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Alicia Audley
Clara Talboys is the sister of George Talboys who collaborates with and eventually marries Robert Audley. Clara resembles her brother and Robert describes her as handsome, her beauty made even greater by her passion. Robert first meets Clara when he visits her and George’s father, Harcourt Talboys, in order to consult with him about George’s disappearance. At first, Robert assumes Clara is as apathetic towards George as her father is. She then pursues Robert, however, and urges him to avenge her brother. Clara, like Lady Audley, shows how a woman can use her agency to exert influence over a man in order to get what she wants, as she drives Robert forward in his investigation when he wants to quit. Robert sees Clara as an example of how woman are often stronger and more hard-working than their male counterparts. The narrative rewards Clara’s agency, as at the end of the story, thanks to her efforts towards revenge, she has made a loving and advantageous marriage to Robert and has had her brother returned to her. This contrasts with Lady Audley’s fate of being committed to an asylum; Clara’s happy ending thus suggests that Victorian society rewarded female agency provided it fit in with larger societal expectations for female behavior.
Clara Talboys Quotes in Lady Audley’s Secret
The Lady Audley’s Secret quotes below are all either spoken by Clara Talboys or refer to Clara Talboys. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Volume 2, Chapter 4
Quotes
[Harcourt Talboys] was like his own square-built, northern-fronted, shelterless house. There were no shady nooks in his character into which one could creep for shelter from his hard daylight…with him right was right and wrong was wrong…He had cast off his only son because his only son had disobeyed him, and he was ready to cast off his only daughter at five minutes’ notice for the same reason.
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Volume 3, Chapter 10
Quotes
I hope no one will take objection to my story because the end of it leaves the good people all happy and at peace. If my experience of life has not been very long, it has at least been manifold; and I can safely subscribe to that which a mighty king and a great philosopher declared, when he said that neither the experience of his youth nor of his age had ever shown him ‘righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.’
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Get the entire Lady Audley’s Secret LitChart as a printable PDF.
Clara Talboys Quotes in Lady Audley’s Secret
The Lady Audley’s Secret quotes below are all either spoken by Clara Talboys or refer to Clara Talboys. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Volume 2, Chapter 4
Quotes
[Harcourt Talboys] was like his own square-built, northern-fronted, shelterless house. There were no shady nooks in his character into which one could creep for shelter from his hard daylight…with him right was right and wrong was wrong…He had cast off his only son because his only son had disobeyed him, and he was ready to cast off his only daughter at five minutes’ notice for the same reason.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 10
Quotes
I hope no one will take objection to my story because the end of it leaves the good people all happy and at peace. If my experience of life has not been very long, it has at least been manifold; and I can safely subscribe to that which a mighty king and a great philosopher declared, when he said that neither the experience of his youth nor of his age had ever shown him ‘righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.’
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
