“‘Give it me — give it me’ she cried; ‘let me see what more he has to say.’”
Throughout the story we have seen Lady Audley as a person who doesn’t usually seem scared and a person who usually controls any room she’s in. During the second volume she becomes more and more jittery and nervous. This is due to the progression of Robert’s case on George’s disappearance. Robert gets deeper into his case and starts to suspect Lady Audley for George’s disappearance. When he goes to Audley Court he starts to call out Lady Audley for George’s disappearance and after he keeps piling evidence on her and his suspicion of her she starts to get a little flustered. She doesn’t seem as confident and calm as she usually has throughout the novel. This shows a big character trait from Lady Audley in that she might crumble from pressure. This has yet to be shown in the novel until now. At the end of chapter 13 a letter comes to Lady Audley from Robert and she says “‘Give it me — give it me’ she cried; ‘let me see what more he has to say.’” In this quote Lady Audley shows her impassionance and her nervousness. She tries to hide it because she is in the company of people but it shows when she demands to see the letter. I think that this new character trait that Lady Audley has shown might confirm Robert’s suspicion and all of the readers’ suspicion that Lady Audley’s secret has something to do with George. I think that this character trait will become a big part in Robert’s case for Lady Audley being apart of George’s disappearance.
I agree with your point about the decline of Lady Audley’s emotional state as the storyline progresses and I like the connection that you made with linking that decline to Robert’s progression in the case. I like your close reading to pull out Lady Audley’s emotional range and the message it sends without being explicitly stated. I think that this is something we have seen building throughout the novel and that it is now coming to a climax. I also like your prediction of this pattern being something that will eventually impact the storyline itself.
This passage is very vivid in the ways that it describes Lady Audley’s behavior, like you mentioned. Lady Audley throughout the whole story keeps her cool, even when Robert is interrogating her and exposing her for a murder and the creation of her false identity. This passage gives a little taste of how truthful Robert’s accusations are. This is also shown when Lady Audley is pacing her room hoping that Robert died in the fire at Castle Inn. I think you did a great job of taking this one line and creating more of an image and insight into why Lady Audley reacted like that to a simple letter.
I really like how you made a connection with Lady Audley and how she is changing dramatically. I agree that she becomes jittery once Robert is on her case about George. She seems frantic and doesn’t know what to do with herself. This is something we should discuss because Lady Audley has been strong until she realizes how invested Robert is with George’s disappearance. When I realized this my first thought is she knows something about George and is hiding it from everyone. Little do we know she was hiding a major secret that was hinted at in the novel as time kept going.