In this segment of Lady Audley's Secret, the narrative uses hyperbolic language and dramatic irony to talk about Lady Audley's beauty and how it has made her selfish and self-obsessed:
Did she remember the day in which that fairy dower of beauty had first taught her to be selfish and cruel, indifferent to the joys and sorrows of others, cold-hearted and capricious, greedy of admiration, exacting and tyrannical with that petty woman's tyranny which is the worst of despotism?
The phrase "worst of despotism" is an example of hyperbole because it’s an amplification of Lucy’s situations beyond a degree that’s reasonable. By saying Lady Audley is behaving like a “despot”(which means a ruler with total power who can be cruel and selfish) Braddon emphasizes the idea that the access and ease her beauty has provided her with have ultimately corrupted her.
The irony here is that, while readers know Lady Audley has a deceptive and even malicious side, most characters in the novel only see her as gentle and pretty. This difference between what readers know and what other characters see highlights how dangerous her charm can be. While beauty is usually seen as a good thing, for Lucy it functions mainly as a cover for her true, self-interested intentions. Because her beauty has won her so much praise and so many allowances, she can be “greedy of admiration” and “tyrannical.” The narrator wonders if she can remember a time before she was beautiful, or if she can understand that her beauty is not a positive force on her personality.
