“A fierce and crimson sunset. The mullioned windows and the twinkling lattices are all ablaze with the red glory… and the rusty iron wheel and broken woodwork seem as if they were flecked with blood.” (28)
In Lady Audley’s Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon establishes the setting of the third chapter by saturating Audley Court with the color red. During this August sunset, it is shown how various set pieces are altered by the crimson light. In this analysis, I will focus upon how Braddon uses the color red to foreshadow future events within the novel and how the color reflects upon Talboys’ emotions from Chapter 2.
In the real world, the color red is used symbolically to represent happiness, celebration, excitement, warning, anger, aggression, passion, and emotion. However, how is Braddon using this color to represent past and future events within the novel? In the beginning of the previous chapter, before Talboys becomes distressed about his wife, he demonstrates excitement and is eager to surprise his love with his return through stating “Poor little girl! After three years and a half… she will be surprised”(18). These emotions that Talboys experiences are mirrored by the “fierce and crimson sunset” in the next chapter. Not only does Braddon use the color red to reflect upon previous events within the novel, but she also uses them to foreshadow future events. Braddon uses rust to reflect potential murderous intentions as she likens the color to blood. This act of foreshadowing is only amplified by the idea that red is a color of aggression and warning, and in a way, is conveying to the reader that there is danger coming.
Through the author using a red sunset, they draw upon the symbolism of the color. In particular, Braddon may have used red to reflect upon Talboys’ emotions, and alluded to potential danger later in the novel. In my eyes, using such deep and vivid reds to describe a sunset was a great choice by the author because the color encompasses a wide range of meanings. When the color red is used alongside emotion, it adopts the meanings of happiness, passion, and even celebration. When used along the concept of blood, the color’s theme of violence and aggression is amplified, and it provides a source of foreshadowing that may enhance the reader’s focus with the novel.
Braddon’s use of color to set the scene and reflect character traits or inclinations serves multiple purposes throughout the novel, and evolves as the plot unfolds to reveal ulterior motives. (Lady Audley pun) Color is often employed to establish themes or cue the readers’ attention to particular details that the author consciously includes. To add to your remarks on Braddon’s use of the color red, I recall the few lines I chose during the in-class free-writing practice.
When being introduced to Luke, the narrator describes him as “rosy-cheeked, red-haired, and bull-necked, he was not unlike one of the stout oxen grazing in the meadows round about the court” (30). Your interpretation of red as a color that can represent warning, anger, aggression, or passion can be applied to this description of Luke as later in the novel we learn he’s dangerous, threatening with a knife, and prone to bouts of reckless aggression.
You also comment on how red is used as a seasonal tone cast by the August sun on the Audley estate. Throughout reading chapters 14-18, I repeatedly found myself underlining the use of the color grey and its relation to the changing demeanors of the characters as well as October and winter being seasonally responsible. Lady Audley is consistently described throughout these chapters as varying shades of grey. Upon going back through the text, I realized I had marked a passage nearly identical to the one you chose however shifting to use of the color grey. “Faint shadows of green and crimson fell upon my lady’s face from the painted escutcheons in the mullioned window by which she sat; but every trace of the natural colour of that face had faded out, leaving it a ghastly ashen grey” (123).
The use of “mullioned window” implies the same location on the Audley estate, as well as a repeated use of crimson, however, this time “faint” rather than “fierce” implying a lessened confidence or intensity of the predominant emotion of earlier chapters. Furthermore, imagery from words like “faded” and “ghastly ashen grey” reflects the tonal change of the season as well as the potentially defeated realization Lady Audley is now coming to experience as other characters become increasingly close to discovering her secret.
This passage relates to Therese’s post Murder? in which she discusses the potential hauntings and a murder which may have occurred at Audley Court according to Luke. While I interpreted this passage as foreshadowing a gruesome murder, it could also reflect the events or secrets that already haunt the landscape and its residents. I also think it is interesting that right after this passage the pale and ghostly Phoebe Marks is introduced, especially because she is not the only character to be compared with death. From corpses to ghosts, many of the characters are equated with the dead, while Audley Court is both rumored to be the site of a murder, as well as painted bloody and crimson by the sunset.
When reading this novel, I also picked up on the extreme emphasis of the color red. This is the exact passage I focused on as well. The author, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, plays around with words relating to RED. She uses crimson, burnished copper, and flecked with blood. All of these words/short phrases relate back to one general idea. Like the author of this post, I also thought that this passage is foreshadowing what is yet to come in the novel. The fact that the color red is the star, might mean that there will be some sort of death (murder, suicide) in the future. I like how the author of this post mentioned that a crimson sunset is a violent way of describing this scenery. I really enjoyed reading this post and look forward to viewing future ones!
Later in Chapter 15 when Miss Alicia reprimands Robert “her eyes sparkled with an angry flash, and a crimson glow burned under her clear brown skin. The young barrister knew very well, by these diagnostics, that his cousin was in a passion.” Miss Alicia “crimson glow” in this passage I believe is a representation of warning and passion towards Robert that should be heeded, in that something bad may happen to him if he doesn’t. This foreshadowing is also supported when “the small brush fell from [Lady Audley’s] hand, and blotted out the peasants face under a widening circle of crimson lake”. What if this painting represents what is to come, and Robert is the peasant who may end up being killed by Lady Audley, and the “crimson lake” may represent the people who she has killed?
Adding to the idea of red as a symbolic metaphor and a blatant use of foreshadowing, the way that I interpreted the colour ‘red’ was that as it was used multiple times throughout the passage in various different ways, such as, ‘crimson x2, rusty, ablaze, copper, red and blood’. All with very different individual meanings but in this context, encompass similar things. The way these ‘red’ words were used to describe the setting of Audley Court’s gardens paints the readers a visual picture of the area, which, was described to be beautiful and spacious, screaming wealth and splendour. This made me think of how much of the book, so far, has been centred around money and wealth. George leaves to Australia in search of wealth, Lady Audley partly marries for wealth and status, Luke and Phoebe finding the jewels and Phoebe decides to take something worthless of monetary value whilst Luke wants to take a jewel in order to, ‘set us up for life!’. (pg 34) So as the colour red describes the emotion and foreshadowing in the book, I also think that it could be used to describe an undercurrent through the book, in this case, of wealth or lack of wealth.
With the lack of subtlety in this book, the red should symbolize the typical things red is known for, such as anger, violence, lust, etc. Because red and blood are both used in the same few sentences, it further amplifies the connotation. When we learn that George’s wife is in fact is dead, it is no shock because of all of the “coincidences” and foreshadowing. I, now, wonder whether there will continue to be death and violence in this book and whether the color red will continue to be represented.