ole includesa renewed domestic description of her. She is dressed in a broad-leaved straw hat and flapping blueribbons, one quarter of an inch of which Mr. Audley would have esteemed a prouder decoration thanever adorned a favoured creatures button-hole (Braddon 426). Claras importance is reduced to a meredescription of her decorative dress and of the activities accorded to women, like the flowers in theconservatory, which occupied so much of her time (Braddon 427). Clara takes on the duties as afiance, by telling Robert that he should read hard and think seriously of his profession, and begin lifein real earnest (Braddon 428). This is hardly the impassioned Clara of which the reader has caught aglimpse; the passionless and subdued young woman has returned in her stead. Regrettably, by the endof the story, however, the would-be female detective and world traveler is the happy mother of Robertschild, her independent fortune the property of her husband under common law (Nayder 39-40). Thenovel literally forces Clara into the role of wife and mother, and allows Robert to exert his ownmasculinity, eventually becoming the properly socialised (Pykett 104) male. The country housebecomes a place of confinement and Clara becomes the quintessential domestic ideal. III Lady AudleyWhile Clara becomes the embodiment of domestic ideal, Lady Audley merely impersonates it.She possesses the contradictory nature of woman, both angel and siren. She is the improper heroine...juxtaposed with the epitome of proper femininity (Pykett 19); such is the case with Clara and LadyAudley. Clara is forced to become that which Lady Audley refuses: the domestic ideal who accepts hersituation. The secret of Lady Audley is her transgressive past, which, by means of an investigation intothe murder of his friend, Robert Audley self-righteously uncovers. It is hard to imagine that Victorianreaders were not instantly aware of Lady Audleys secret after reading Chapter 2....
