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論文‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’ :Disability and Technology in Lady Audley ’ s Secret
Chihiro Goto（Gakushuin University）
Introduction
This essay explores the representation of disability in Mary Elizabeth
Braddon ’ s novel Lady Audley ’ s Secret (Lady hereafter) (1862). As one of thefounding authors of sensation fiction genre, along with Wilkie Collins, both
her works and aspects of her biography have gained the attention ofresearchers over the past two decades. Lady has been regarded as Braddon ’ s‘ canonical ’ work (Tromp et al., ‘ Introduction ’ xxiv). The novel has often
been discussed in terms of feminism since Elaine Showalter, in her groundbreaking study of Victorian women writers, reassessed Lady as being ‘ certainly
equal to the work of Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade ’ (Literature 135). The
novel has also attracted scholars from the field of disability studies, adevelopment that has encouraged a re-evaluation of Victorian literature in
general and sensation fiction in particular.
Braddon seems to have transformed Jane Eyre and ‘ madwoman ’ , Bertha
Mason, into the heroine Lucy (Lady Audley). Bertha ‘ destroys herself ’ in theend as the ‘ criminal self ’ of Jane (Gilbert and Gubar 360, italics original)
because Jane ‘ must escape through deliberation rather than through madness ’from Edward Rochester ’ s patriarchal mastery (363). The two-faced Lucy has
been considered to indicate that Jane and Bertha are inseparable aspects of
one woman. Showalter has famously contended that ‘ Lady Audley ’ s realsecret is that she is sane ’ (Literature 137), an argument followed by manyscholars. For example, Lyn Pykett considers Lucy ’ s hereditary insanity or/『ヴィクトリア朝文化研究』第 20 号（ 2022 年）

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Chihiro Gotoand moral insanity as a metaphor used to portray resistance to ‘ themanagement and control of the middle-class family ’ and the internalised‘ self-regulation ... of those broader social forms of control ’ imposed uponthe (anti-)heroine (The ‘ Improper ’ 95).
Nolan Boyd, however, regards Lucy ’ s insanity as a mental disability. Thisview takes into account recent research on sensation fiction from a disabilitystudies perspective that suggests that sensation novelists ‘ avoid representing adisabled character as desiring or receiving physical therapy or surgery tolessen or eradicate a disability ’ and portray disability ‘ as an acceptable oreven positive difference ’ (Logan 17). Boyd argues that the novel suggests that
it is more natural for insanity to be a part of humans than is generally
thought and that it may thus be ‘ ineluctable ’ and ‘ desirable ’ for society toadopt disability (421).
This essay develops Boyd ’ s argument, which treats Lucy ’ s insanity as adisability. It also applies what Kate Flint calls a ‘ compensatory mechanism ’(156). In her study of literary disability in Collins ’ s work, Flint uses thisterm to describe the method often used by Collins whereby ‘ those who
suffer from problems with one of the major sensory organs ’ develop otheradvanced abilities (156). It can be argued that the disabled Lucy develops
technological literacy as a compensatory mechanism if the time in which thenovel is set is taken into account: the time of a rapidly industrialising,increasingly recognisably modern society. Lucy ’ s technological literacy refers
to her ability to use the railways and other technologies efficiently.
This essay argues that Lady attempts to question the characterisation of the‘ madwoman ’ represented by Bertha and depict women who had disabilities
and/or diseases as being socially disadvantaged over men who had disabilities
and/or diseases in mid-Victorian society. The first section analyses Lucy ’ sanxieties about insanity that cause her to develop technological literacy andexamines how this technological literacy enables her to conceal her insanity
and resist men who try to expose her disability. The second section discusses
how Lucy ’ s technological literacy is also depicted to influence Robert‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’115

Audley ’ s use of technology and prompt the alleged ‘ monomania ’ and how
this undermines Robert ’ s characterisation as a hero. The third section
explores how the seemingly conservative ending, wherein Lucy suffers thesame end as that of most ‘ madwomen ’ in Victorian novels, suggests Lucy ’ sindelible influence over the social order and gender dynamics of the society.
This essay distinguishes between ‘ impairment ’ and ‘ disability ’ ; the former
refers to ‘ a medically classified biophysiological condition ’ , whereas thelatter ‘ denotes the social disadvantage experienced by people with anaccredited impairment ’ (Barnes and Mercer 11). This essay avoids using theterm ‘ people with disability ’ , which ‘ implies that impairment defines anindividual ’ s identity ’ and instead uses ‘ disabled people ’ (11) to connote thatthose who have impairments are rendered powerless by society. Additionally,
this essay uses the term ‘ non-disabled ’ rather than ‘ able-bodied ’ to refer tocharacters with no marked disability to emphasise that they are merely seen
as not deviating from a ‘ healthy ’ or ‘ normal ’ standard.

