1 Describe Evelina's behavior and feelings at her first ball. What does she learn here and how serious are her mistakes in etiquette? (1.11). What assumptions and values inform the society at the ball?
2 How does Evelina use her letters not simply to communicate to Villars but also to resolve her conflicts and to express/discover what she thinks and feels. Can you offer some examples of this?
3 What do you think of Sir Clement Willoughby and of Evelina's responses to him at the ridotto? (1.13)
2 How does Evelina use her letters not simply to communicate to Villars but also to resolve her conflicts and to express/discover what she thinks and feels. Can you offer some examples of this?
3 What do you think of Sir Clement Willoughby and of Evelina's responses to him at the ridotto? (1.13)
4 What are Burney’s attitudes towards Sir Clement at this point--what is his function in the novel?
5 Villars writes of his pleasure over Evelina's mistakes rather than her attempt to adopt fashionable manners (1.15). What do you think of his attitude?
6 Why do you think Burney has Capt. Mirvan and Mme. Duval in the novel? What values, ideas, and emotions can the author express through these characters?
7 How does Evelina describe Lord Orville and why? (1.18)
8 What do you think of Evelina's attitude toward the Branghtons' ignorance at the opera? (1.21)
9 Lady Howard supports Mme. Duval's desire to sue Sir John Belmont over Evelina's inheritance. What do you think of Villars' response to this idea and his wishes for Evelina? (1.28)
10 Has Evelina learned how to deal with Sir Clement yet? (2.3) What's so difficult about her situation?
11 What does Evelina's comparison of Mr. Smith to Sir Clement reveal about her values? (2.11)
12 What expectations and plot developments does Macartney's letter to Evelina introduce? (2.20)
13 Evelina gets lost at Marybone gardens (2.21). Two women accompany her back to her party--what are these women doing in the novel?
14 Keep track of Mrs. Selwyn's behavior and Evelina's evaluation of it. What is Mrs. Selwyn's purpose in the novel? What does she represent and how is she useful to the author? See, for example, her treatment of Lord Merton and Mr. Coverley (3.1) or her assessment of Mrs. Beaumont (3.3) or her arguments with Lovel and Coverley (3.3).
14 What do Evelina's confusions over telling Orville about Macartney suggest about her ability to act and to think with relative freedom or independence?
15 What are the two old women racers doing in this novel? (3.7)
16 What is Capt. Mirvan's taunting of Lovel doing in this work? (3.21)
17 What does Villars sound like he's about to do in the novel's final letter from him to Evelina? (3.22)
18 Consider the novel’s subtitle: When does a young lady enter the world, what world does she enter, and why was she not in that world before?
19 What is the novel’s representation of an urban world of leisure pursuits and consumer commodities? Is this a world of rational progress and egalitarian possibilities, or one of luxury, self-indulgence, decadence, and the breakdown of more traditional social and moral order?
20 What is the novel’s interest in violence as well as domestic serenity? What is the relationship of this violence to the rapid expansion of urban centers and the growth of English commitment to military conquest and dominance in international trade?
21 What is Evelina’s place, function, position in relation to two common cultural narratives about female life: the importance of youthful, feminine innocence (perhaps in opposition to public life) and the inevitability of marriage as women’s fate?
5 Villars writes of his pleasure over Evelina's mistakes rather than her attempt to adopt fashionable manners (1.15). What do you think of his attitude?
6 Why do you think Burney has Capt. Mirvan and Mme. Duval in the novel? What values, ideas, and emotions can the author express through these characters?
7 How does Evelina describe Lord Orville and why? (1.18)
8 What do you think of Evelina's attitude toward the Branghtons' ignorance at the opera? (1.21)
9 Lady Howard supports Mme. Duval's desire to sue Sir John Belmont over Evelina's inheritance. What do you think of Villars' response to this idea and his wishes for Evelina? (1.28)
10 Has Evelina learned how to deal with Sir Clement yet? (2.3) What's so difficult about her situation?
11 What does Evelina's comparison of Mr. Smith to Sir Clement reveal about her values? (2.11)
12 What expectations and plot developments does Macartney's letter to Evelina introduce? (2.20)
13 Evelina gets lost at Marybone gardens (2.21). Two women accompany her back to her party--what are these women doing in the novel?
14 Keep track of Mrs. Selwyn's behavior and Evelina's evaluation of it. What is Mrs. Selwyn's purpose in the novel? What does she represent and how is she useful to the author? See, for example, her treatment of Lord Merton and Mr. Coverley (3.1) or her assessment of Mrs. Beaumont (3.3) or her arguments with Lovel and Coverley (3.3).
14 What do Evelina's confusions over telling Orville about Macartney suggest about her ability to act and to think with relative freedom or independence?
15 What are the two old women racers doing in this novel? (3.7)
16 What is Capt. Mirvan's taunting of Lovel doing in this work? (3.21)
17 What does Villars sound like he's about to do in the novel's final letter from him to Evelina? (3.22)
18 Consider the novel’s subtitle: When does a young lady enter the world, what world does she enter, and why was she not in that world before?
19 What is the novel’s representation of an urban world of leisure pursuits and consumer commodities? Is this a world of rational progress and egalitarian possibilities, or one of luxury, self-indulgence, decadence, and the breakdown of more traditional social and moral order?
20 What is the novel’s interest in violence as well as domestic serenity? What is the relationship of this violence to the rapid expansion of urban centers and the growth of English commitment to military conquest and dominance in international trade?
21 What is Evelina’s place, function, position in relation to two common cultural narratives about female life: the importance of youthful, feminine innocence (perhaps in opposition to public life) and the inevitability of marriage as women’s fate?
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