"'Circumstantial evidence," continued the young man, as if he scarcely heard Lady Audley's interruption—"that wonderful fabric which is built out of straws collected at every point of the compass, and which is yet strong enough to hang a man.'" --Robert Audley
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| Lady Audley, ultimately helpless at the hands of circumstantial evidence. Found at www.thebookof tomorrow.wordpress,com |
In this quote, Robert Audley is hinting to Lady Audley that he is seeking information to uncover her secret. It is interesting firstly, in that it is incorrect: circumstantial evidence, by law, cannot hang anybody. However, when looking at the way in which Robert Audley is conducting his investigation, we find that this is not surprising, because he doesn’t mean to convict Lady Audley formally. Instead he means to break down her false identity thus ‘killing’ the person she claims to be. The ‘deduction’ which he performs, along with this circumstantial evidence, although not sufficient to ‘hang’ anybody in trial, is certainly sufficient for his purposes. This both shows the Victorian idea that a person’s outward appearance reflects their inward character: in order to contend with the innocence of the outward appearance, Robert has to first destroy her character. Robert’s clear intent to not try Lady Audley for murder is also is a discussion of the importance of respectability.
‘Circumstantial’ evidence is very descriptive of the Victorian detective novel. Finding enough circumstantial evidence to piece together into a case requires great attention to detail, as one would find in a detective novel such as the Sherlock Holmes stories. When Robert refers to ‘straws’ it indicates that the evidence which he speaks about would usually be considered unimportant. This could be compared again to the Victorian sense of the home, where each seemingly insignificant part of the home indicates something. For example, in the great exhibition of 1891, a series of household decorations were exhibited as being in 'bad taste' because anything that was 'representative' or pretended to be something it wasn't was dishonest (Cohen 16). Owning dishonest things it was thought could make a person dishonest. Therefore, it is evident judging people by the 'things' and circumstances around them was a common Victorian practice.