Passage: “In her better fortunes, as in her old days of dependence, wherever she went she seemed to take sunshine and gladness with her. In spite of Miss Alicia’s undisguised contempt for her step-mother’s childness and frivolity, Lucy was better loved and more admired than the baronet’s daughter” (55)
In many points of the book, there are mentions about how colorful and beautiful Lady Audley is. This also happens in this specific passage where she “takes sunshine and gladness with her”. Of course, Lady Audley’s relationship with her step-daughter, Alicia, is not great at all. Her natural beauty gives another reason for Alicia to become more jealous of her and create more conflict between the two individuals. The hatred of course mainly comes from Alicia’s jealousy but can also be a difficulty or the inability of a step-daughter to connect with her step-mother since they are not biologically related. This creates trust issues for each side and might eventually result in bad consequences. Also, Alicia may be suspicious of Lady Audley’s actions and might think that her colorfulness is simply a distraction from others discovering something secret that people are not aware of.
The repetition of the colors is really common throughout the book and it forms a really important description factor. For instance, the colorfulness which is mentioned in this passage displays a beautiful image of an individual. On the other side, when the author describes people as pale or white, she describes them as not really attractive and with less energy and less life. This is also a common contrast that occurs in the text, usually with side characters such as Phoebe Marks and Luke.
I believe that the passage is really about emphasizing the bad relationship that Lady Audley and her step-daughter have in order to later in the book represent a significant part of the plot that can possibly connect their relationship with Lady Audley’s secret. I believe that because there is too much emphasis on their bad relationship and that cannot be happening randomly. This relationship may actually create more bad relationships with other people such as with the baronet and Mr. Robert. Everything happens for a reason and I believe that the fights that happen are happening for a specific reason that we do not know about yet.
I think there’s also something unnatural about Lucy Audley’s vibrancy that the text is constantly trying to point out as well. From her painting which is unnatural in hue, to her intense blue eyes that sometimes deviate from their usual cheerfulness to show glints of anger or some other repressed emotion.