1．Lucy ’s Insanity and Her Technological Literacy
Showalter argues that women sensation novelists, including Braddon, ‘ saw
themselves as daughters of Charlotte Brontë rather than George Eliot ’(Literature 127). This is borne out by the overlap between the characters of
Lucy and Bertha. Just as Bertha sets fire to Thornfield Hall, Lucy sets an inn
ablaze with the aim of killing her nemesis, Robert. In the context ofVictorian medical and socio-cultural discourse, female insanity was likened to‘ smouldering fires ’ (Mangham 44). Moreover, it was believed at the time thatwomen diagnosed as insane were prone to arson (Logan 196).1 Victorianreaders viewed Lucy as a ‘ madwoman ’ because of her association with fire,and she reminds readers of Bertha, the most famous ‘ madwoman ’ inVictorian literature.
Another similarity with Bertha is evident in Lucy ’ s characterisation as
being sexually attractive to men; for example, George Talboys thinks ‘ she wassomething too beautiful for earth, or earthly uses ’ (54), Sir Michael Audley

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‘ could no more resist the tender fascination of those soft and melting blueeyes ’ (12), and Robert thinks, ‘ She ’ s the prettiest little creature you ever saw
in your life.... I am falling in love with my aunt ’ (53). While the fire imagery
associated with Lucy and Bertha does not contradict the literary tradition,
their marriage challenges it. Disabled characters in Western literature often
served as a ‘ narrative prosthesis ’ : as ‘ a stock feature of characterization ’ and ‘ anopportunistic metaphorical device ’ (Mitchell and Snyder 47, italics original).
Heidi Logan posits that disabled characters in mainstream Victorian works
tend to be depicted ‘ as lonely, of limited effectiveness, and separated fromthe ordinary milestones experienced ’ by non-disabled characters (13). Having
disability was therefore considered incompatible with being sexuallyattractive. By using the traits of fire and sexual attractiveness, Lady allows its
readers to see Lucy ’ s character is modelled on Bertha ’ s.
Lucy is seemingly portrayed as a response to Bertha ’ s character and her
portrayal as an excessively angelic woman is thus problematic. Lucy is
depicted as having ‘ blue eyes ’ (12),2 ‘ fair hair ’ (13), a ‘ fragile figure ’ (50),‘ childishness ’ (50), and ‘ innocence ’ (50), and it is indicated that her‘ accomplishments were so brilliant and numerous ’ (11). Madeleine C. Seys
states that Lucy consistently ‘ manipulates the social mechanisms which
would construct her as an ideal and angelic heroine in order to practice her
deception ’ . It seems clear, then, that Lucy ’ s physical features and her
feminine accomplishments enable her to negate the image of a ‘ violent andhideous ’ (Showalter, The Female 66) ‘ madwoman ’ of the type represented by
Bertha after her imprisonment. Lucy appears to meet the standards of the‘ ideal ’ wife of the time to such an extent that she can present herself to be as
eligible as the wife of the noble gentleman, Michael.
While the portrayal of the disabled Lucy as an ideal woman is unusual but
significant, the novel suggests that femininity alone is not enough tocompletely mask her disability in a patriarchal, ableist society where genderinequality is a given. This is because patriarchal force, in the form of themale characters George and Robert, actively seeks to expose Lucy ’ s disability.

‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’117

The novel therefore provides Lucy with a feature to fend off the efforts ofthese men; she becomes technologically literate. This section first analyses
Lucy ’ s fear of insanity, which is a factor in the development of hertechnological literacy. Then, it argues that Lucy ’ s technological literacy
allows her to hide her insanity and resist the men who try to disclose her
secret.
Her efforts to conceal her insanity are motivated by her desire to avoid afuture in which her personality is stigmatised and she is sent to an asylum on
account of her disability. Lucy thinks, ‘ I was to keep the secret of mymother ’ s madness; for it was a secret that might affect me injuriously inafter-life ’ (298). She is aware of the necessity to keep her insanity hidden for
self-protection as it was a requirement in the Victorian era to identify
disabilities in order to select individuals who deserved welfare and to exclude
disabled persons from reproductive activities. According to the OED, theterm ‘ disabled ’ came into common use to describe people with impairmentsof one kind or another in the second half of the twentieth century( ‘ Disabled, adjI.2 ’ ). By the nineteenth century, however, industrial
development, legislation, and medicalisation of disability had led to thecreation of a social category that comprised people with a physical and/or
mental state that deviated from the norm.3 This phenomenon put disabled
people on a lower rung on the social ladder. Amid this, there was a belief
that ‘ physical illness and impairment ’ were heritable (Stoddard Holmes 7).
Hence, disabled people were and have been considered unsuitable to be theprogenitors of their own families (Matsunami 53).4 During the Victorianperiod, impairment was treated as a disability and it had to be made public
for the non-disabled to exercise control over abnormality and the disabled.
As Logan argues, Lucy ‘ has a fairly good grasp of the aetiology of forms of
madness ’ (194). Lucy ’ s efforts to conceal her insanity depict her awareness of
how mental impairment would make her more easily disabled. It was believedthat ‘ women were more vulnerable to insanity than men because theinstability of their reproductive systems interfered with their sexual,

