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&# 65279; Female Roles In Braddon S Lady Audley S Secret&# 65279; Female Roles In Braddon S Lady Audley S Secret &# 65279; I Introduction The women of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novel, Lady Audley's Secret, seem to take on doubling roles that illustrate the patriarchal society of 19 th century Victorian England. Phoebe is Lady Audley's chambermaid until she marries and becomes Mrs. Luke Marks. Alicia goes from being the dutiful daughter of Sir Michael Audley to the dutiful wife of Sir Harry Towers. Similarly, Clara begins the novel as an obedient daughter and sister, threatens a possible transgression, but ultimately ends up as the wife of Robert Audley. Lady Audley, however, has several identities: she is first the daughter of a disreputable naval officer, then the wife of George Talboys, later a governess, subsequently the wife of Sir Michael Audley and finally an inmate in an asylum.
Such multiple identities help her move through Victorian class structure with ease, something Braddon's readers would have both desired and feared. Yet she is only identifiable in relation to marriage. Little of her history is known to us before her marriage to George, when she is simply Helen Maldon, and she has neither history nor future as Madame Taylor, after her second marriage to Sir Michael is revealed to be fraudulent. In order to survive, all of the women in Lady Audley's Secret find it necessary to negotiate their roles within a patriarchal society where marriage governs. All the women in the novel, save one, are ultimately confined to roles in marriage. The exception, Lady Audley, is severely punished and declared a threat to society.
In Lady Audley's Secret, the characters of Clara and Lady Audley are juxtaposed to represent the two sides of femininity: the domestic angel and the transgressive siren. Lady Audley's Secret illustrates the painful, but all too common, predicament of women who dare to be transgressors in a patriarchal society, but are ultimately forced to negotiate within the rules of marriage and to choose between confinement in marriage or an asylum. Lady Audley's Secret articulates womens experience and the gender anxiety existing in 19 th century society. Appropriately, the novel focuses on marriage and the subjugation of women into ideal roles of domesticity. In this patriarchal society where marriage is the foundation of a nation, women had duties not rights. The novel begins by introducing the typical English country house, Audley Court: A noble place; inside as well as out, a noble place a house in which you incontinently lost yourself if ever you were so rash as to go about it alone (Braddon 8).
It is unsettling to know that Audley Court, which was once a convent, is now a respectable aristocratic house, whereby Braddon parallels the lady of a country house to a nun, who is confined to the walls of a convent. Braddon suggests that this house cannot be transgressed, for if women dare attempt it, they will lose themselves. Audley Court is the designated space belonging to women in this society. In addition, Braddon also presents the language of madness (Braddon 15) in the first chapter. From the beginning, Braddon puts forth only two possible choices for women: they will have to choose between the country house or the insane asylum; both, however, are places of confinement. Consequently, the conflict between the actual female experience and the domestic, private, angelic feminine ideal (Pykett 6) is one with which the women of the novel struggle.
At the heart of Lady Audley's Secret lies contradictions and instabilities about womens roles in marriage and society, and the possibility of transgressing the domestic ideal. The characters of Phoebe, Alicia, Clara and Lady Audley all embody contradictions between the domestic ideal which encloses them, and the transgressive fantasy which promises to free them from the confinement that structures the lives of upper-middle-class women (Langland 3). The piercing reality, however, is that their roles within marriage and society cannot be transgressed. II Clara Clara represents the failed transgression of a dutiful daughter and sister. When we are first introduced to Clara Talboys at her fathers estate, Squire Talboys, she is employed in needlework, an exclusive activity belonging to womans domain. As expected, Clara does not utter one word while Robert is addressing them about Georges disappearance; she is voiceless.
When she makes one move to exert herself and stands up, her father, Harcourt Talboys, exercises his control over her and commands, Sit down, Clara and keep your cotton in your workbook (Braddon 189). The tiniest show of movement, that of standing up and having the cotton roll out of her workbook, is seen as transgressive because it is her duty to remain perfectly quiet (Braddon 191) and seated, unless asked to do otherwise. No description is given of Clara's physical or psychological characteristics. All that is known at first is the narrators depiction of her demeanor. He says, The girl who had been addressed as Clara sat with her work primly folded upon her lap, and her hands lying clasped together on her work, and never stirred when Robert spoke of his friends death (Braddon 191). Emphasis is placed on the fact that Clara does not lift her head, but keeps it bowed down.
