Category: 2021 Blog Post

 

“In those troublesome dreams…” (Braddon 244)

This strangely allegorical dream cements Robert’s belief in both the righteousness of his cause and its otherworldly issue. Robert’s “troublesome dreams” are surprisingly supernatural breaks in a sensational but otherwise worldly novel (244). Although spirits and monsters have been invoked before, they have been the object of ridicule – typically by Robert himself. Now that he is stricken by the same sentiments, Robert does not blame indigestion or behave like “some ghost-haunted hero in a German story” (260). Robert instead acts as a biblical Judge called upon by “some hand greater than [his] own” to mete out godly justice. Much like the reluctant prophet Jonah, Robert is reminded of a (in his mind) divine quest whenever he attempts a return to his once mundane life. Robert was not swallowed by a great fish, but instead forced to answer to – or else compete with – the enigmatic Clara in his search for the truth of George’s fate. In addition to strengthening his promise to Clara, the dreams also provide valuable insight into Robert’s unexpressed thoughts. He sees “Audley Court, rooted up.. standing bare and unprotected… threatened by the… boisterous sea” as if it were a boat and Lady Audley as a “mermaid, beckoning his uncle to destruction” like a tempting siren (244). Robert sees it as his duty to steer his uncle’s estate away from the perilous rocks at the expense of Lord Michael’s dignity like Odysseus being bound to a mast. Robert is a dutiful nephew, but his actions are not entirely selfless. As heir apparent, Robert has a clear interest in steering his uncle’s estate and the Audley reputation away from the shores of peril. Lady Audley’s connection to the ocean goes far beyond her childhood home, in Robert’s dream she becomes the primordial darkness of the ocean with her “pale face and starry…” sea-green eyes surrounded by looking out from the sea’s “silvery foam” as light and lustrous as her curls (244). This comparison is part of the lasting tradition of giving feminine character to ocean storms: long periods of calm equilibrium interrupted by punctuations of brief but intense violence. The “dismal horizon” of the dream storm is defeated by a single “ray of light” parting the troubled sea (244). This biblical conclusion and the contrast of white light and dark sea reinforce Robert’s image of Clara as a seraphic beauty in complete opposition to Lady Audley.

“It’s not the least use to ask me, Mr. Audley, “she said. “I’m the most careless creature in the world;” (233).

In this passage, Lady Audley is talking with Robert Audley and says that she is “the most careless creature in the world”. The sense of the word creature can be seen multiple times in the book. For instance, on page 121, Lady Audley characterizes Mr. Audley as an “eccentric creature”, while on page 120, Lady Audley uses the expression “the dearest of all creatures” to describe Mr. Dawson.

The word creature seems to be mostly used by Lady Audley to describe other people and herself or used by other people to describe Lady Audley.

Moreover, it might also symbolize the unnaturalness and uniqueness of certain characters, especially George Tallboys and Lady Audley. For instance, because Lady Audley is so unique and so beautiful, she is not considered as a normal human being but as a “creature”, something different than normal. It works as a positive adjective for their appearance and actions.

However, in the last chapters of volume II, the sense of madness can be connected with the sense of the word “creature”. On page 273, Lady Audley being aggravated with Robert Audley’s accusations presents a terrifying image similar to a creature’s, which is obviously filled with madness as she threatens to kill Robert Audley. In this scene, Lady Audley presents a different aspect of the word creature, and instead of having a positive meaning, it actually has a negative one.

This passage explains that the word “creature” can work as a common theme or at least as a significant part of the plot and characterization of characters. Since lady Audley is a mystery by herself, it makes it even more mysterious when the author keeps expressing her as a “creature”. I believe that the author will be using the theme of madness more often which can be correlated with the constant characterizations of characters as “creatures”.

“I have been – in Yorkshire… glancing at his cousin, who stood a little way behind my lady, watching this confidential little dialogue.” (pg. 261)

I chose this passage because it was obvious that this is where it’s all coming to a head. When Robert Audley says that he has been in Yorkshire, where George used to live during his marriage, the response from Lady Audley was revealing. Braddon uses adjectives like faint and sickly to describe the smile that Lady Audley gives Robert in response, showing the switch of emotion she has. Through the entirety of George’s disappearance, Lady Audley has been a main suspect to Robert and this is where he finally has enough evidence to confront her and condemn her. Lady Audley, as expected, tries to act dumbfounded about why Robert wants to speak to her, she tries to stay calm and composed, and continue the façade she has held throughout the novel. This pertains to the theme of appearance vs reality, but this time there is no appearance she can keep up because she knows that Robert knows the truth, and who she really is, Helen Talboys. It is obvious that Lady Audley is finally out of her comfort zone, because she could soon be completely exposed and vulnerable to everyone, which she cannot fathom. Every conflict she has found herself in thus far, she has been able to squeeze her way out of it, but now she knows that Robert knows. This is essential to the novel because this whole time we’ve been suspicious of her, but now we know, even though she won’t admit it, what her secret is, and now it is a question of what she will do to Robert in order to have her secret contained.