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emotional, and rational control ’ (Showalter, The Female 55). As if to provethe validity of that idea, ‘ the mid-nineteenth century is the period when the
predominance of women among the institutionalized insane first becomes astatistically verifiable phenomenon ’ (52), though it is questionable how
many diagnoses were valid.5 Women who had physical and/or mental
impairments were often prohibited from reproductive activities and excluded
from the world of typical ‘ femininity ’ (Garland-Thomson 17). Consequently,
disabled women were deprived of the only avenue for women belonging to
the middle-class and above to gain economic security — marriage. For Lucy,
public knowledge of her insanity would have meant either confinement in an
asylum or living in poverty as a single person. The attempt to hide her
mental impairment is therefore a natural concern.
Lucy gets married twice with the aim of hiding her insanity: first to George
and, then to Michael. The novel describes Lucy ’ s strong desire to marry awealthy man to avoid poverty, which she believes stimulates the onset of her
latent insanity. Lucy confesses, ‘ I knew how far poverty can affect a life, andI looked forward with a sick terror to a life so affected ’ (299). She firstsucceeds in marrying George, an upper-middle class gentleman, thus staving
off the risk of falling into destitution. Her married status creates anotherperceived risk, however, when she becomes pregnant; it was widely believedthat pregnancy and childbirth were closely related to insanity. This line ofthinking led to the subcategory of ‘ maternal insanity ’ , which was believed tobe ‘ occasioned by becoming a mother ’ and inherited ‘ from the mother(insanity transmitted through the maternal line) ’ (Matus 189). In Lucy ’ s
mind, her pregnancy puts her at great risk given that she was told that her
mother ’ s ‘ madness was an［sic］hereditary disease transmitted to her fromher mother, who had died mad ’ (298), and that she ‘ had been, or had
appeared, sane up to the hour of my［Lucy ’ s］birth; but from that hour her
intellect had decayed ’ (298). Hence, Lucy was horrified when her ‘ mind first
lost its balance, and for the first time ...［she］crossed that invisible line
which separates reason from madness ’ (301) after giving birth in poverty.

‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’

119Abandoned by George, who shows no sign of reappearing and whom Lucy
presumes dead, she is compelled to find a wealthy man to provide her withfinancial security.
Thus, Lucy marries Michael in order to prevent the onset of insanity
caused by childbirth and poverty. It is important to note that her marriage to
Michael is not about producing an heir, as he has an heiress and is looking
for spiritual fulfilment in his second marriage to Lucy. She is thus not
required to bear children. In other words, Lucy does not have to worry about
the manifestation of insanity brought about by childbearing. Boyd
persuasively argues, ‘ this new, bigamous relationship deviates from the linear
reproductive script ’ (412). This deviation is, however, what makes Lucy ’ smarriage to Michael possible. As long as she remains married to Michael,
Lucy is able to control the onset of her insanity. Even so, Robert and George,as patriarchal forces, attempt to reveal her insanity and disable her despite her‘ perfect ’ wife behaviour.
To oppose these threats to her second marriage, Lucy develops technologicalliteracy. She can hide her disability well because she not only uses technology
but also understands the nature of technology. Well aware of the newspaper ’ s
wide circulation and its public credibility, Lucy places a fake obituary forherself just as George is returning home, thus successfully convincing him ofher death. On another occasion, she takes advantage of the anonymity that atelegraph ’ s sender can maintain, making up a reason for going out andarranging not to see George again. In another example, when Robert tries to
uncover her identity, her mastery of the speed and timetable of the railway
allows her to carry off evidence of her past identity in the space of a few
hours. Louise Lee cites the absence of a single description of her checking
the timetable as evidence of Lucy ’ s high level of technological literacy (135).
Robert is unsure why Lucy takes the train to London and says, ‘ Has she
baffled me by some piece of womanly jugglery? Am I never to get any nearer
to the truth; but am I to be tormented all my life by vague doubts, andwretched suspicions ’ (127). In these words, one can read that Lucy ’ s

