Thursday, June 5, 2014

Lady Audley’s Secret Readalong THE END: Subtly undermining the Victorian myth that female self-assertion is a form of insanity since 1987


Lady Audley has confessed herself to be . . . A MADWOMAN.

Not buying it.

Here’s what I think is the deal with Helen/Lucy. She grew up with the constant reminder that her mother was mad and that madness is hereditary; so she always expected to be suddenly struck with the manifestation of this latent genetic curse.

Perhaps because she had this horrible shadow always looming, she lived her life selfishly. She did some things because they served her interests and didn’t do other things because they didn’t, but there was nothing criminal about her selfishness—until that moment when she stood by the well and her dilemma had a human face. And isn’t it much more convenient to say, “Well I wasn’t mad all the years leading up to that moment, but in that moment I WAS MAD”? Because now it’s not her fault she murdered George Talboys. He bellowed at her and upset the precarious balance of her sanity is all.

I do, however, believe that Braddon has written us a lady sociopath. She admits to Robert that she’s never been good with emotions. And the way she describes love—mainly in terms of what the other person can give her—shows that she has no real comprehension of how love works. The crisis that followed the birth of Little George sounds a lot to me like postpartum depression, which I’m sure was not improved by her waking up one day to find her husband gone. And then, further cementing her status as an “unnatural woman,” she could not love her child.

But she is so clever at hiding her inability to connect emotionally with other people. She understands that no one would accept this absence of feeling in her when it so harshly contradicts the Victorian ideal for women, so she giggles and smiles her arse off and acts like a perfect infant to disarm everyone.


The doctor whom Rob brought in to pronounce Lucy insane said a lot of things that were clearly bull-fritters (latent insanity is maybe not a thing), but in the end I think this was a reasonable diagnosis:
“She has the cunning of madness, with the prudence of intelligence. I will tell you what she is, Mr. Audley. She is dangerous!”
Don’t fear the person who rages and breaks things and yells “I AM MAD I AM MAD I TELL YOU.” Fear the person who calmly touches a flame to the curtains.

Well now I’ve gone on about Helen/Lucy and haven’t said a thing about anyone else. GOOD THING THIS IS A READALONG.

But I will just say this one thing: The real surprise twist for me isn’t that George Talboys is still alive; it’s that Luke Marks is the hero of the story.


Still a jerk though.

17 comments:

  1. "She grew up with the constant reminder that her mother was mad and that madness is hereditary; so she always expected to be suddenly struck with the manifestation of this latent genetic curse." YES! This is what I thought too! Victorian psychology is mostly just "Ew! Insane people, get them away!" It's disturbing how easily Robert can just get rid of her. He might as well have pushed HER down the well.

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    1. What were his options though, really? I'm thinking the arrangements he made for her were the best-case scenario in this particular time and place.

      Although it would have been nice if they let her go back to being George's wife, and they someday ended up being able to laugh about that time she pushed him in a well.

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  2. What were his options though, really? I'm thinking the arrangements he made for her were the best-case scenario in this particular time and place.

    Although it would have been nice if they let her go back to being George's wife, and they someday ended up being able to laugh about that time she pushed him in a well.

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  3. Luke definitely still raped his wife a lot though. SO NOT A HERO, MEGS. Plus he didn't deliver those letters because he's stupid. Stupid Luke.


    Lucy is deffffff a sociopath. She really doesn't have feeeeelings for other people, like at all. She likes Sir M, because he buys her nice things, she doesn't like Robert because he doesn't like her... Any thoughts she has for others relate to what they can do for her, not about anything in themselves.


    To sum up- bitch be crazy.

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  4. I was so surprised that Lucy gave in and announced that she was a MADWOMAN when Rob confronted her instead of acting how she previously had when backed into a corner: murder and/or manipulation. Why not send Rob to the mad house?

    Agreed that MEB wrote Lucy as a sociopath. I didn't really consider this until she burned down the Inn and was so...annoyed? at Phoebe for being upset that her place was on fire. That was not a desperate and tortured by guilt reaction

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  5. IS THAT A LADY OF BURLESQUE OR BALL OF FIRE GIF


    This is like the original Gone Girl, right? Because it FEELS like that. Only she's way less effective at her psychopath job.

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  6. It seems as though Lucy;s knowledge of her mother's illness acted like... like whatever the opposite of a placebo is. She thought it was going to happen to her, so she acted accordingly.

    I wouldn't say Luke is the hero though - if he'd given up the letters like a normal, decent person, none of this would have happened, but he was too bitter and selfish. He only gave them up now (after abusing and banishing his wife) because somebody did something decent for him first.

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  7. Well he's not...a CONVENTIONAL hero, Laura. He's an accidental, really selfish hero. But he saved the day whether you like it or not. SO THERE.

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  8. Maybe it was one of those things where having the truth out was almost a relief to her. That can happen to sociopaths right?

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  9. I'm embarrassed to say I do not know. I just liked it. (My guess is Ball of Fire though.)


    She's pretty good at her job until she quits like a QUITTER.

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  10. YES. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy.


    OK right yes, hero isn't the right word. But he ended up being Rob's personal hero...or something. The bearer of good---I was just surprised that he did something useful for once.

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  11. I shouldn't necessarily say this to the internet, but wouldn't it be sort of fun to hold a flame to a curtain? In controlled circumstances? Just, I think the curtain would go up really fast! And it would be so pleasing to watch!

    (I am not a sociopath.)

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  12. Well great...now I can't stop thinking about doing that.

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  13. I am SUPER relieved that you did not say "OMG SOCIOPATH GTFO MY BLOG"

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  14. I would NEVER. But I might go home and burn a curtain, so you should probably be more careful what you say to me in future.

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  15. I think it was not so much guilt as utter failure. She was so sure she'd murdered him and all her problems were over and there he walks in, totally not dead and able to tell all to Sir Michael. It was the desolation of finally losing the game just when she thought she'd won, in my opinion

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  16. Makes perfect sense, actually.

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