"Who is Severe Upon the Ladies Now?": The Tri-Tiered Construction of Female Agency in Frances Burney's 'Evelina'

Abstract

Frances Burney’s novel Evelina follows a young woman through a series of mortifying social interactions, all of which point to a layered concept of women’s agency and the popular perceptions of autonomy during the eighteenth century. Women’s agency in Evelina can be classified as physical agency, emotional agency, or elite agency. Each form of agency is then characterized by the female characters of the lower, middle, or upper classes within the novel. Burney’s uncouth characterization of the lower classes corresponds with physical agency, or the physical ability to create agency outside of social expectations, while elite agency allows upper-class and aristocratic women to act as they wish without public censure. Middle-class Evelina’s emotional agency, accessible to readers through the epistolary format of the novel, relies on her understanding of propriety, sensibilities, and interpersonal connections as a means of navigating social situations and class mobility. Burney’s tiered construction of women’s agency reinforces the importance of sensibility and emotional honesty across highly gendered class lines.