{"id":1142,"date":"2018-09-18T23:05:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T03:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2018-09-25T23:24:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T03:24:10","slug":"false-appearances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2018\/09\/18\/false-appearances\/","title":{"rendered":"False Appearances"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cFoul deeds have been done under the most hospitable roofs, terrible crimes have been committed amid the fairest scenes\u2026 I believe that we may look into the smiling face of a murderer, and admire its tranquil beauty\u201d (Braddon, 143-144).<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 This passage comes from an exchange between Robert Audley and Lady Audley during an \u00a0unexpected visit she makes to the inn. Robert demonstrates his role as the detective, suspecting that his dear friend, George Talboys, has been murdered, possibly in an unexpected place: the domestic home. Robert emphasizes the ironic situation of a horrid event occurring in a seemingly safe place. He explains that \u201cfoul deeds\u201d and \u201cterrible crimes\u201d have taken place \u201cunder the most hospitable roofs\u201d and \u00a0\u201camid the fairest scenes.\u201d The contrast between the harmful acts and peaceful environments implies the greater theme of false appearances throughout the novel. Furthermore, Robert detects false appearances in people, specifically murderers. He states, \u201cI believe that we may look into the smiling face of a murderer, and admire its tranquil beauty.\u201d He reveals his beliefs that a calm and appealing exterior, in this case a \u201csmiling face,\u201d may belie an ugly and dangerous truth, which potentially foreshadows that one or more of the characters in the novel will be discovered to possess a shameful secret or mad behavior. The barrister acknowledges that \u201cwe\u201d are oblivious to the dark secrets and crimes that are occurring, suggesting that the characters are being deceived by a harmless appearing \u201catmosphere,\u201d a house, or another character in the novel. However, because the conversation is between Robert and Lady Audley, the barrister may be hinting that Lucy, herself, is the one who\u2019s innocent appearance is concealing a dreadful secret.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFoul deeds have been done under the most hospitable roofs, terrible crimes have been committed amid the fairest scenes\u2026 I believe that we may look into the smiling face of a murderer, and admire its tranquil beauty\u201d (Braddon, 143-144).\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2018\/09\/18\/false-appearances\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">False Appearances<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3881,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}