Explain 'a creature of the shadows and silence'.

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following data.

Her father, Edward Moulton Barren, was, as Elizabeth later wrote, a very peculiar person.  "Heir to a fortune, educated at Harrow and Cambridge, he was nevertheless a complete domestic tyrant".  After bearing him twelve children, his gentle wife had little strength left for struggle against  him, and  the children never dared oppose  his wishes.

Yet Elizabeth's childhood was happy. She romped and studied with her eldest brother, learnt Greek and French, read widely and wrote poetic tragedies.  Her own tragedy began at fifteen with a cough and an injury to her back, which resulted in increasingly bad health.  Then her mother died.

Four years later, her father decided to sell the country home. The large family moved from house to house until her father bought No. 50 Wimpole Street.  There Elizabeth's health grew worse, and she became a creature of the shadows and silence.

As the years passed, the family grew used to her withdrawn life. She had a certain independence, for an uncle had left her a small income.  But her brothers and sisters were at the mercy of Mr. Barren's harsh rules, which hung over the household like thunder in heavy weather.  Chief among them was the absolute refusal to let his daughters marry.  He prevented the marriage of Elizabeth’s gay, dance-loving sister, Henrietta, and the scenes that followed broke Elizabeth’s heart. Yet she remained devoted to her father. It was a devotion that served to strengthen the walls of her prison.