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technological literacy overwhelms him. Through these attempts, Lucy
manages to conceal her bigamy and insanity.
These efforts are successful also because only Lucy possesses technologicalliteracy in the novel. This is because the novel depicts two types of society.
The ‘ JOURNAL’ (90) Robert keeps as part of his detective work reveals thatthe events take place over several years in the late 1850s. Industrial modernity
in the 1860s was represented by ‘ the response to new technologies ’ (Daly,
Literature 5), such as the railways, telegraphs, and media. The late 1850s wastherefore a period of parallelism and conflict between the still largely extant
pre-modern way of life and a more modern society that was taking shapewith the technological and industrial developments. Pykett contends that
sensation fiction is ‘ The product of a machine age ’ ( ‘ Introduction ’ , xxv).
Indeed, Braddon seems to have been attentive to the social changes broughton by modern industrial technology and changes in the daily habits of theVictorians. The novel was published in 1862, but the events that unfold in
the novel may have deliberately been set in the late 1850s.
The novel employs clocks to illustrate the characters ’ degree of adaptation
to the modernisation around them. This trope is adopted against a backdropof social changes that accompanied the railways; the railways were bringing‘ standardized time ’ , with the same timetable serving all areas (Schivelbusch43). Train departure times are given in minutes in the novel, such as ‘ the12.40 train ’ (125) and ‘ the train will start in two minutes ’ (127). Lucy ’ sclock has ‘ the minute hand ’ (267). This clock demonstrates her familiarity
with modern society and suggests that she is accustomed to using therailways. At Audley Court, however, ‘ there was an old ... clock-tower, with astupid, bewildering clock, which had only one hand; and which jumped
straight from one hour to the next, and was therefore always in extremes ’ (7).
This one-handed clock signifies that the master of the household, Michael,occupies ‘ a pre-modern world free from specificity of times ’ (Seltzer 49).
George, who does not have a clock, also appears to belong to the same
society. In contrast, Robert looks at his watch and is ‘ surprised to find that it‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’121

was a quarter past four ’ (73). This signifies that he possesses a two-handed
watch as Lucy does but his sense of time is not in line with the precise
timekeeping of modern society. He is in the middle of his transition tomodern society, which will be discussed in the next section. The malecharacters who belong to pre-modern society and lack technological literacy
are obviously unable to cope with the actions taken by Lucy. The novel
places only the heroine in a modernised lifestyle and endows her withtechnological literacy, thereby enabling her to keep her disability a secret.
Lucy ’ s technological literacy, a product of a compensatory mechanism, is
so advanced that she can almost hide her use of technology from the othercharacters. Ultimately, she masks her disability by concealing her use andliteracy of technology. Andrew F. Humphries insightfully suggests, ‘ The
speed with which Lucy manipulates the railway and telegraph connection isevidence of how the modern transport system has become integrated into her
strategic instincts ’ (61). Admittedly, her technological literacy and disability
are closely linked; in other words, uncovering her use of technology is
synonymous with uncovering her disabled identity. Lucy therefore concealsthat she employs the newspaper or the telegraph and she only lets Robertknow that she uses the railways. The narrator explains, ‘ so complete was thedominion which Lady Audley had ... obtained over her devoted husband,that it was very rarely that the baronet ’ s eyes were long removed from his
wife ’ s pretty face ’ (52). Even Michael, who pays almost uninterrupted
attention to Lucy, is unaware of her use of technology. These events illustrate
Lucy ’ s high level of technological literacy.
Elizabeth Langland points out ‘ the homology ... between country houseand madhouse ’ (12). At Audley Court, Lucy is always watched. In addition
to Michael ’ s constant looking at Lucy, Robert also ‘ amused himself bywatching her ... white hands ’ (79). Their observations of her body appear toallude to Audley Court as an asylum and Lucy as a female patient there, a‘ madwoman ’ . Yet, Lucy is able to exploit the technology under the watchfuleye of the male characters and even to conceal the traces of its use and her

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insanity. It can be argued that Lucy is characterised as an unprecedented‘ madwoman ’ who uses technological literacy to counter the patriarchal forcesthat seek to expose her disability.

