The Woman in White is full of repetitions, and noticing the differences between these repetitions creates meaning that neither instance can achieve alone. One such replication can be seen in two evenings that Collins describes in detail—one narrated by Walter Hartright at Limmeridge (57-58), and the other narrated by Marian at Blackwater Park (286-287). The scenes are set up to appear almost identical: Laura plays the piano while Marian sits slightly removed at a far window, passing time as the day transitions to night. In the scene at Limmeridge, Walter acts as our guide to appreciating the evening’s qualities of light and sound, while Count Fosco occupies that role at Blackwater Park. Walter’s and the Count’s descriptions of the evening are tied together by common words such as “heaven,” “trembling,” “twilight,” and “tenderness,” as well as by both men’s desire that the torches remain unlit.
However, the differences between the two scenes convey starkly opposing meanings. While Walter describes the light as “shading leaf and blossom into harmony,” Count Fosco twice refers to the light as “dying” against the trees. This reference to death recalls to mind Marian’s first descriptions of Blackwater Park’s decaying forest. Furthermore, while at Limmeridge the lamps go unlit “by common consent,” at Blackwater only Count Fosco “begs” for the lamps to remain dark. These variations reveal that Blackwater is, in actuality, a failed replication of Limmeridge House. Instead of the harmony and easy companionship between Laura, Marian, and Walter, Blackwater is filled with discord and decay, highlighted by Count Fosco’s rejected attempts to become friendly with Marian and Laura.
I think this is an especially perceptive analysis. Collins frequently creates these similarities to draw the reader’s mind to an earlier part of the novel. One smaller scale example I noted in my reading of the text was Marian’s use of a headache as an excuse to go to bed early: she tells Count Fosco “‘The only remedy for such a headache as mine is going to bed'” (315). Earlier in the novel, she excuses Laura from being unable to greet Walter because she is “‘nursing that essentially feminine malady, a slight headache'” (35). This shows the way in which Marian has become more feminine in her dealings with Count Fosco and Sir Percival. Whereas earlier in the novel she was forthright and blunt, she is now more deceptive and withheld about her true feelings.
The descriptions and contrasts between Limmeridge House and Blackwater Park remind me of elements from gothic novels. Gothic novels actively use contrasts between light and dark to create atmosphere and positive or negative connotations with people, areas, etc. Blackwater Park also seems like a castle from a gothic novel, as its darkness and oppressing atmosphere (made by Count Fosco and Sir Percival) becomes a symbol for the hardships that Laura and Marian go through. Additionally, the forest surrounding the castle further creates an oppressing atmosphere, as isolates the castle from the surrounding world, compared to the landscape around Limmeridge House.