Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

Duval, since all goods and chattel, including children,
belonged to the husband. Caroline Evelyn is the cast-off
legacy of the Evelyns inherited by Mr. Villars.
Evelina becomes the third bequest of the Evelyn
family to Villars. For the third time, unfortunately,
Mr. Villars is not the tutor or mentor he should be or
could be for this fated family. Again, his language
becomes complicated in his correspondence with Lady
Howard, \\ . . . I have weighty, nay unanswerable
questions for detaining her daughter at present in
England; the principal of which is, that it was the
earnest desire of one to whose Will she owes implicit
duty" (13). Here is more of Epstein's white spaces.
Villars implies that Evelina must be dutiful and remain
in England by the "desire of one to whose Will" she
should feel obedience. But to whom? To whose will must
she bend? Speculation brings three answers: The wishes
of her dead mother, the wishes of her dead grandfather,
and the wishes of Villars himself. Villars could well be
the answer, and he would be more than willing to use the
third person in order to assure his humble place as
guardian and tutor, chosen by the other two to raise the
less than illustrious children of the Evelyn family.
Villars holds the answer, but he remains silent, as