Dustin Lee
Dr. Shafer
ENG 3850
April 29, 2015

Lady Audley’s Secret Lady Audley’s Secret is a sensation fiction novel that also has a play. The novel was published in 1862 and written by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, while the the play came out soon after. The novel begins with the sensation element of marriage and displays many other elements throughout the novel. The play, Lady Audley’s Secret, on the other hand leaves out many characters such as Clara Talboys, Mr. Talboys, Little George, and others because plays have a time constraint so they don’t lose the audiences interest and it also allows the audience to put their focus on the main issue and element at hand which is Lady Audley’s madness. In the novel readers see many elements, elements such as murder, adultery, bigamy, madness, emotions, poverty, marriage, public appeal, family life, mystery, violence, blackmail, arson, and tons of suspenseful action. On the other hand the play does not include all of these elements. The big elements like romance and marriage are almost excluded from the play totally which is a bit different because the readers of the novel are used to seeing these elements having read the novel. The difference in elements composed in the play compared to the novel helps the audience really focus on what element is being magnified and looked at deeply. That element is madness and insanity which Lady Audley holds. Madness in the 19th century and Victorian era was a big and very interesting topic, especially if it was a woman whom was mad. Madness in the 19th century was a social issue and many feared the mentally-ill because of their unpredictability. People of madness typically lashed out at any moments notice and they were usually violent. Also at this time came the introduction of mental institutions and asylums to hold and confine the unstable people. Having these institutions built was raised many questions and fears. The possibility of locking up a sane person was a fear that some people had at that time. In the Victorian era there were many reports left by the Victorian doctors of female madness. These doctors had left behind journals, reports, and books of cases of female mental illnesses. The growing the relation of madness and women started to combine the two into an element or theme and the general public loved seeing and reading about cases like this even if they were fiction because it got them on the edges of their seats and stimulated sensations within the reader. The situation of a female going mad and being unpredictable is a very scary situation but it is also thrilling to the audience and will make novels and plays sell out. Clara Talboys is a pretty important character in the novel. “His cousin was pretty, his uncle’s wife was lovely, but Clara Talboys was beautiful” (Braddon 222). The novel continued on to describe her face to a woman in Greek Mythology. “He was jealous of anybody and everybody who came into the region inhabited by those calm brown eyes; jealous of a fat widower of eight-and forty” (Braddon 437). The two eventually get married at the end of the novel which along with the two quotes creates the romantic and marriage elements because Robert mentions his love for her beauty. The play doesn’t compose any of these scenes or the character of Clara Talboys. The end of the play doesn’t have marriage like the novel Lady Audley’s Secret or like any of the other gothic and sensation novels usually do. Another aspect of the novel that audience gets to see in the play that is different than the novel is the romance that Lady Audley creates. In the novel the reader gets the narrators take on Lady Audley’s romantic beauty that creates sympathy by the reader for her. She seems so charming and innocent in the novel but in the play you quickly get to hear her thoughts and how dark and mad she really is which creates less sympathy for her in the play. “He lives! George Talboys lives! more, he is here in the village, not a mile from hence! Is then the present but a dream, and is he come to drag me back into the hideous past?” (Braddon Act 1 Scene 3 pg.31). Knowing her thoughts and seeing how she works her persuasiveness changes the readers sympathy for her like her or she might of had while reading the novel because you get to see that she is truly mad. Plays can also not be hours and hours long because the audience will most likely grow tired and lose interest causing them to leave the play. So another aspect of the differences that are seen in the play compared to the novel is because of the time constraint that plays have. Elements are going to be left out and along with that characters will also be left out because they aren’t quite important enough or take part in the most important element that is being displayed. Little George, Mr. Talboys, Clara Talboys were left out of the play because they didn’t contribute or help put the lime light on the central element or issue that was displayed in the play and that was madness. Having left these characters in would’ve lengthened the time of the play causing the audience to not only take their focus off the main issue, Lady Audley’s madness, but it would’ve made the play boring and less interesting to the audience.

Works Cited Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Lady Audley’s Secret. Canada: Broadview Press Ltd 2003. Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Roberts, George. Lady Audley’s Secret: A Drama in Two Acts. Canada: Broadview Press Ltd 2013.