Hale: Madame D^Arhlay 



*27 



each of the later novels. Cecilia is the recipient of attacks from every- 

 one. The agony and mortification which Eugenia suffers on account 

 of her lameness and scarred face transcend belief. In The Wanderer, 

 where the whole world seems depraved, hardly a character has any 

 manners or any heart. No one hesitates to discuss the Incognita to 

 her face, and this attack from Mrs. Ireton is a fair sample of the in- 

 sults she received at everyone's hands: 



"So!" she cried, "you are still here? Pray, — if I may ask so confidential 

 a question,— what acquaintance may you have found in this inn? The 

 waiters or the grooms? "'i"^ 



This conception of wanton depravity caricatures human nature 

 just as much as any of the portraits of the eccentric characters. But 

 this is not the only respect in which the characterization reflects upon 

 humanity: the moral code of these people is largely a matter of 

 decorum and propriety. Etiquette serves in lieu of a conscience. 

 ^^It is true," says Jeaffreson, speaking of the author of Evelina, 

 "she did not depict painful scenes of sensuality, but she never has 

 (with all her moral pointing) any higher standard by which to measure 

 an act, or thought, than that of social propriety; 'the vulgar' was that 

 which moved her bitterest contempt, and 'the genteel' was that on 

 which she expended her warmest admiration; and she was one of the 

 first of those novelists (of whom Theodore Hook was the greatest) 

 who earned a degrading popularity by pouring ridicule, such as a 

 wealthy and well-fed menial hurls at a less fortunate companion in 

 servitude, on the manners and habits of the class in which their 

 fathers and mothers, and they themselves, were born and bred."^*^^ 

 This is a strong statement, but after all has been said, it remains true 

 that the characters talk and act very much as if they had been reared 

 on the Letters of Lord Chesterfield. 



A chief flaw in the characterization is the lack of development. 

 Evelina may know more at the end of her experiences, but her mind 

 has not progressed at all. The rest fare no better, the bad remaining 

 bad, the good, good, and the fools, foolish — in the same degree as 

 when they began. While the child plays but a small part in these 

 novels, here and there one casually appears, who generally belongs to 

 the peasant or laboring class; but never, as they grow up, do these 

 children reveal the growth and development of their intellects. 



Madame D'Arblay, however, does not fail to show us the minds of 

 her characters. Evelina, with a charming naivete, opens her heart to 

 us, and in the other books the analyses of the motives suggest George 



101 The Wanderer, I, 21. 



102 J. Cordy Jeaffreson, Novels and Novelists, 338. 



