Gail Turley Houston, in her article “Mary Braddon’s Commentaries on the Trials and Legal Secrets of Audley Court,” argues for cognizance of Mary Braddon’s subversive engagement of the Victorian law. Her argument begins on the basis of the core concept that the builders of Victorian law - men - seek not to create laws to establish good amongst all people, but instead create laws and legal systems based in self interest according to their underlying assumption that what is good for them, as the self-proclaimed highest examples of citizenry, would obviously be beneficial for all. Therefore, law is not the mythicized version of objective reasoning, but rather an interested system that contributes to the disenfranchisement and erasure of women in
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Though certainly obvious to some, it can be assumed, it is important to notice the imagery and language that guides this novel is distinctively legal. Houston draws into focus the the specific symbolic pieces of the legal references in the naming of places. While the amount of symbols and signifying settings Houston draws to the attention of the reader is extensive, potentially the most important lie in the naming and setting of Lady Audley’s Court. Houston goes on to say the court is a “visual double entendre” of how “Lucy is courted and becomes the ruler” [emphasis added] and how it also is the “legal court pitting Robert Audley versus Lady Audley” (Houston 21). We are shown by Houston that within this dual meaning of court, Robert Audley’s position of power is questioned by the reader as we see the legal case against Lady Audley as a fight for his inheritance instead of, as he and the law itself would profess, an objective pursuit of
Though certainly obvious to some, it can be assumed, it is important to notice the imagery and language that guides this novel is distinctively legal. Houston draws into focus the the specific symbolic pieces of the legal references in the naming of places. While the amount of symbols and signifying settings Houston draws to the attention of the reader is extensive, potentially the most important lie in the naming and setting of Lady Audley’s Court. Houston goes on to say the court is a “visual double entendre” of how “Lucy is courted and becomes the ruler” [emphasis added] and how it also is the “legal court pitting Robert Audley versus Lady Audley” (Houston 21). We are shown by Houston that within this dual meaning of court, Robert Audley’s position of power is questioned by the reader as we see the legal case against Lady Audley as a fight for his inheritance instead of, as he and the law itself would profess, an objective pursuit of