LIT204 - British Literature 2 - Buscemi

This assignment asks you to write a critical argument about Lady Audley's Secret with the help of outside sources. Professor Buscemi has provided some sources that you will use to develop your argument. You are also required to find other sources on the topic that will help you develop your understanding of the topic and your argument. You will use the Library's databases to find these other sources.

Below, I've listed the topic options that you have for this assignment, along with tips and links to search for your additional sources. If you are having trouble finding sources, let us know. Librarians are available to assist you (Monday-Thursday 8:00 am - 7:00 pm and Friday 8:00 am-4:00 pm). 

In order to find your sources, you will have to search in a Library database. I've provided links into some of our databases and some ideas for keywords to use. Be flexible and persistent when searching. If you're not finding what you need, change your keywords.

Option #1: In class we’ve talked a lot about women’s roles during the Victorian period and how women of the time—including even Queen Victoria—both fulfilled and challenged these roles. This topic asks you to draw on at least one of the excerpts I provided from The Women of England by Sarah Stickney Ellis and / or “Of Queen’s Gardens” by John Ruskin, plus at least one additional source found through your own research, in order to create an argument about the ways in which Lady Audley’s Secret is challenging or reinforcing traditional Victorian constructions of womanhood.

• Questions you might consider include: does Mary Elizabeth Braddon use her novel to call into question popular conceptions of what women should be like? If so, what specific qualities does she call into question, and how does she do this? Alternately, are there ways in which her novel reinforces the appropriateness of certain types of conventional behaviors for women?
• Thoughts to keep in mind: While you could examine various female characters within the novel, do not feel that you need to examine all of them—your argument could relate to only one of the female characters or to more than one. Do make sure, though, to go beyond simply showing us how different female characters do or don’t conform to Victorian norms. Instead, make sure to reflect on the conclusions that you believe the reader is supposed to be drawing from the depictions of these women. 

Option #2: We have also begun to discuss men’s proper roles during the Victorian period. The critic Ellen Bayuk Rosenman argues that Lady Audley’s transgressions serve the purpose of “mak[ing] a man” of Robert Audley according to Victorian standards regarding men’s proper roles. Using John Ruskin’s “Of Queen’s Gardens” (and possibly Sarah Stickney Ellis’s Women of England), plus at least one other source that you’ve found by doing your own research, create an argument weighing in on the question of whether or not Robert’s transformation in the novel does indeed “make a man” of him according to Victorian standards—and how it does or doesn’t do so.

• Questions you might consider include: What key changes occur throughout the novel in Robert’s actions and / or his interactions with others, and do they, or do they not, make it seem like he’s fulfilling his appropriate male role for the time? Are there ways that Robert’s behavior begins to conform more to what would be considered acceptable Victorian masculinity? Are there ways that it doesn’t?
• Thoughts to keep in mind: A key part of this response will be using your sources to establish what’s necessary for Robert—or any other Victorian gentleman—to be considered a “proper” man at the time and to then examine passages from the novel in light of this information in order to illustrate your argument. 

Option #3: It turns out that Lady Audley’s big secret—according to her at least—is that she is mad. Whether or not we’re supposed to buy this self-diagnosis, though, is an open question. This topic asks you to use the excerpt from Alfred Swaine Taylor’s Manual of Medical Jurisprudence that I have provided along with at least one other source that you’ve found through your own research to help you to make an argument about 1) whether or not Lady Audley really is mad according to Victorian standards and 2) why it matters that we conclude that she is or isn’t mad.

• Questions to consider include: Does Lady Audley’s madness allow Braddon to conveniently brush under the carpet any troublesome issues regarding marriage, money, class, or women’s roles in Victorian society that were brought up earlier in the novel? Or, on the flip side, if Lady Audley is not mad, what conclusions might this lead us to draw about Lady or Robert Audley as characters, or about their actions, or about the forces influencing them to act? Are there ways in which Lady Audley’s madness (or sanity) serve as a critique of larger social issues or social practices that come up in the novella?
• Thoughts to keep in mind: Please remember that for this essay topic, it is not enough to simply “diagnose” Lady Audley as mad or sane. You need to take your argument one step further and think about the function of this representation of possible madness.