She embodies a passivity with regards to Mr. Harcourt Talboys, and, in his presence, is subjugated to her fathers will. 2. 1 Possible Transgression As soon as Clara is away from her fathers presence and surveillance, she exhibits a rush of movement. Robert is startled by the appearance of a woman running, almost flying (Braddon 197) toward his carriage. The lack of mobility and stoicism (Braddon 198) she endured while in the country house is juxtaposed to the passionate energy of her manner (Braddon 203) she exhibits while outside the confines of the home.
Outside the home, Clara is allowed some physical description and even sexual ization, albeit as a resemblance to her brother, George. Robert contemplates: She was very handsome. She had brown eyes, like Georges and a mobility of expression which bore record of every change of feeling (Braddon 198). This mobility of expression that comes pouring out is a symptom of the suppressed milieu in which women were forced to live. Clara herself pleads to Robert, let me speak to you, or I shall go mad (Braddon 198). The undertone of madness throughout the novel is also present in Clara's language.
She realizes that insanity is a definite possibility if she is not able to express herself and, instead, is forced to continue stifling and dwarfing the natural feelings of [her] heart, until they have become unnatural in their intensity (Braddon 201). In Clara's language, Braddon describes the implications and effects of female repression and hints at the urgency of transgression. Clara is aware, at least unconsciously, of her need for transgression. As Robert perceives, this apparently passionless girl, had found a voice (Braddon 200). When Robert insinuates that he might discontinue his search for George, it gives Clara an opportunity to transgress the domestic role imposed upon her.
She threatens Robert, Then I will do it myself! I myself will follow up the clue to this mystery I will travel from one end of the world to the other to find the secret of his fate (Braddon 200). This threat of transgression implies Clara's willingness to abandon her passivity and take an active role by supplanting Robert as the detective in the novel. Furthermore, Clara exerts her financial autonomy and declares, I am of age; my own mistress; rich, for I have money left me by one of my aunts Choose between the two alternatives, Mr. Audley.
Shall you or I find my brothers murderer? (Braddon 200 - 201). Upon hearing this, Robert decides that he must continue his search for fear that Clara might transgress. He tells her that no aid which she could procure with her money could possibly lead her to the secret of Georges disappearance as surely as he can (Braddon 201). The alternative which Clara gives Robert allows him to take the roles of defender of the proper feminine, and of the patriarchal, aristocratic family from the threat of dissolution (Pykett 104). Robert subsequent continuing search for George prevents Clara from leaving the country house, denying her a much needed transgression, and instead preserves her in the domestic role which, heretofore, has silenced her voice. 2. 2 Confinement in Marriage Still, even after the mystery of her brothers fate is discovered, Clara is restless. She tells Robert, If I were a man, I would go to Australia, and find him, and bring him back (Braddon 430).
Perhaps Clara is more eager to leave the suppressive English climate than to find her brother, George. When Robert declares his love for her, Clara feels uneasy and her little hand was drawn away from his and it rested lightly and tremulously upon his dark hair (Braddon 431). Braddon is describing Clara's fear at the thought of marriage; she gives no answer (Braddon 431). Robert then proposes marriage in the following way: Shall we both go, dearest? Shall we go as man and wife?
Shall we go together, my dear love, and bring our brother back between us? (Braddon 431). It is only when Robert asks Clara to accompany him to Australia in search of George that Braddon implies an acceptance of marriage. Braddon subtly suggests that Clara's motivation for marriage to Robert represents the prospect of leaving the English patriarchal society, which keeps her in the role of domestic angel. Roberts proposal offers her the possibility of exploration and freedom for which she desperately craves. However, Clara never goes to Australia because George returns out of his own volition. The novel does not allow her the possibility of a transgression and since she has already consented to marriage, Clara is left confined to England's countrys house.
