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Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

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always, willing to "obey custom rather than conscience, "<br />

as Epstein observes (Iron Pen 104).<br />

Amy Paul's influential essay on the importance of<br />

names in <strong>Evelina</strong> does not address the importance of<br />

ambiguous pronouns within the text. Villars constantly<br />

disrupts his message to Lady Howard, leaving the reader<br />

to make judgment on the duplicity of his language and to<br />

regularly speculate about whom he may be speaking of.<br />

As in <strong>Clarissa</strong>, the reader is also caught having to<br />

choose among the many meanings of the word "will" in<br />

<strong>Evelina</strong>. One sees <strong>Evelina</strong> "bequeathed" or "willed" to<br />

Villars, but one also sees Villars exercising his "will"<br />

as surrogate father to this child. Villars decidedly is<br />

'willful" when he declares to Lady Howard that <strong>Evelina</strong>,<br />

"shall never, while life is lent me, know the loss she<br />

has sustained" (16) . Villars has the power to keep<br />

<strong>Evelina</strong> from her grandmother, from her identity, and from<br />

her fortune. He also has the power to reveal her real<br />

identity, send her wherever he wants or keep her home and<br />

present her with bona fides in his possession to her real<br />

father and her proper fortune and station. Villars<br />

constantly warns <strong>Evelina</strong> that a womanf s reputation is her<br />

most coveted virtue, essential to preserving her<br />

reputation, since a "woman's reputation, once shattered,

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