2．Lucy ’s Technological Literacy and Robert ’s ‘ Monomania ’There is no doubt that Robert is the hero of the novel because he is an
example of what John Kucich calls ‘ cultural intellectuals ’ such as ‘ drawing
masters, writers, actresses, amateur painters and philosophers ’ (81). This new
type of gentleman appears in the form of various protagonists in works by
Collins and other writers of sensation fiction. Despite his principal
profession as a barrister, his preference for ‘ German pipe ’ and ‘ Frenchnovels ’ (33) presents Robert as an example of such a protagonist. It istherefore not surprising that he is given a heroic role in exposing Lucy ’ s
insanity and criminal behaviours. Lady suggests, however, that Robert may besuffering from a mental vulnerability, ‘ monomania ’ . His ‘ monomania ’provides a new perspective on the characterisation of Lucy as a ‘ madwoman ’because it is related to Lucy ’ s technological literacy, a relationship thatquestions his heroism. Section 1 has discussed how the heroine ’ stechnological literacy, as one means of resistance, conceals her insanity fromthe men. Section 2 examines how, as another means of resistance afforded toher, her technological literacy undermines Robert ’ s characterisation as a heroby triggering his use of technology and his ‘ monomania ’.
Several scholars have discussed the relationship between Robert andtechnology; for example, one reading points to the overlap between Robert ’ sprocess of developing into a respectable gentleman (hero) and his acquisitionof technological literacy (Martin 135; Humphries 62). Robert, like similar
characters in other sensation-fiction works, can be physically characterised asless than fully masculine in the traditional sense, with various feminine
characteristics. Descriptions of Robert often include terms such as ‘ wornout ’ (86), ‘ wearily ’ (134), and ‘ fatigue ’ (209). These are in contrast to theportrayals of Michael as displaying ‘ rugged masculinity ’ (Martin 138); he is‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’123‘ a big man, tall and stout, with a deep sonorous voice ... and one of thehardest riders in the county ’ (10). It is, however, interesting to note that their
physical conditions are reversed later in the novel. Robert takes the train to
investigate outside Audley Court on behalf of Michael who is ‘ lying weak
and ill ’ (197) in bed. Robert ’ s mastery of technology transforms him from a‘ lazy, care-for-nothing ’ man (32) into ‘ a rising man upon the home circuitby this time, and［a man who］has distinguished himself ’ (378).
Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that Robert ’ s process of becominga ‘ monomaniac ’ is related to his acquisition of technological literacy. The
OED defines the term ‘ monomania ’ as ‘ A form of mental illness ’ in a
psychiatric context, and otherwise ‘ In extended use: an exaggerated or
fanatical enthusiasm for or devotion to one subject; an obsession, a craze ’( ‘ Monomania, n1.2 ’ ). The decisive cause of his ‘ monomania ’ is not madeclear in the novel. When Lucy asks Alicia if she feels Robert is ‘ eccentric ’(237), Alicia answers, ‘ I suppose he was generally thought a little eccentric ’(237) and ‘ I believe Robert inherits all his absurdities from his father ’ (237).
In this scene, the novel implies that Robert, like Lucy, may have inheritedsome kind of mental vulnerability from his father. Meanwhile, it must be
added that he describes himself as being burdened with ‘ monomania ’ (217)several times and that symptoms of Robert ’ s proclivity for ‘ monomania ’ areevident in his obsession with finding out Lucy ’ s past identity. The novel
hints that his monomaniacal behaviour may have been brought on by his
repeated use of technology, particularly the railways, during his inquiries into
Lucy ’ s identity. Concern about the possibility of physical and psychologicaldamage caused by rail travel was widespread at the time. In one example, thenerves were thought to be disturbed by ［‘ t］he rapid series of jolts
experienced ’ when riding a train (Daly, Literature 43). In the novel, Robert ’ s
use of technology is linked to his ‘ monomania ’.
Prior to meeting Lucy, Robert had lived a life unconnected to technology
and did not have monomaniacal symptoms. The narrator repeatedly uses
similar words to describe his character; ‘ The idea of turning his cousin ’ s124Chihiro Goto