Clara moves through the novel from dutiful daughter to dutiful wife. Her imminent role includes a renewed domestic description of her. She is dressed in a broad-leaved straw hat and flapping blue ribbons, one quarter of an inch of which Mr. Audley would have esteemed a prouder decoration than ever adorned a favoured creatures button-hole (Braddon 426). Clara's importance is reduced to a mere description of her decorative dress and of the activities accorded to women, like the flowers in the conservatory, which occupied so much of her time (Braddon 427).
Clara takes on the duties as a fianc? e, by telling Robert that he should read hard and think seriously of his profession, and begin life in real earnest (Braddon 428). This is hardly the impassioned Clara of which the reader has caught a glimpse; the passionless and subdued young woman has returned in her stead. Regrettably, by the end of the story, however, the would-be female detective and world traveler is the happy mother of Roberts child, her independent fortune the property of her husband under common law (Nayder 39 - 40). The novel literally forces Clara into the role of wife and mother, and allows Robert to exert his own masculinity, eventually becoming the properly socialized (Pykett 104) male. The country house becomes a place of confinement and Clara becomes the quintessential domestic ideal.
III Lady Audley While Clara becomes the embodiment of domestic ideal, Lady Audley merely impersonates it. She possesses the contradictory nature of woman, both angel and siren. She is the improper heroine juxtaposed with the epitome of proper femininity (Pykett 19); such is the case with Clara and Lady Audley. Clara is forced to become that which Lady Audley refuses: the domestic ideal who accepts her situation. The secret of Lady Audley is her transgressive past, which, by means of an investigation into the murder of his friend, Robert Audley self-righteously uncovers. It is hard to imagine that Victorian readers were not instantly aware of Lady Audley's secret after reading Chapter 2.
Braddon never actually shows us the facts, or lets us share Lady Audley's inner mind, but the novel is written in such a way as to suggest the secret to readers immediately. It is also hard to imagine this sensationally entertaining novel even making sense to readers who do not guess Lady Audley's secret at once; much of the suspense of the book comes from wondering if and how her secret is going to be revealed. 3. 1 Helen Maldon As the impoverished Helen Maldon, her true person, she represents a woman who desires to improve the situation to which she was born by whatever means necessary. It is clear that Helen wants to climb the social ladder, and in order to succeed she becomes a craftswoman constructing an elaborate identity- a living, breathing, display-window doll (Montwieler 50). From a very early age, Helen realizes that her ultimate fate in life depended upon marriage (Braddon 345). Braddon suggests that marriage is the only means by which a woman can obtain wealth and status in this society. The desire to marry propitiously drives her and by applying ingenuity, elaborate plans and her beauty, Helen reinvents herself over and over again, to play the role of the domestic ideal, the only acceptable role for women. 3. 2 Helen Talboys Helens first transgression is to become Mrs.
George Talboys. Her wandering prince (Braddon 346) swept her off her feet with his wealth, married her and took her throughout Europe; this is the life dreamed by Clara. But this life could not continue for lack of money. Contrary to what the narrator suggests, she never lies about her motivations or intentions for marriage. To George, Helen complains, loudly and bitterly.
I upbraided George Talboys for his cruelty in having allied a helpless girl to poverty and misery; and he flew into a passion with me and ran out of the house (Braddon 347). After her husbands desertion, Helen is left alone to support herself, her child and her father. This is not the life she signed up for with George. In a letter to her father, she writes: I am weary of my life here, and wish, if I can, to find a new one.
I go out into the world, dissevered from every link which binds me t the hateful past, to seek another home and another fortune (Braddon 248). Instead of accepting her lot, Helen Talboys decides to reinvent her identity once again and bury her old self. 3. 3 Lucy Graham By use of her intellect, Helen Talboys wanted to find a home away from all the people she had ever known (Braddon 235), and becomes Lucy Graham, a young girl with no past. She came to Mrs. Vincent and made use of the resource available to her: beauty.
Lucy was only ornamental; a person to be shown off to visitors, and to play fantasias on the drawing-room piano (Braddon 235). Understanding what her role should be, she embraced the proper qualities of femininity as Mr. Dawsons governess. After the misery she had known as Helen, Lucy played the part of an amiable and gentle nature always to be light-hearted, happy, and contented under any circumstances everyone loved, admired, and praised her (Braddon 11 - 12). Again, she does not conceal her intentions. When Sir Audley proposes marriage, Lucy outright tells him that such a marriage would be advantageous for her by proclaiming, I have never seen anything but poverty I cannot be disinterested; I cannot be blind to the advantages of such an alliance! (Braddon 16).
