{"id":1554,"date":"2021-09-08T18:21:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T22:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2021-09-08T18:21:34","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T22:21:34","slug":"age-before-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/09\/08\/age-before-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Age Before Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paragraph\u00a0beginning \u201cThat one quiet evening had sealed Sir Michael\u2019s fate…\u201d and ending \u201cSir Michael Audley had fallen ill of the terrible fever called love\u201d\u00a0(Braddon 12-13).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This\u00a0paragraph begins with the\u00a0description of Lucy Graham,\u00a0a\u00a0charming\u00a0governess\u00a0beloved by all\u00a0for her quiet beauty.\u00a0\u00a0Sir Michael Audley, upon meeting\u00a0Miss Graham, wrestles with the complexity of his emotions.\u00a0\u00a0He sees her\u00a0largely in\u00a0a gentle light and recognizes her femininity, yet this is almost\u00a0immediately\u00a0and violently\u00a0juxtaposed with\u00a0the tumultuous conflict over love which occupies his mind.\u00a0\u00a0Michael cries (inaudibly),\u00a0\u201cDestiny!\u00a0\u00a0Why, she was his destiny!\u00a0\u00a0He had never loved before\u201d (Braddon 12).\u00a0\u00a0This phrase\u00a0indicates\u00a0that Michaels sees love\u00a0not as a relationship between people, but as a means of ownership and submission between those who partake in the marriage vow.\u00a0 He also places the value of his happiness on her by saying that she alone is what his future holds.\u00a0\u00a0This view of ownership and power dynamics is further substantiated by\u00a0the\u00a0description of his wrestling thoughts.\u00a0\u00a0He describes his definition of love as a, \u201cfever, this longing, this restless, uncertain, miserable\u00a0hesitation; these\u00a0cruel fears that his age\u00a0was an insurmountable barrier to happiness\u201d (Braddon 12).\u00a0\u00a0The emotions of a man are seen in this passage as a plague or something to be pitied.\u00a0\u00a0Both the presentation of\u00a0Lucy Graham and\u00a0Michael Audley\u2019s view of love and emotion\u00a0seem to fall within typical expectations between\u00a0sexes: the female being sweet and silent; a beacon of light in\u00a0a dark world,\u00a0while the male is vocal and dominant.\u00a0\u00a0This passage appears to be about a man\u2019s ability to express emotion, as Michael Audley\u00a0repeatedly\u00a0struggles with his emotional desires, his age, and his past\u00a0marriage.\u00a0\u00a0Because of the strength of the words being expressed, but only within the confines of Sir Audley\u2019s mind,\u00a0this\u00a0passage\u00a0implies\u00a0an\u00a0apparently typical emotional alienation and the invocation of a public mask to protect\u00a0private\u00a0life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paragraph\u00a0beginning \u201cThat one quiet evening had sealed Sir Michael\u2019s fate…\u201d and ending \u201cSir Michael Audley had fallen ill of the terrible fever called love\u201d\u00a0(Braddon 12-13).\u00a0 This\u00a0paragraph begins with the\u00a0description of Lucy Graham,\u00a0a\u00a0charming\u00a0governess\u00a0beloved by all\u00a0for her quiet beauty.\u00a0\u00a0Sir Michael Audley, upon meeting\u00a0Miss Graham, wrestles with the complexity of his emotions.\u00a0\u00a0He sees her\u00a0largely in\u00a0a gentle light and … Continue reading Age Before Beauty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4758,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","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\/4758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}