girlish liking for him to some good account never entered his idle brain ’ (33)and ‘ these documents ... elicited neither vexation nor astonishment in thelymphatic nature of that gentleman ’ (34). These expressions denote a lack ofany sort of obsession. His character is manifested in his habit ofprocrastinating, whether intentionally or unintentionally. During his timewith George, Robert keeps rescheduling. Victorians were forced to bepunctual to ensure that they could catch the train (Daly, Literature 46).
Hence, his habit is incompatible with a railway that operates according to a
precise timetable, which shows how technology-free his life initially was. Lee
analyses that his first characterisation is expressed in terms of ‘ slowness ’(136). Robert is incapable of keeping up with Lucy, who is shown to movewith relative fleetness, and of acting in accordance with the timetable; things
do not go as he plans. At this stage, he is not concerned about Lucy ’ sidentity.
Lucy ’ s technological literacy seems to trigger Robert ’ s use of the railways.
As noted in the previous section, Robert has a two-handed clock. While thissetting suggests his heroism in catching up with Lucy ’ s abilities, it also
implies a disturbing future in which he is induced by Lucy to use technology.
On a visit to Lucy ’ s father after George ’ s disappearance, Robert notices thather father has received a telegraph from someone (Lucy). This leads him to
deduce that George ’ s disappearance is suspicious, and he begins to use
technology extensively in his investigation. When he finds out that Lucywent on the train, he too rushes to get on the train. He also travels without abreak to Audley Place, London, Southampton, Portsmouth, Liverpool,
Dorsetshire, and Yorkshire to gather information about Lucy. Therefore,
Lucy ’ s struggle provokes Robert ’ s use of technology.
It is worth noting that Lucy ’ s technological literacy prompts Robert ’ s‘ monomania ’ before her secrets are revealed by him. Robert ’ s monomaniacal
symptoms begin with the ‘ railway fatigue ’ (Martin 133) that he feels on his
rail journeys in the initial phase of the investigation. He ‘ was worn out by along day spent in hurrying from place to place.... His mind was beginning to‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’125grow confused upon the point of time ’ (86). Robert ’ s dream about the grave
at Ventnor shortly after this scene indicates that his obsession with Lucy ’ sidentity had already begun. Robert no longer feels the railway fatigue as hebecomes more familiar with train travel in his detective work. Beth Seltzer
contends that Lady demonstrates ‘ the incompatibility of the timetable withhuman physicality ’ (55). She sharply points out that the novel implies that
Lucy and Robert, who ride the train without feeling railway fatigue, do nothave non-disabled bodies. Robert is driven by anxiety during the course of
his investigations: ‘ Why did that unaccountable terror seize upon me?.... Was
it a monition, or a monomania?.... What if this edifice of horror andsuspicion is ... the nervous fancies of a hypochondriacal bachelor? ’ (217).
This line is significant as it shows that Robert is aware of his mental defect.
Lucy is also sensitive to the possibility that she might be triggering theonset of Robert ’ s ‘ monomania ’ and tries to disclose it by saying, ‘ do you
select me as the victim of your monomania? ’ (227). Robert wants to hide his
mental defect because it makes his non-disability questionable. Robert isanxious and thinks, ‘ The mask that she wears is not to be plucked away. My
uncle would rather think me mad than believe her guilty ’ (234) and ‘ She
would be capable of using her influence with my uncle to place me in a
mad-house ’ (233). Robert is overwhelmed by Lucy ’ s influence, who can‘ make ’ him into a hospital patient. In order to prevent her plot, Robert tells
himself, ‘ It remains for me to discover the darker half of my lady ’ s secret ’(217). These words imply Robert ’ s recognition that he needs to hide his
mental vulnerability by exposing Lucy ’ s insanity and posing as a respectable,
non-disabled gentleman. This is investigated in the next section.
On the one hand, Robert ’ s relationship with technology could beinterpreted as indicative of his development as a hero. On the other hand,
the influence of Lucy ’ s technological literacy on Robert reveals thattechnology actually causes his mental defect. The scene of confrontation
between the two is crucial in that Lucy makes Robert fear that his‘ monomania ’ might be exposed. Lucy tries to prevent her insanity from126

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being revealed by Robert by questioning his role as a hero and weakening his
patriarchal power.

3．The Confinement of Lucy and Closure of Audley Court
Despite her attempts using technological literacy, Lucy eventually ends up
living in an asylum. Lady does not, however, leave the disabled heroine
powerless against the men. This section first discusses that an indictment of
how socially vulnerable disabled women were in mid-Victorian society can beread in the process of Robert imprisoning Lucy and hiding his ‘ monomania ’.
This section also explores the novel ’ s suggestion of Lucy ’ s indelible
influence over the social order and gender dynamics within the framework of
the conventional and conservative ending, which Bertha and other‘ madwomen ’ could not escape.
Robert relies on a doctor to disclose Lucy ’ s insanity and to conceal his
mental defect, a method not employed by Lucy. It is not uncommon formale characters in sensation fiction to call in doctors to diagnose women as‘ mad ’ because doctors were expected to be custodians of women ’ s bodies in
the mid-nineteenth century (Murayama 240-41). It is noteworthy, however,that the doctor initially thinks Robert is his disabled patient: ‘ He is
wondering whether I am the patient, ... and is looking for the diagnoses ofmadness in my face ’ (319). Robert thus directs the doctor to examine Lucy
to divert the doctor ’ s attention away from himself. The doctor initiallydiagnoses that ‘ there is no evidence of madness ’ in Lucy (321). Yet, he makes
the second diagnosis that ‘ There is latent insanity! ’ (323) shortly after he isinformed by Robert of her bigamy and other transgressions. Robert tries to
get the doctor to treat Lucy as a ‘ madwoman ’ in order to hide his mental
vulnerability. Showalter argues, ‘ The psychiatrist ’ s role would no longer be
to provide an example of kindness, but rather one of manliness, maturity,
and responsibility ’ (The Female 120). Robert puts himself in the position of
examining her through the eyes of the doctor, thereby emphasising his
identity as a non-disabled gentleman.

‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’127

More interestingly, Lady does not present the Victorian discourse on
disability as consisting of a simple male versus female dichotomy. In apatriarchal society, female characters also work in Robert ’ s favour. Robert ismore often assisted by female characters than by male characters in his
pursuit of Lucy ’ s secret. To illustrate, Alicia allows Robert and George toenter Lucy ’ s room through a secret means despite Lucy having locked theroom from the outside. This episode triggers the disappearance of George
and Robert ’ s investigation into Lucy ’ s past. Clara Talboys also persuades
Robert to return to the detective work when he gives up looking for her
brother George. In another example, Lucy ’ s maid Phoebe Marks tells her
husband that Lucy secretly holds her son ’ s shoes, which ultimately leads
Robert to discover her crimes. Tara Macdonald examines that women who
were excluded from the market economy in Victorian society turned to theexchange of gossip as an alternative economic activity that ‘ could prove vitalto social status, community regulation, and the marriage market ’ (181). These
female characters benefit by gossiping about Lucy to the men; that is, theyshow themselves to be submissive and trustworthy towards the men. Each ofthese women has their personal reasons for gossiping, but their hostile
attitudes towards Lucy signify a conservative attitude that endorses patriarchal
values. These women ’ s assistance enables Robert to behave as the hero who
uncovers Lucy ’ s insanity and ultimately masks his ‘ monomania ’.
Daniel Martin points out that Lucy ’ s impressive and rather daunting
ability to use technology and ‘ her transgressive mobility ’ are simply regarded
as a consequence of her insanity, undermining her advantage over the malecharacters (148). Yet, this perceived connection between Lucy ’ s insanity andher use of technology presents a challenge to Robert; he wants to conceal his
use of railways and such technologies to prevent his ‘ monomania ’ frombeing made public. Robert, therefore, wants to hide both Lucy ’ s use oftechnology and her technological literacy, as exposing them would reveal his
use of the railways to unearth Lucy ’ s secret employment of technology. This
desire leads him to place her in an asylum. More importantly, it is not just

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any asylum but a maison de santé in Belgium to which Lucy is sent; thisasylum is described as being ‘ out of the track of all railway traffic, and as
only approachable by diligence ’ (325). Lucy loses her connection to themodern industrial technology by being placed in such a facility and thereby
loses one of her main advantages over the patriarchal framework that seeks tostigmatise and control her. Her comment in the maison de santé on the passageof time there clearly indicates her anger and despair at having been made intoa mere ‘ madwoman ’ with no capacity to utilize her technological literacy:‘ How slow the time is.... how slow, how slow! Shall I grow old like this, I
wonder, with every minute of my life seeming like an hour? ’ (285).
After sending Lucy to the asylum, Robert strives to distance himself fromboth technology and mental vulnerability. In order to put all traces of his
extensive use of technology behind him, Robert moves to ‘ a fairy cottage ...
where, amid a little forest of foliage, there is a fantastical dwelling place ofrustic woodwork, whose latticed windows look out upon the river ’ (378). His
cottage seems to have no connection with technology. Furthermore, Robert
lives in this cottage with his wife, their son, and the only son of George andLucy. V. A. Pallo analyses that in this scene Robert solidifies his identity as ‘ apattern member of society: a successful barrister, a landholder, and ahusband ’ (475). In addition to this, his role as a father is also importantbecause it is the most privileged role in a patriarchal, ableist society. These
characterisations in the last part of the novel allow Robert to conclude byemphasising that he is an exemplary, non-disabled gentleman. Moreover, his
position as the guardian of Lucy ’ s son appears to deny her role as a motherand underline her disabled identity.
Lady presents both Lucy and Robert as individuals trying to hide theirmental defects but differentiates between the strategies undertaken by them.
Lucy has only one helpless accomplice: her father. Her accusation of Robert ’ s‘ monomania ’ does not lead to any official diagnosis. Robert, meanwhile,enlists the help of several women and borrows the authority of the doctor to
make an official diagnosis of Lucy ’ s insanity. By describing the process by‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’129

which he ‘ makes ’ Lucy a disabled woman and masks his mental defect, Lady
reveals how gender inequality in Victorian patriarchal society extends to thediscourse of disability. In a discourse that contains such arbitrary criteria,
Robert is able to pass off the pretence of being non-disabled more easily than
Lucy.
Despite the somewhat trite and conventional nature of the novel ’ s ending,many scholars have contended that it cannot simply be read as a victory for
Robert.6 It is significant to note that Audley Court is eventually ‘ shut up ’(379). It can be argued that shutting up Audley Court, a symbol of premodern society, signifies the end of that society. The cause of this end is
Lucy ’ s compelling influence on Robert ’ s use of modern industrial
technology. The closure of Audley Court represents the complete transitionof the pre-modern society to something akin to our present-day existence. In
this society, technology can no longer be separated from daily life anddisability. Daly persuasively contends that the plots of most sensation-fiction
works tend to return to rural life in the end but they also imply that ‘ therepercussions of modernity［wrought by industrial technology］are felt even
there ’ ( ‘ Railway ’ 465). Lucy offers a hint that the society was evolving in a
way as to allow technology to become a means of both concealing andexposing people ’ s physical/mental vulnerabilities and disabilities.

