\u201cA walk of three miles\u2019 length upon a lonely country road, between the hours of one and two on a cold winter\u2019s morning, is scarcely a pleasant task for a delicate woman\u2014a woman whose inclinations lean towards ease and luxury. But my lady hurried along the hard dry highway, dragging her companion with her as if she had been impelled by some horrible demonic force which knew no abatement. With the black night above them\u2014with the fierce wind howling round them, sweeping across a broad expanse of hidden country, blowing as if it had arisen simultaneously from every point of the compass, and making those wretched wanderers the focus of its ferocity\u201d (324).<\/p>\n
This passage takes place moments after Lady Audley sets the Castle Inn on fire and details the quick escape she makes with Phoebe Marks by her side. The passage contains both passive and active verbs. The frequent use of active verbs embodies the anxiety that Lady Audley feels fleeing from the scene of the crime she has just committed. Verbs such as \u201churried\u201d and \u201cdragged\u201d illustrate the panic that Lady Audley experienced at this moment. The diction of the passage is symbolic of the two-faced and deceitful nature of Lady Audley’s character. Lady Audley is viewed as a \u201cdelicate woman\u201d by most, but truly she is \u201cfierce\u201d, cunning, and dark, just like the \u201cblack night\u201d that surrounds her and Phoebe. The stormy night filled with darkness and \u201cfierce howling wind\u201d represents the sin that Lady Audley has just committed. Lady Audley and Phoebe move hurriedly away from Castle Inn as the storm grows stronger, adding to the rising suspense as time passes. The anger of the storm signifies the trouble that lies ahead for Lady Audley. In the final sentence of the passage, the narrator alludes to the spontaneous outbursts of Lady Audley\u2019s evil half by comparing it to the storm. She says the storm was blowing as if it had arisen \u201csimultaneously from every point of the compass\u201d. Just like Lady Audley\u2019s two-facedness, the storm appeared very rapidly and engulfed everything in its path. The storm inflicts anguish to those in its path with its ferocity, just like Lady Audley causes destruction to those who may impede her. The symbolism between the storm and Lady Audley\u2019s wickedness used in this passage serves to capture the evil side of Lady Audley that is alluded to throughout the novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cA walk of three miles\u2019 length upon a lonely country road, between the hours of one and two on a cold winter\u2019s morning, is scarcely a pleasant task for a delicate woman\u2014a woman whose inclinations lean towards ease and luxury. But my lady hurried along…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":886,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/guiltypleasures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}