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Similes
Volume 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Blue, Green, and Opal:
As he sails back to England from Sydney, George Talboys looks over the side of the Argus and feels discontented with the view. Describing this, Braddon engages alliteration and situational irony to convey his discontentment and displeasure:
"How wearisome they are," he said; "blue and green, and opal; opal, and blue, and green; all very well in their way, of course, but three months of them are rather too much, especially—"
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Volume 1, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Superior to Himself:
In this section from Lady Audley's Secret, the author uses a simile and situational irony to describe Robert's unexpected display of capability when faced with the crisis of the “recent death of Helen Talboys”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[George] looked at him with a pitiful, bewildered expression. The big dragoon was as helpless as a baby; and Robert Audley, the most vacillating and unenergetic of men, found himself called upon to act for another. He rose superior to himself, and equal to the occasion.
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Volume 2, Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Bric-a-Brac:
Toward the end of the novel, Lady Audley is deeply uneasy amidst her many luxuries. This is because her enemies aren’t yet totally crushed. Her desire for revenge and loss of interest in the trappings of wealth is highlighted by her discomfort with her fancy possessions. These are briefly alluded to and then ironically dismissed as "bric-a-brac" in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+My lady shivered and looked round at the bright collection of bric-a-brac, as if the Sèvres and bronze, the buhl and ormolu, had been the moldering adornments of some ruined castle.
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Volume 3, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—George's Real Fate:
In the novel’s final chapter, readers learn about George Talboys's survival before Lucy finds out herself. The situational irony comes into full effect when, having learned all the facts, Robert Audley writes Lucy a letter finally informing her of the truth:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Robert Audley wrote a long letter that evening, addressed to Madame Taylor, care of Monsieur Val, Villebrumeuse; a long letter in which he told the wretched woman who had borne so many names, and was to bear a false one for the rest of her life, the story that the dying man had told him.
"It may be some comfort to her to hear that her husband did not perish in his youth by her wicked hand," he thought, "if her selfish soul can hold any sentiment of pity or sorrow for others.”
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