“‘You shall never live to do this,” she said. “I will kill you first. Why have you tormented me so?… Do you know what it is to wrestle with a madwoman?” (273).
As volume two comes to an end, readers can gather more knowledge about the mystery behind George’s wife Helen and George’s disappearance. After Robert confronts Lucy about his theory, it becomes clear that she is hiding something big. Throughout the book, Lucy is often described as having childlike manners, but, as Robert continues to aggravate Lucy, she begins to show a side that we as readers haven’t seen before. Even though Lucy claims innocence during her talk with Robert, her actions suggest otherwise. Lucy acts aggressively towards Robert once he tells Lucy about his theory. Her aggressive manner continues to build throughout the confrontation and comes to a head when Lucy says that she would kill him before he could tell anyone about what he knows about her past. Personally, if I was being accused of murder and living a double life, I would not threaten death to my accuser. This ‘new’ side of Lucy reveals that there is something more sinister under her childlike actions.
Slowly throughout the book, Lucy started to show her true nature, beginning with her manipulation of the Audley’s. Lucy was easily able to convince Michael to not have George over while he was visiting. Later, Lucy planted the idea in Michael’s mind that Robert was mad and belonged in an asylum, even though he had his doubts about the validity of this “fact” when Lucy first brought it up. But her true nature really comes to light when she threatens Robert. I believe that throughout the book, these hints about Lucy were dropped so that readers could see that Lucy isn’t what she says she is. Now that she has revealed that she would be willing to kill Robert to protect herself, I think that others may start to see what Robert saw in Lucy during their talk. I think that Lucy did play a role in George’s disappearance and that she might carry out more sinister acts to hide whatever secret she has. The duality of her personality has started to show, and I think that her childlike appearance will start to fade away.
Robert’s repeated reluctance to label Lady Audley as a murderess despite clear circumstantial evidence is revealing. Is it that he cannot believe Lady Audley (or any woman) could commit such a heinous crime? Is he trying to protect Lord Michael? The Audley name (including himself)? It is also interesting to think of Lady Audley’s self-reported murder of George by causing his fall into the old well in the context of her description as a siren: a creature who led sailors to their deaths in watery graves on jagged rocks.