“TO GO BOLDLY WHERE NOWOMAN HAS GONE BEFORE”: ALICIA AUDLEY AND THE NEWWOMAN

Abstract

While much scholarship has been lavished on Lady Audley' s dismantling of the Angel in the House ideal, virtually no one has examined the role of Alicia Audley, Sir Michael Audley' s pretty, gipsy-faced equestrian daughter, in M.E. Braddon's Lady Audley 's Secret (1861-62). Alicia's journey is the inverse of Lady Audley's: in the beginning, she is a potentially dangerous New Woman//ewwe fatale, but by the end, she becomes the obedient Angel in the House. During the course of the novel, the athletic, tempestuous Alicia constantly threatens Victorian gender boundaries through her engagement in masculine activities and her violent, behaviour. Braddon tries to contain the threat Alicia poses by emphasizing her youth, her victimization by Lady Audley, and her role as a dutiful daughter. This strategy works on the surface, and by the end, Alicia seems to be reduced to the role of the dutiful daughter and wife. She cares for her father, who has been devastated by Lady Audley's betrayal, and accepts Sir Harry Towers' proposal of marriage. However, the success of Alicia's conversion is questionable, given her absence during the later stages of the novel and the undoing of the Victorian ideal as embodied in Lady Audley. Braddon's use of Sir Audley's daughter as a means to challenge the dominant gender ideology and to provide a role model for female self-assertion overpowers the strategies she employs to contain Alicia and the threat she poses to the social order.Alicia's physical appearance conjures up an image contradictory to that of the Angel in the House. Alicia Audley is no pale-faced, passive Victorian woman. Unlike the popularized wax-doll heroine, Alicia is a pretty, dark-complexioned girl with heavy, clustering locks of brown hair. While the Angel in the House was characterized by inactivity and confinement to the domestic sphere, Alicia participates in traditionally masculine activities that involve physical exertion and take her outside the domestic sphere: she hunts and rides her horse around town. In doing so, Alicia not only breaks gender boundaries, but also gains an independence and mobility that most Victorian women did not possess. Compared to Alicia, Lady Audley is a very timid horsewoman.1 Mastery of horses was almost always associated with power, status and masculinity. Horses demanded a reasonable level of skill and physical self-confidence to ride, and they brought with their mastery a promise of some kind of freedom and independence.2 Alicia's mastery of the horse allows her the freedom to venture into town unescorted, something few Victorian women did. Alicia's physical activity and her dark complexion therefore align her with the New Woman, who loved sun, love, and motion.3 Even off her horse, Alicia is constantly in motion: when indoors, she bounces in and out of the room. Such a nice girl, if she didn't bounce! reflects her cousin Robert Audley (125). What is most effective about Alicia's outings on horseback and her hunting is that these activities are stated neutrally. Alicia is not punished for her pursuit of these traditionally masculine sports. Aside from Robert's casual reflections, she never receives any serious criticism of her participation in sports, which in effect naturalizes her physical activity.Alicia's frank and passionate personality (299) is often contrasted with that of Lady Audley' s, a contrast that, during the course of the novel, serves to dismantle the Angel in the House ideal. Lucy Audley' s childishness and frivolity make her better loved and admired than the baronet's daughter, qualities that Alicia views with an undisguised contempt (52). One of the most effective contrasts is Alicia's response to Lucy's concern that she would try to deprive Lucy of her father's affection: may not be as amiable as you are, my lady, and I may not have the same sweet smiles and pretty words for every stranger I meet, but I am not capable of a contemptible meanness (104). …