“if folks hadn’t been so precious stingy, I might have had a public in a thrivin’ market…” (139)

I am more drawn to this page than simply this quote, but to say that this one line is interesting and revealing would be a gross understatement. Luke, in the room with both Phoebe and Robert, gives up a very important clue. A few things can be taken from this scene and the first is that Luke knows something worth a high price. Luke also feels that his price should have been higher. Another is that Phoebe is far more protective of this payoff than Luke. Robert then asks “What, indeed, is a hundred pounds to a man possessed of the power which you hold, or rather which your wife holds, over the person in question. Phoebe proceeds to look ghostly as Robert appears to have her at checkmate. What does he do? He goes to bed.

Why is that important? First is the trend that has developed which has defined Robert now as the barrister that always seems to have an upper hand and then just taps out. He does the very same thing when Lady Audley fainted after hearing Roberts evidence (123). While her fainting and having a “ghastly ashen grey” look is even more incriminating, the two instances show that Robert is intelligent enough to get these main figures to all but say they know something. If one looks at how methodical and knowledgeable Robert is about the data, he has collected there is very little reason to believe he cannot connect it. It then makes sense that Robert is waiting for one of these characters who knows the secret to give the firsthand admission. Either that or he is waiting for Lady Audley to reveal it herself as she seems to have become increasingly active around her interactions with Robert.

“‘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.

“Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea.  The most feminine and most domestic of all occupations imparts a magic harmony to her every movement, a witchery to her every glance…To do away with the tea-table is to rob a woman of her legitimate empire” (Braddon 222). 

The Victorians cultivated rigid social structure, despite the time period of mounting social questioning of fronts such as women’s rights.  This passage portrays the picture of domesticity embodied by Lady Audley, entertaining in her husband’s court.  Lucy prepares tea under the scrupulous eye of her nephew, Robert.  Because this passage is observed from the perspective of a man, it is quite telling of the expectations and unconscious biases that Victorian men hold with regard to their female counterparts.  Robert’s choice of descriptors such as the repetition of the word “pretty” show a surface level of understanding of women, and reinforces the idea that he views her as an ornament for his uncle’s domestic pleasure.  Within the private confines of his mind, and interestingly within the confines of the same sentence, he presumes that a woman being “feminine” and “domestic” are integral aspects of a home’s harmony.  These adjectives indicate that it is a woman’s ability to be submissive that gives her value so to take this from her would be to rob her of her entire purpose, as suggested by the tea table empire.  If a man gives a woman the world in the form of a tea table, it is quite a small sphere is which he expects her to live. 

What is interesting about this passage as well is the comparison of feminine harmony to witchcraft in the second sentence.  In a way, this choice of word is poignant because, to mention the idiom, Lucy appears to have “cast a spell” upon her husband.  He is compliant to her whims because she is the perfect domestic socialite – the pinnacle of femininity and the epitome of perfection.  Throughout subsequent chapters, it is by her delicate pining and gentle pleading that Lady Audley is able to manipulate and misdirect audiences.  This realization speaks volumes about the novel as a whole, and though it may sound crazy, it is possible that Lady Audley uses her femininity as a means of deception, which is in direct opposition to the common conceptions about female gentility.  Lucy’s actions in subsequent chapters suggest a mask that she uses in public, and a more private desperation for control which lead her to manipulate her position as a beautiful, ornamental wife.  It also poses the question to her character is a critique of seemingly archaic womanhood in contrast to broader historical context showing an evolving female character. 

 

“I have no doubt you have been anxious, Lady Audley,” Robert said, after a pause, fixing my lady’s eyes as they wandered furtively to his face. “There is no one to whom my uncle’s life can be of more value than to you. Your happiness, your prosperity, your safety depends alike upon his existence” (217).

This passage takes place as Robert, Alicia and Lady Audley are all sitting around Sir Michael as he is sick with his cold. What Robert says here seems nice and genuine, however at second glance it appears like Robert is trying to hint to Lady Audley that he knows something she doesn’t want to be found out. The last of the passage that states, “Your happiness, your prosperity, your safety depends alike upon his existence” (217) seems to be hinting towards the power Michael has to protect Lady Audley from all her hidden secrets. The use of the word “safety” in this passage, as well as the fact that it is italicized jumps out at me right away because it’s not really a word that is usually associated with happiness and prosperity, especially when it’s tied to a husband’s life. This idea of her safety resting in the hands of Michael has an interesting connotation when you think of the book as a whole. After this passage, in later chapters there is what appears to be an underlying fear stemming from Lady Audley regarding her position at Audley Court. More specifically when Lady Audley is talking to Michael about Robert in Chapter 9 and additionally when Robert wants to talk to Michael about Lady Audley at the end of Chapter 8, it is apparent that everything goes through Michael and he won’t believe much without evidence that backs it up. To me, the book is constantly circulating around her and her dodginess to talk about her past. This passage has a greater meaning to the rest of book because to me it implies that Robert knows something about Lady Audley that could put her in some sort of harm as a result if Michael was not in the way. As Robert has discovered more about what he thinks is Lady Audley’s past, it seems as though this safety that allows her to hide herself behind a title stems from Michael and that, like this passage says, if he were to die, her safety would be gone along with her happiness. This idea comes to fruition when Lady Audley is trying to convince Michael that Robert is mad so that she will be protected and defended by Michael from whatever Robert says about her.