At first she refuses, but as soon as Sir Michael enters into her discourse of economics by calling it a bargain (Braddon 17), Lucy accepts. This is the same circumstance we see with Clara's acceptance of Roberts proposal. Disguised as Lucy Graham, she marries Sir Michael Audley and says to herself: No more dependence, no more drudgery, no more humiliations every trace of the old life melted away every clue to identity buried and forgotten (Braddon 17). As long as she is financially secure, Lucy embraces the prospect of becoming the domestic wife, yet she has to transgress social spheres and reinvent herself in order to become financially secure. 3. 4 Lady Audley Lucy Graham transforms into Lady Audley, the domestic ideal and lady of the country house.
As Lady Audley, she becomes subject to her husband and is confined in marriage. She is often described using childish imagery. Lady Audley revels in her newfound status and confesses: I was very happy in the first triumph and grandeur of my new position and could afford to pity and relieve the poverty of my neighbors. I took pleasure in acts of kindness and benevolence (Braddon 348).
She begins playing the role of the domestic wife, which Sir Michael and the rest of society want her to perform. Braddon shows her readers that the angel in the house is an elaborate theatrical performance (Montwieler 51). Lady Audley accepts her new role. She adopts domestic activities and never looked prettier than when making tea.
The most feminine and most domestic of all occupations imparts a magic harmony to her every movement, To do away with the tea-table is to rob woman of her legitimate empire (Braddon 222). The legitimate empire of woman is the domestic ideal, which Lady Audley never complains about. As every other wife, she experiences the confinement of the ladys legitimate activities within a limited sphere [which] keeps her virtually under continual surveillance. When she must be away from home, she must declare where she is going, how long she will be absent, and when she will return (Langland 10).
Lady Audley understands her position as object who is subject to the absolute authority and control of her husband. Although Lady Audley accepts her role as the domestic ideal and plays it without objection, she is not allowed to prevail. A figure out of the past comes to haunt Lady Audley in her present life and compromises her marriage with Sir Michael Audley. Yet instead of surrendering to go back to the old life, the old, hard, cruel, wretched life the life of poverty, and humiliation, and vexation, and discontent (Braddon 312), Lady Audley decides to conceal her transgressive past.
Everything from that point on is to avoid, at all cost, the revelation of her guilt. After Robert confronts her, she is transformed from a frivolous childish beauty into a woman, strong to argue her own cause and plead her own defence (Braddon 284). Lady Audley is forced to abandon the domestic ideal and becomes a real woman in order to survive. Robert sees her transgressive nature and calls it the demonic incarnation of some evil principle (Braddon 340).
Much like Braddon's description of Clara's surge of energy and passion at the moment of a possible transgression, Lady Audley acquires the appearance and manner of a person who has yielded to the dominant influence of some overpowering excitement (Braddon 309). This torrent of passion is not allowed in the domestic ideal, and again, it is Robert who will step in and correct the improper feminine behavior. He firmly believes Lady Audley to be insane, but Dr. Mosgrave warns that the lady is not mad She is dangerous! (Braddon 372). Lady Audley is dangerous because she is not what she appears to be, because she cannot be contained within the bounds of the proper feminine (Pykett 94 - 5); Unlike Clara, Lady Audley cannot be contained and must be removed from public view. 3. 5 Madame Taylor Lady Audley's confinement occurs after her marriage to Sir Michael Audley is revealed to be fraudulent. Each time marriage fails, she is doomed, first as a governess and now as an inmate at an insane asylum.
The final transformation is that of Lady Audley into Madame Taylor. This name does not have any hint of her past or even of her English roots. She will bear a false name for the rest of her life (Braddon 423). Even she looked upon herself as a species of state prisoner who must be provided for in some comfortable place of confinement (Braddon 366). This confinement is a result of Lady Audley's transgressive desires and needs, and the violation of accepted codes of femininity in the society to which she belongs. Lady Audley's true secret is that she tries to accomplish, insofar as society allows her, the task of transgressing social spheres and becoming a true lady.
