Language In Clarissa, Evelina And Pride And Prejudice

In the same way, Evelina Anville thinks nothing of
money or its value until she comes upon her cousins, the
Branghtons. Madame Duval's introduction of Evelina to
her cousins "shocks" Evelina "extremely," as she is
described as the poor relation "without a friend in the
world besides" (76) . The Branghtons are Evelina's first
meeting with the merchant nouveau riche. In the
conclusion of her letter relating her first meeting with
them, Evelina says, "I am sure I shall not be very
ambitious of being known to any more of my relations, if
they have any resemblance to those whose acquaintances I
have been introduced already" (78) . Raised in the
country without benefit of city-knowledge or a father of
her own, Evelina reveals her consciousness of the power
of manners, character and breeding she inherited from her
ancestors, even though she is raised as an unclaimed
daughter and disinherited heir. The Branghtons represent
money that does not make up for lack of character,
paralleling Collins in Pride and Prejudice. Evelina
learns, as do Clarissa and Elizabeth, that breeding makes
a lady. Darcy, Lovelace and Orville are possessed, as
only Clarissa is, among the women, of financial acumen
and economic knowledge usually associated with
businessmen and not nobility, while all the women spring