Conclusion
It is no exaggeration to say that in literature it has traditionally been therole of male characters to expose mental disabilities and mental disorders.
Scenes where a man discloses a woman ’ s insanity and locks her up inasylums/homes are also present in numerous works of Victorian literature.
Some examples include Bertha and Rochester in Jane Eyre (1847), Anne
Catherick and Sir Percival Glyde in The Woman in White (1860), and Frederick
St. John and Charlotte in St. Martin ’ s Eve despite the question of whether
these male characters are really portrayed as non-disabled. These scenes
highlight the dichotomy of mentally disabled women who are imprisoned in

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asylums/homes and non-disabled men who imprison these women. Lady also
follows this convention. The ending of the novel, in which Lucy ’ s resistanceis captured within the traditional and conservative dichotomy, depicts how
male privilege allows Robert to cover up his ‘ monomania ’ . The novel thus
shows that women who had disabilities and/or diseases as more sociallyvulnerable than men who had disabilities and/or diseases in mid-Victoria
society.
Yet situating Lady in recent studies of sensation fiction from theperspective of disability studies highlights an interesting aspect of therepresentation of disability in the novel. This essay has clarified that Lady
includes the idea of a compensatory mechanism, providing the disabled Lucywith a compensatory ability to make use of modern industrial technology: ahigh level of technological literacy. Lucy is well aware that her insanity caneasily be viewed as a disability and that disabled people are sociallystigmatised. The disabled heroine therefore attempts to prevent her mental
impairment from being exposed by the men through her technologicalliteracy. Furthermore, she also tries to prompt the onset of the hero ’ s mental
vulnerability and disclose it. Lucy could be a threat in mid-Victorian
patriarchal society in that she threatens Robert with revealing his‘ monomania ’ and attempts to subvert the gender power relations in literary
conventions. Although Lucy ’ s insanity is eventually uncovered by Robert,
the ending leaves traces of Lucy ’ s resistance in the future lives of the othercharacters, including Robert. The doctor says to Robert, ‘ She［Lucy］has thecunning of madness, with the prudence of intelligence ’ (323). Indeed, Ladyshows its readers the ‘ madwoman ’ who has the intelligence and ability toquestion and resist the stereotypical representation of the Victorian‘ madwoman ’.

‘ She Employed Intelligent Means ’

131

Notes
1

2
3

4

5

6

Charlotte St. John from Mrs Henry Wood ’ s St. Martin ’ s Eve (1866) is also
portrayed in a way similar to Bertha and Lucy. Charlotte leaves her stepson todie in flames after he accidentally sets himself on fire.
All of the quotations from the text of Lady in this essay come from theversion edited by Pykett.
In a society where industry was coming to the fore, there was a need to split
people into non-disabled and disabled categories based on their ability tocarry out useful tasks in the industrial economy (Davis 131). The New Poor
Law in 1834 strictly defined who was entitled to public financial support due
to inability to work such as ‘ the sick, “ mentally ill ” , unmarried mothers,
the elderly and “ the infirm ”’ ( ‘ Workhouses and the Poor Law Amendment
Act 1834 ’ ). ［‘ T］he medical profession ’ standardised notions of the bodywithout impairment as normal (non-disabled) and the body with animpairment as abnormal (disabled) (Barnes and Mercer 83-84).
In The Mill on the Floss (1860), Philip Wakem does not marry Maggie Tulliver
despite the affection the two of them feel for each other. In another example,
in The Moonstone (1868) Rosanna Spearman ’ s love for Franklin Blake is not
requited and her broken-heartedness is one reason for her suicide. Rochester
is an interesting example of a man who marries after becoming a disabled
person, but the setting in which he formed a romantic relationship with Janein the days when he was non-disabled is not completely in keeping with thistradition.
An article titled ‘ M.D. AND M.A.D. ’ in All the Year Round published in thesame year as Lady made an important statement; ‘ There is no clear dividingline between sickness and health of mind; unsoundness of mind is, no doubt
as various and common as unsoundness of body ’ (511). The author of thisarticle may have had the 1858-59 lunacy panic in mind; as Jill L. Matus
explains, the public found it terrifying that not a few women had been
wrongfully diagnosed as mentally disabled and confined to asylums (200).
Mari Suzuki points out that in spite of an ostensible victory for Robert, it
could be argued that Lucy is actually superior in wisdom (160). Kaoruko
Sakata claims that the victory belongs to Lucy because Michael surrenders
Audley Court to her by abandoning it himself, and her son enters the family
tree of a gentry class family, the Talboys, as a legitimate child (43).

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