Ankita Nanda

CTS- English
Professor Mandakini Dubey
12th April, 2015
Lucy Audley: Beauty or the Best?
Lady Audleys Secret by Mary Elizabeth Brandon gives a nuanced insight into the societal
perceptions of Victorian England and more specifically, the roles that were ascertained to women
in this period. The reader is introduced to the charming, beautiful yet endlessly mysterious
character of Lucy Audley. The various characters of the novel use rather potent adjectives to
describe her and these fall into two separate roles beautiful, kind and docile and the other as,
evil and manipulative . The paper through character analysis of Lucy Audley aims to conclude
that these roles are extremely restrictive in nature and attach a negative connotation along with
them. The alternative personalities of Lady Audley, one as delicate and fragile and the other
as, sinister and thirsty for power and both deny her to be viewed as a strong or moralistic
individual.