Author: Readersknowbest

During the Victorian period and as we have seen in many of our text this far  a women’s sexuality tends to define her role in society. Some women use there gender as power such as Lady Audley for example. However there are some women who fall into the trap of letting society dictate what they yearn for and the position that they are suppose to acquire in life. This is not the case in the poem “No, Thank You, John” a young women is vehemently trying to explain to a man named John that she is not interested in him in the most polite way possible. The poem gives the reader the appearance that she has already given him an answer of I am not interested and he refused to let that be her final answer.

The young women’s voice in this poem feels very familiar to the struggles of women in the modern day. Men have still not learned that when a woman expresses she is disinterested the best thing to do is take your rejection and keep it moving! In Victorian times men were under the impression that woman would have to be interested in them if she wanted to have good position in society. She could not do that unless she was wed and John appears to be a man who thought he was the best catch for her.

The young women in this poem seems to be an outspoken woman for her time as she asserts her power to inform John once again that despite his insults and aggression, she still had a lack of interest maybe even more so than before. ” I have no heart?—perhaps I have not;  But then you’re mad to take offence. That I don’t give you what I have not got: Use your own common sense.”

Personally, I am pleased that this poem is showing the importance of woman’s choice and the right to always say no. However, I was surprised because woman’s choice and the right to say no do not seem to be very important factors during the Victorian period. In fact this poem signals a woman who is voicing her right to be independent. She is showing that women have the right to be in control of their decisions especially when it comes to choosing a suitor.

This poem shows that a women can challenge the social norms to be in charge of her sexuality. It defies the argument that a women is around solely for the purpose of men and that if a woman pleases she can choose not to be interested in a man, no matter his position in life.

 

The  Hound of the Baskervilles contains many similarities to Lady Audley’s Secret. Many of the tropes we discovered in Lady Audley’s Secret appear in the novel.  In both novels we have crimes of passion, murder, there is familial ties which we see with both the Audley’s and the Baskervilles, there is excitement as the mystery unravels, there is a subtle power structure and place and time are also important factors. While there are few similarities between the novels, there is one key difference that presents itself from the start of the novel.

Lady Audley’s Secret was not a Gothic novel because it was missing some elements, one key element it was missing was the supernatural.  From the very beginning of the novel we are introduced to the supernatural with the character of Hugo Baskerville. Hugo unlike Lady Audley is immediately characterized as the evil, godless, wild and profane individual. There is moment in the manuscript where after Hugo discovered that the maiden he had kidnapped fled, he told his company that he would “render his soul and body to the  Powers of Evil if he might overtake the wench” (14). This is unlike Lady Audley’s Secret, in that novel evil took shape in human form. There was no great evil power, the evil in Lady Audley’s Secret was Lady Audley. She was the evil that people had to fear. That is not the case in this novel.

We see that the supernatural will be a very important trope in this novel because our murderer is a an evil creature.

“There in the centre lay the unhappy maid where she had fallen, dead of fear and of fatigue. But it was not the sight of her body, nor yet was it that of the body of Hugo Baskerville lying near her, which raised the hair upon the heads of these three dare-devil roisterers, but it was that standing over Hugo, and plucking at his throat, their stood a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon” (15).

Just when you were starting to believe that Hugo was the evil in our novel, we discover that there is creature more sinister than him. A creature that you might side with for he murdered a man who was trying to harm an innocent woman. It is interesting that the author would paint Hugo in a despicable light and then have him killed by something else despicable. Thus, causing the audience to wonder is Hugo a character worth sympathizing with or did the beast do the world a favor.

” What was she but a servant like me? Taking wages and working for them as hard, or harder than I did. You should have seen her shabby clothes, Luke-worn and patched, and darned, and turned and twisted, yet always looking nice upon her, somehow… Why, I’ve seen her come out of the parlor with a few sovereigns and a little silver in her hand, that master had just given her for her quarter’s salary; and now look at her!” ( Braddon 31)

 Phoebe is one of the most confusing characters that we have come across so far in the novel. She seems to have this deep seethed loathing towards Lucy, the lady who gave her a better life than the one she had before. In most circumstances, you would think that a maid who has been treated with such kindness, would not have such ill feelings towards her lady. Her admiration towards Lucy and the life she now leads is concealed with a hidden venom. The use of the words “shabby”, “worn”, “patched” and “darned” are used by Phoebe to put an emphasis on how penniless her lady was before she became the Lady of Audley Court. Phoebe wants Luke to truly grasp that she and Lucy were not truly different until Lucy’s luck changed. Phoebe’s tone throughout this passage gives the reader insight into how she feels towards Lucy. As she continues her discussion to Luke about how far Lucy has come she ends her rant with, “now look at her”, by reading this statement and the words that came before it, it is not hard to tell that she is saying it with contempt.

Phoebe dreams of a better life for herself – she has witnessed Lucy come up from nothing and fantasizes about the same kind of future for herself. However, like much of the novel, there is a mystery behind how she plans to gain such fortune and luck. This introduction of Phoebe’s character leaves the readers wondering what she has planned for her lady. Her part in this story will become more than just Lucy’s maid, as she has uncovered one of her lady’s secrets, and intends to use it to propel her life forward. She will be a key asset in the uncovering of Lady Audley’s secret.