“We hear every day of murders committed in the country. Brutal and treacherous murders; slow, protracted agonies from poisons administered by some kindred hand; sudden and violent deaths by cruel blows, inflicted with a stake cut from some spreading oak, whose very shadow promised – peace. In the county of which I write, I have been shown a meadow in which, on a quiet summer Sunday evening, a young farmer murdered the girl who had loved and trusted him; and yet even now, with the stain of that foul deed upon it, the aspect of the spot is – peace. No crime has ever been committed in the worst rookeries about Seven Dials that has not been also done in the face of that sweet calm which still, in spite of all, we look on with a tender, half-mournful yearning, and associate with – peace.”
- Lady Audley’s Secret, Pg. 54
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| The Tranquil English Countryside |
In a blatant act of foreshadowing, Mary Elizabeth Braddon expounds upon the occurrence of gruesome murders in the most unlikely of settings. Although, by this point in the novel, George has not yet disappeared and Robert yet has no reason to suspect Lady Audley of duplicity, Braddon suggest to the minds of her readers the idea that even scenes of the upmost tranquility can hide “heinous desires and deeds” (Brantlinger 3). In order to emphasize the duplicity and deception often enshrouded in an appearance of tranquility, Braddon juxtaposes beautiful descriptions of nature with vivid descriptions of the violent nature of man. The peaceful oak is contrasted with “sudden and violent deaths by cruel blows” while a meadow on a “quiet summer Sunday” witnesses the betrayal of a young woman by the man she loved and trusted. The side-by-side conjunction of these images produces a jarring sensation on the mental senses of the reader. This harsh contrast between chaos and peace is further perpetuated in the syntax of the given passage. The sentences describing the crimes of man are long, drawn-out, and chaotic. These overly verbose sentences, however, end every time with just one word: “peace.” This word is set apart from the rest of the sentence, causing the reader to pause before reading it. In this manner, Braddon creates a clear distinction between the emotions of confusion/chaos and that of peace. However, Braddon incorporates both emotions into the same sentence, just as she juxtaposes images of violence with those of beauty. In this manner, Braddon suggests to the reader that despite their seemingly contradictory nature, peace and violence are not mutually exclusive of one another.