{"id":573,"date":"2017-09-06T10:57:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T14:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=573"},"modified":"2017-12-06T09:41:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T14:41:21","slug":"of-identity-and-new-beginnings-in-braddons-lady-audleys-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2017\/09\/06\/of-identity-and-new-beginnings-in-braddons-lady-audleys-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Identity and New Beginnings in Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNo more dependence, no more drudgery, no more humiliations,\u201d she said; \u201cevery trace of the old life melted away \u2013 every clew to identity buried and forgotten \u2013 except these, except these.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

In this passage, taken from the first chapter of Mary Elizabeth Braddon\u2019s publication called Lady Audley\u2019s Secret, <\/em>the reader is introduced to the inner thought processes of one of the novel\u2019s protagonists by the name of Lucy Graham. Only moments before, Sir Audley had asked the young woman to marry him and she had accepted his proposal.<\/p>\n

On a formal level, the critical reader may notice several linguistic features standing out in this passage. For one, the initial repetition of the letter \u2018d\u2019 in \u201cdependence\u201d and in \u201cdrudgery\u201d causes the passage to sound rhythmic. The same effect is created by the repetition of the word \u201cevery\u201d and the repetition of the final phrase \u201cexcept these\u201d. The entire passage \u2013 from beginning to end \u2013 almost sounds like a chant.<\/p>\n

Moreover, on a content level, the critical reader is also confronted with certain particularities. What appears most striking is the passage\u2019s reference to an \u201cold life\u201d which \u201cmelt[s] away\u201d and an \u201cidentity\u201d that is \u201cburied and forgotten\u201d. These formulations sound cryptic and seem to be pointing towards a mystery within the narrative\u2019s plot. Considering the context in which these words are uttered by Lucy, they appear odd as well. Having just accepted a marriage proposal, Lucy\u2019s words and thoughts seem to be consumed with negativity. She speaks of \u201cdependence\u201d and \u201chumiliation\u201d and does not choose happy words to signal her optimism for her future as a married woman.<\/p>\n

Essentially, what this passage may indicate is that Lucy Graham might be hiding a secret concerning her true identity which will most likely be the center of the whole narrative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNo more dependence, no more drudgery, no more humiliations,\u201d she said; \u201cevery trace of the old life melted away \u2013 every clew to identity buried and forgotten \u2013 except these, except these.\u201d In this passage, taken from the first chapter of Mary Elizabeth Braddon\u2019s publication called Lady Audley\u2019s Secret, the reader is introduced to the … Continue reading Of Identity and New Beginnings in Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","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\/3617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}