{"id":650,"date":"2017-09-13T22:58:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T02:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=650"},"modified":"2017-11-30T11:33:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T16:33:45","slug":"crossing-thresholds-in-lady-audleys-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2017\/09\/13\/crossing-thresholds-in-lady-audleys-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Crossing Thresholds in Lady Audley’s Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCircumstantial evidence. . . a word dropped incautiously from the over-cautious lips of guilty; the fragment of a letter; the shutting or opening of a door; a shadow on a window-blind; the accuracy of a moment; a thousand circumstances so slight as to be forgotten by the criminal. . .\u201d (Braddon, 123).<\/span><\/p>\n

This passage shows Robert Audley finally becoming what Victorian society would have expected of an adult. \u00a0Rather than lounging around and doing nothing, Robert is putting his education as a barrister into practice. \u00a0Here, Robert is explaining to Lady Audley that he believes that George\u2019s disappearance is nefarious in nature and that someone is responsible for it. \u00a0A pervading sense of mystery is present in this scene, and the effect that it has on the novel\u2019s characters is drastic. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the novel and in this scene, characters cross numerous thresholds, literally and metaphorically. \u00a0They cross from sanity into madness (George Talboys) and from the unknown into the known (Robert piecing together George\u2019s mysterious disappearance). \u00a0In this passage, Robert mentions the \u201cshutting or opening of a door,\u201d (Braddon, 123) and a \u201cshadow on a window-blind (Braddon, 123). \u201d \u00a0Both of these phrases have the connotation that even the smallest actions are capable of being used as evidence to catch a criminal. \u00a0This passage ironically shows Robert simultaneously crossing two significant thresholds, into both enlightenment and adulthood. \u00a0Robert is enlightened because he comes to realize that George\u2019s disappearance may be intentional. \u00a0He enters adulthood because it is the first time in his life that he is doing something with real meaning, rather than superficially wandering from on frivolous activity to another. \u00a0Individual words used in this passage such as \u201cevidence,\u201d \u201cguilt,\u201d \u201ccrime,\u201d \u201cpenalty,\u201d and \u201ccriminal\u201d (Braddon, 123) are all related to the legal profession. \u00a0By using these words, and by making connections between mysterious events, Robert asserts himself as a professional seeking to solve a serious problem, something Robert Audley never would have done without George\u2019s disappearance.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCircumstantial evidence. . . a word dropped incautiously from the over-cautious lips of guilty; the fragment of a letter; the shutting or opening of a door; a shadow on a window-blind; the accuracy of a moment; a thousand circumstances so slight as to be forgotten by the criminal. . .\u201d (Braddon, 123). This passage shows … Continue reading Crossing Thresholds in Lady Audley’s Secret<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3250,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782,123801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post","category-2017-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","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\/3250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}