She tries to keep her past concealed in order to fit into the domestic ideal, and yet ironically, this past is dug up by a man who will not allow her to be a part of the domestic ideal she was trying to maintain. When her transgressive past is revealed, Dr. Mosgrave recommends for her to be taken to an establishment in Belgium. He tells Robert, If you were to dig a grave for her in the nearest churchyard and bury her alive in it, you could not more safely shut her from the world (Braddon 373). The maison de sant? perfectly fits the description of this grave in a churchyard.
It is located in Villebrumeuse, an ecclesiastical town that had once been a monastery. The description is replete with religious imagery and the maison de sant? oddly resembles the description of Audley Court in the beginning of the novel. Braddon is suggesting that the maison de sant? for Madame Taylor is going to function as the country house for Clara, since both marriage and an insane asylum are forms of confinement. Madame Taylors incarceration and her subsequent death are the means by which the Transgressive heroine (and the improper feminine) is expelled from the narrative (Pykett 92).
Helen Maldon has a concealed past, concealed drives and emotions, and ultimately ends up with a concealed future; these are the effects of the confinement and suppression forced on women who dare to transgress their domestic roles. IV Conclusion The multiple roles adopted by Clara and Lady Audley in Braddon's novel imply that femininity is itself duplicitous, and that it involves deception and dissembling (Pykett 91). Through the use of her female characters, Braddon explores the contradiction between two types of femininity: the domestic ideal and the transgressive siren, with the angel of the house as the personality preferred by conventional Victorians. Clara falls into the category of the proper feminine and Lady Audley is the improper feminine. The effect of multiple identities and roles on the part of Clara and Lady Audley can be interpreted in many ways and suggests different implications. The identities can stand for hidden psychological problems in these two women as a result of the suppression they encounter in their society, problems which the creation of multiple identities attempts to control.
Both Clara and Lady Audley are trying to create a happy and free life, but they keep having to deal with Robert, the shadow of the man of the house, a shadow that threatens and accomplishes to destroy everyones happiness save his own. Clara and Lady Audley's accounts also suggest that women are caught between things. The women of the novel are somehow forced to fit into the confines of the Victorian country house because society deems they belong in the domestic role. If the domestic ideal is threatened, then they are confined elsewhere, as in an asylum. Either way, however, they may not be let out of confinement. The novel ends soon after Georges return to London, and the celebration of the two marriages between Clara and Robert, and Alicia and Sir Harry Towers.
In containing both Clara and Lady Audley, the main focus of the novels closure is the bourgeois, suburban idyll where Robert becomes the head of an idealized affective family and a rising man of the legal profession (Pykett 104). The novel ultimately becomes about Roberts quest for manhood and, accordingly, Braddon ends Lady Audley's Secret by restoring domesticity and the patriarchal, aristocratic family. The portrayals of Clara and Lady Audley are used to expose the anxieties of gender, social class and marriage in 19 th century Victorian society. The novel takes the transgressive woman and buries her alive: Clara is confined in marriage and Lady Audley in an asylum. Braddon juxtaposes the country house and the insane asylum, the lady and the madwoman in both spheres, she is deprived of her freedom and wits (Langland 5). We end up with a world purged of female transgressors and the establishment of the perfect and contained bourgeois family.
Bibliography Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Lady Audley's Secret. Ed. Jenny Bourne Taylor. London: Penguin Group, 1998.
Langland, Elizabeth. Enclosure Acts: Framing Womens Bodies in Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret. Beyond Sensation. Ed. Marlene Tromp, Pamela K. Gilbert, and Aeron Haynie.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. 3 - 16. Montwieler, Katherine. Marketing Sensation: Lady Audley's Secret and Consumer Culture. Beyond Sensation. Ed. Marlene Tromp, Pamela K.
Gilbert, and Aeron Haynie. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. 43 - 61. Nayder, Lillian. Rebellious Sepoys and Bigamous Wives: The Indian Mutiny and Marriage Law Reform in Lady Audley's Secret. Beyond Sensation. Ed.
Marlene Tromp, Pamela K. Gilbert, and Aeron Haynie. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. 31 - 42. Pykett, Lynn. The Improper Feminine. London: Routledge, 1992.
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