yet she has to transgress social spheres and reinvent herself in order to become financiallysecure. 3.4 Lady AudleyLucy Graham transforms into Lady Audley, the domestic ideal and lady of the country house.As Lady Audley, she becomes subject to her husband and is confined in marriage. She is often describedusing childish imagery. Lady Audley revels in her newfound status and confesses: I was very happy inthe first triumph and grandeur of my new position... and could afford to pity and relieve the poverty ofmy neighbors. I took pleasure in acts of kindness and benevolence (Braddon 348). She begins playingthe role of the domestic wife, which Sir Michael and the rest of society want her to perform. Braddonshows her readers that the angel in the house... is an elaborate theatrical performance (Montwieler 51).Lady Audley accepts her new role. She adopts domestic activities and never looked prettier than whenmaking tea. The most feminine and most domestic of all occupations imparts a magic harmony to herevery movement,... To do away with the tea-table is to rob woman of her legitimate empire (Braddon222). The legitimate empire of woman is the domestic ideal, which Lady Audley never complains about.As every other wife, she experiences the confinement of the ladys legitimate activities within a limitedsphere [which] keeps her virtually under continual surveillance. When she must be away from home,she must declare where she is going, how long she will be absent, and when she will return (Langland10). Lady Audley understands her position as object who is subject to the absolute authority and controlof her husband.Although Lady Audley accepts her role as the domestic ideal and plays it without objection, sheis not allowed to prevail. A figure out of the past comes to haunt Lady Audley in her present life andcompromises her marriage with Sir Michael Audley. Yet instead of surrendering to go back to the oldlife, the old, hard, cruel, wretched l...
