Research Paper on:
Eighteenth Century Societal Perspecitves

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
aristocracy came under critical scrutiny as well. Richard Brinsley Sheridan in his play School for Scandal and also in Fanny Burneys brilliant novel of manners, Evelina, the plots involve  looking critically, and satirically, at the English aristocracy. The late eighteenth century was the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, when reason was considered to be a mental faculty that  all who chose to could cultivate. With emerging capitalist systems, there was a corresponding increase in wealth and education that broadened these categories to encompass a rising middle class, who  were simultaneously challenging the power and prerogatives of the aristocracy. Knowledge, released by the philosophers of the Enlightenment, was changing the face of Europe and reworking many of the  standard institutions -- including the English upper classes. An examination of these works, Sheridans play and Burneys novel, demonstrates the ways in which these two authors highlighted the foibles of  the English upper class for comic effect. These works also provide biting commentary pertaining to the values -- or lack of values -- exhibited by those individuals who considered themselves  "better" than those of less elevated station. Burney, through her realistic social commentary, shows how ridiculous those people are who paint themselves as superior to her sweet-- but socially  ignorant -- country heroine. Likewise, Sheridan paints a similar, if more exaggerated picture, of aristocratic arrogance when he satirizes the preoccupation of those in the upper classes for other peoples  affairs. Evelina First of all, the student researching this topic should understand that this novel is in epistolary form, that is, in the form of a correspondence between the  various characters. Therefore, the novel offers several perspectives, depending on the author of the letter in question, that is, all letters attributed to Evelina are written from the perspective of