 

 

Within the second volume of Lady Audley’s Secret, there seems to be an underlying theme or possible binary between the two sexes. At one point, Robert Audley goes on a rant about how women are, “pitiless to each other” and are essentially, the lesser sex (236). Later on in the volume, he even continues to talk about the “horrible things that have been done by women, since that day upon which Eve was created to be Adam’s companion” (271). On the other side, Lady Audley also takes the time to explain to Alicia that “madness is more often transmitted from father to son than from father to daughter” (276). While this quote is less obviously defaming of men, it can be inferred that she is illuding to the madness of all men, since madness is more likely to be transmitted from father to son.

While looking at these three quotes and passages, one might find themselves questioning why there is this theme and binary. While it cannot be said for sure, unless you are Mary Elizabeth Braddon, there may be assumptions. My assumption is that it is not really about the sexes, but more so the actual people these characters were talking about. Robert and Lady Audley have an obvious dislike for each other. Robert believes that Lady Audley murdered his best friend, while Lady Audley is either worried, he’s going to find out her secrets, or is pissed that he thinks that in the first place. While they go on tangents about the opposite sex, I believe these tangents are just overall thoughts about each other. Robert thinks that Lady Audley is the devil, that she is lesser than and realizes the (so-called) horrible things she has done. Lady Audley believes that Robert is mad, even if he is right about his assumptions. While these comments were spoken in the second volume, the entire book shows the dislike these two characters have for each other. I would bet money that continues in the third volume.

“Robert Audley now saw her face clearly for the first time, and he saw that she was very handsome. She had brown eyes, like George’s, a pale complexion (she had been flushed when she approached him, but the colour faded away as she recovered her breath), regular features, and a mobility of expression which bore record of every change of feeling” (Braddon 198).

This passage illustrates Clara Talboy and Robert’s first acquaintance. Robert immediately feels an attraction to Clara. The reason why he feels the attraction, however, is that she resembles her brother, George, very much. Robert especially draws attention to Clara’s brown eyes that look just like George’s (198).

What struck me most, though, is that instead of calling her “pretty” or “beautiful”, he chooses the word “handsome” (198) which I would usually associate with people who identify as “male”. Robert also mentions that he noticed all of these things within a few moments, so, to the reader, it has the effect of a slow-motion. He almost seems starstruck by Clara Talboys. By spending much time with Clara, Robert can both, find out more about George, and remain a certain bond with him, through a person that resembles George very much. In the passage, Robert even claims that Clara’s face reminds him of her brother, thus, being with her would be the closest he could come to a relationship with George. It might even be ideal for him because he could be close to George without having to admit to being homosexual (plus, George Talboys is not around anymore when he meets Clara). Another passage that highlights this is: “[…] but he could see that she was young, and that she was like George Talboys” (189). Throughout the novel, there is usually an ambiguity concerning Robert and George’s relationship.

Throughout the novel, after George’s disappearance, Robert mentions George frequently, almost obsessively. Nevertheless, Braddon leaves enough room for interpretation. The readership of the Victorian sensation novel could also interpret their relationship as a very close friendship, while the sensible contemporary readership notices the nuances that allude to potential queerness.

 

 

Passage: “In those troublesome dreams…safe and firmly rooted to the shore.” (pg 244) 

In this passage, Robert is having a disturbing dream about the fate of his uncle’s manor and the sheer amount of figurative foreshadowing in this excerpt is startling. Foreshadowing is a process that we see throughout the book, but in this instance, it is very clear. The narrator describes the oncoming wave as the embodiment of destruction, saying that it aimed to “crush the house he loved” (244). In his real life he fears a force coming to figuratively destroy what he has come to recognize as home. This obvious danger is juxtaposed with the beauty found in that same wave which he describes as having a “starry face looking out of the silvery foam” (244). This phrase does not inspire the same feelings of anxiety as much as it does create an image of something very serene with the use of the word “starry” (244), which also promotes the idea of Lucy looking celestial in some capacity, or at the very least other worldly. The idea of a force with such capabilities of ruin looking so lovely is a direct reference to Lucy’s beauty, which Robert believes, she uses as both a weapon and a disguise. In describing her as “a mermaid”, the narrator summons the concept of sirens who lure men into the water with their beauty and then drown them. With this reference, the author implies that Lucy is mimicking this behavior in her marriage to Michael. There is a twist in this dream sequence when “a ray of light streamed out upon the hideous waves” (244) and the wave retreats. With all of the other references to things that are happening at that very moment in time, we are led to believe that, in continuing that pattern, this metaphorical “ray of light” (244) is fast approaching. I theorize that this “ray of light” (244) serves to symbolize Robert’s own involvement in the situation in that he will be the one to thwart Lucy’s scheming and preying on Sir Michael. Either way, this beacon of hope has to stand for something, as everything else in this dream sequence does.