Famous artist, Andy Warhol once said, "Everybody gets 15 minutes of fame." Clarence Hervey's 15 seconds of fame are manifested in this passage. While he is not the main character in Maria Edgeworth's 1801 novel, Belinda, he is the main character within this passage as Edgeworth paints a clear picture of a complex man through literary techniques such as tone and perspective.

Edgeworth's picture of Hervey starts with the basic strokes of tone. It begins with Edgeworth creating the fundamental design for the readers by explaining his intangible features. For instance, Hervey believes he is, "a man of genius," so he is, "entitled to be imprudent, wild, and eccentric" (5-8). Edgeworth explains to the readers that Hervey thinks highly of himself; …show more content…
While we know that Edgeworth seems annoyed of Hervey's zealous opinion of himself, we also can infer from the text that we should too. This is because the passage is being spoken from the narrative's perspective, so the text should be viewed as unbiased. So, whenever the text says, "Clarence Hervey might have been more than a pleasant young man, if he had not been smitten with the desire of being thought superior in every thing" we come to the understanding that Edgeworth's annoyance comes with reason; he is in fact haughty (1). However, the text also adds an exciting twist to Hervey that makes his character complex. Hervey is not only, "a man of genius," or even a man of "superiority," but also he is a man of hypocrisy. For example, on line 18-20 it reads, "He was supposed to be a favourite with the fair sex; and of all his various excellencies and defects, there was none on which he valued himself so much as on his gallantry." Yet, on line 54-55 the narration expresses Hervey's fear of talking to a woman, who is Belinda: "He had not sufficient resolution to keep beyond the sphere of her attraction; but frequently, when he found himself within it, he cursed his folly, and drew back with sudden terror." This expresses that while Hervey believes he is a man of many incredible things, deep down he struggles within himself to "gallantly" take on the dominant role to