“'I THOUGHT YOU WAS AN EVIL SPIRIT'”: THE HIDDEN VILLAIN OF LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET

摘要

Although many modern critics have studied Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret, few have noted its occult and supernatural elements. These elements are associated primarily with Lady Audley's maid, Phoebe Marks. A reanalysis of the text in light of these connections suggests that Phoebe is a demonic figure who masterminds the death of her husband Luke, the ruin of Lady Audley, and the attempted undoing of Robert Audley. Phoebe is depicted as an evil spectre throughout the novel in numerous ways, including her name, physical description, and other characters' reactions to her. The maid is described as a ghoulish doppelgnger of her mistress; the two share a wedding gown and are even mistaken for one another. In her role as maid, Phoebe acts deceptively humble and compliant, paying obeisance to Lady Audley, while coveting her mistress's possessions and rank. Her unusually close, almost flirtatious, relationship with her mistress allows Phoebe to blackmail her and to control her by power of suggestion, affecting subservience while planting seeds of destruction for those close to her.