“The first year of George Talboys’ widowhood passed away; the deep band of crape about his hat grew brown and rusty, and as the last burning day of another August faded out, he sat smoking cigars in the quiet chambers in Fig-tree court, much as he had done the year before, when the horror of his grief was new to him, and every object in life, however trifling or however important, seemed saturated with his one great sorrow.” (47)
In this passage, we enter the life of George Tallboys one year after his wife passed away. That first year after she died was extremely rough for George mentally, physically and emotionally. No matter what happened that year, “every object in life, however trifling or however important, seemed saturated with his one great sorrow” and that “sorrow” was the love of his life passing away. The choice of words used by Braddon in this passage relate extremely well to how it’s depressing and sad. The whole passage is also one sentence broken up by many commas and that structure shows us the different aspects of George’s life and how he’s dealt with his sadness by “smoking cigars in the quiet chambers in Fig-tree court.” Again, that brings us back to the fact that George is lonely and straying away from society. Even “the deep band of crape about his hat grew brown and rusty” presents to the reader how his life has turned so gloomy since the death of his wife. This passage allows the reader to feel exactly how George has felt for the previous year.
there isn’t enough detail here. you say “the choice of words used by braddon” but don’t point out which words are depressing and sad. instead, you return to your paraphrase of the passage, which is very broad. check out some other close-readings to see what i’m looking for.