evelina is subtitled: The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World. Upon entering the world of society in London, Evelina is doubtless a young lady and, as Rose Marie Cutting points out, shows "an independence of judgement that reflects… intelligence, common sense, and the good principles" of her education. These characteristics, however, do not appear to develop throughout the novel. Evelina seems to be a character for the most part without growth. She begins the novel with shameless dependence upon her guardian Mr. Villars as she asks him to “decide for” her and proclaims herself “unable” to act independently or to judge what conduct she ought to pursue. She leans upon him as a “guide and director” throughout and even after falling in love with Lord Orville near the novel’s close still unquestioningly shuns her lover at the request of her guardian. Even in the last few days before her wedding is to take place, she promises to halt everything if Reverend Villars has “but the smallest objection.” One cannot doubt the similar dependence she will have upon Lord Orville after signing her final letter to Mr. Villars. It is this circular movement, as Susan Fraiman describes it, which moves her from Villars to Orville, from one director to another, and from one child-like status to the next. As the novel’s events finally culminate and leave Evelina in essentially the same place she started, the reader is left questioning whether she has indeed made a transformation from virtuous girl to virtuous woman or if she is only a girl adopted by a new father.

Viewing the situation from a modern standpoint, we might argue that a young woman must be independent in order to graduate from child to adult. Judged by these standards, Evelina could not make the transformation. In the eighteenth century, however, women were expected (and in most cases forced) to be dependent upon men. A virtuous woman, therefore, would be one who complied with society’s demand and readily accepted her dependence. In the eyes of eighteenth century society, Evelina did become a virtuous woman.

Kenneth Graham points out that the “two central virtues expected of ladies” were modesty and delicacy but that each contained “a series of double hooks.” The innocence required for delicacy meant a woman must be ignorant, and modesty required silence. Both modesty and delicacy, therefore, lead to vulnerability. Evelina is repeatedly thrown into situations where she becomes vulnerable due to her ignorance of society. Her inability to identify prostitutes, for example, throws her into their company at Marybone Gardens where she is then met by Lord Orville. Her association with these women not only puts her in danger physically but also subjects her virtue to speculation as it causes Orville to question her ethics. It is in this way that the traits meant to increase her virtue often come dangerously close to sacrificing it.

Eighteenth century conduct books further support the ideology that a virtuous woman ought to be dependent upon and even under the control of men. John Gregory, for example, in A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters says that even if a woman has any learning, she ought to “keep it a profound secret especially from men who generally look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of cultivated understanding." The concept that a woman should have to hide her intelligence simply to make men feel better about themselves shows clearly how much women were at the mercy of men’s opinions. Fraiman puts it bluntly stating that “a woman’s position essentially depends on whether men call her madonna or whore.” Throughout the novel, Evelina is constantly seeking male approval. With each letter to Reverend Villars, she strives to be morally upright in his eyes, continually asking his opinion and always submitting to his will. She also endeavors to gain acceptance from the father who abandoned her and her mother without showing resentment toward him for either crime. She speaks only of paternal warmth toward this man who defiled her mother’s name but could solidify her own. Finally she is constantly battling to be seen as socially correct in Lord Orville’s eyes despite the frequent blunders her ignorance causes. His view of her is clearly essential to her future social status as a simple proposal will change the way other men see her for the rest of her life. Evelina, like most other women of her time, is completely at the mercy of man’s opinion of her. Because she is a virtuous woman, however, she accepts this truth without question.

Throughout Evelina, we see what little change is made from virtuous girl to virtuous woman. A woman is still required to be ignorant, she is still vulnerable, and she remains at the mercy of men. Marriage, which she sees as a mark of womanhood, will really only lead to a child-like dependency. This circular movement which women of Evelina's time period and social status had to make forced them to have forever the status of children—trapped forever in a Neverland they did not choose and could not escape from, a Neverland Nightmare.