Shame and Compassion in Frances Burney’s Evelina
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This paper explores shame and compassion in Frances Burney’s Evelina: or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World published anonymously in 1778. While shame is a self-feeling that we feel against ourselves before another person who has seen us doing something wrong, compassion is a fellow-feeling that we feel for the sufferings of others. The former makes us see and judge ourselves from other people’s viewpoints, whereas the latter leads us to turn our attention to others in suffering. Shame makes Evelina constantly anxious over how people of polite society, especially Orville, would think of her, and thereby makes her adapt to the patriarchal gender system rather than putting it into question. But compassion leads her to turn her attention from herself to others in distress and to put that person’s interest before her own. Especially her compassion for Macartney helps her to speak in her own voice and act for herself at the risk of losing Orville’s good opinion of her. If shame serves as a kind of disciplinary mechanism to render her desirable in the eyes of the world, compassion functions as a moral emotion that helps her to turn into an active agent. But Evelina’s compassion for others is not always without problem. Her pity for Willoughby displaces her anger against him that conveys an implicit critique of the patriarchal gender system. Her pity for Willoughby stands in stark contrast with Caroline’s pity for Belmont. While the former dissipates without creating any effective response, the latter deepens Belmont’s feeling of shame and repentance for his wrongdoings to Caroline. To sum up, shame makes Evelina and Caroline see themselves from other people’s viewpoints and thereby adapt themselves into the patriarchal gender system in which women are positioned as passive and powerless objects of male desire. But compassion helps them to see others from their own viewpoints and to act according to their own discretion and judgment. Unlike shame, compassion empowers women by making them turn from passive victims into active agents who speak and act for themselves.
Abstract
This paper explores shame and compassion in Frances Burney’s Evelina: or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World published anonymously in 1778. While shame is a self-feeling that we feel against ourselves before another person who has seen us doing something wrong, compassion is a fellow-feeling that we feel for the sufferings of others. The former makes us see and judge ourselves from other people’s viewpoints, whereas the latter leads us to turn our attention to others in suffering. Shame makes Evelina constantly anxious over how people of polite society, especially Orville, would think of her, and thereby makes her adapt to the patriarchal gender system rather than putting it into question. But compassion leads her to turn her attention from herself to others in distress and to put that person’s interest before her own. Especially her compassion for Macartney helps her to speak in her own voice and act for herself at the risk of losing Orville’s good opinion of her. If shame serves as a kind of disciplinary mechanism to render her desirable in the eyes of the world, compassion functions as a moral emotion that helps her to turn into an active agent. But Evelina’s compassion for others is not always without problem. Her pity for Willoughby displaces her anger against him that conveys an implicit critique of the patriarchal gender system. Her pity for Willoughby stands in stark contrast with Caroline’s pity for Belmont. While the former dissipates without creating any effective response, the latter deepens Belmont’s feeling of shame and repentance for his wrongdoings to Caroline. To sum up, shame makes Evelina and Caroline see themselves from other people’s viewpoints and thereby adapt themselves into the patriarchal gender system in which women are positioned as passive and powerless objects of male desire. But compassion helps them to see others from their own viewpoints and to act according to their own discretion and judgment. Unlike shame, compassion empowers women by making them turn from passive victims into active agents who speak and act for themselves.
참고문헌 (17)
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