Robert and his Contradictions

““I hate women,” he thought savagely. “They’re bold, brazen, abominable creatures, invented for the annoyance and destruction of their superiors. Look at this business of poor George’s! It’s all a woman’s work from one end to the other. He marries a woman, and his father casts him off, penniless and professionless.  He hears of the woman’s death and he breaks his heart – his good, honest, manly heart, worth a million of the treacherous lumps of self-interest and mercenary calculation which beat in a woman’s breasts.  He goes to a woman’s house and he is never seen alive again. And now I find myself driven into a corner by another woman, of whose existence I had never thought until this day.”” Page 208-209

I believe that this passage is very telling. A few paragraphs before, he describes women as a kind of tsunamic force behind men, driving them to conform to the image the wife has construed and forced upon them. Man is naked clay in the hands of manipulative, cunning, thoroughly unpitying women, who are above else never lazy, and never quiet. They force a man into the worst of possible circumstances against his will or inclinations, relentless in the pursuit of their own feminine ambitions.

However, a common thread thus far has contradicted his claim of hating the fairer sex. His proclivity to have somewhat strong emotions almost immediately upon meeting two of the women in this story, would indicate an impulsive personality that does anything but “hate” women. I believe he just lacks the energy, feeling underwhelmed and ill-equipped to understand the feminine Dasein. This could be the reason behind his wishy-washy, emotional apathy that soon settles in after the initial attraction.

The first, Lady Audley, dazzled him with her girlish charms, and until the disappearance of George, fears he is falling in love with her. His initial unease at the sudden and unlikely departure of his friend eventually leads to an ever growing suspicion that Lady Audley has somehow done away with him. Searching for answers, he learns of more details that point to her as the culprit behind a heinous crime.

The second woman is George Talboys’ sister Clara. She chases down Robert’s carriage and is visibly upset by the news of George’s possible death. She asks Robert to continue in his search of the truth, and should he refuse, she would get to the bottom of the mystery herself. His initial relief at the thought of being able to drop the search for George’s disappearance is quickly abandoned. Her strong emotions to the mystery of her beloved brother’s disappearance move Robert to quickly agree to maintain his investigation, but in the above quoted paragraph, he contradicts the events of their first meeting. He sees her physical beauty, and the pain of her distress, and assigns her very positive attributes due to her strength, resolve, and obvious affection for her brother. This action, in his mind, has driven him “into a corner”, but in reality, I believe it is what he wants to do. He may just be uncomfortable in his new role as a man with a cause; an equal force to be reckoned with, equally capable of the resolve to carry out his ambition.

Robert is perhaps just afflicted with the class-driven malaise of his time.  A rich, unambitious lounger who lacks passion and drive, and is therefore bored with his whole existence, until something bad happens to someone he cares about. His uncle’s impression that Robert’s laziness indicates a slow mind will be proven wrong.