Not one family dynamic in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White fits into any definition of “the nuclear family” – that is, a married mother and father with children, residing in the same home. Laura, Marian, and Mr. Fairlie reside in the same home, unmarried and related to each other more distantly- when Laura marries, she and Sir Percival have no children, and neither do Count and Countess Fosco. After Laura/Anne’s death, she lives unmarried as siblings with Walter and Marian. Mrs. Catherick “raises” Anne as a single mother. And, as we learn about Sir Percival, he is not even really a “sir” at all. In Mrs. Catherick’s letter, she states “his father and mother had always lived as man and wife – none of the few people who were acquainted with them ever supposed them to be anything else” (530), indicating that his parents were not legally married and therefore he was born out of wedlock. Furthermore, she asserts his mother’s familial structure as far from nuclear, recalling “his mother had been living there just before she met with his father – living under her maiden name; the truth being that she was really a married woman; married in Ireland, where her husband had ill-used her and had afterwards gone off with some other person” (531). Thus, Sir Percival’s mother was not only living as a wife to a man she was not legally married to but was engaging in bigamy by being already married.
The fact that Sir Percival’s history of perversion of the nuclear family dynamic is the “Secret” that serves as the catalyst for the entire novel suggests that the perversions of the family dynamics of every other character are equally important in understanding the novel. The disorder that comes with the establishment of non-nuclear families is a driving conflict of the novel overall; the dynamics between characters because of their relation (or lack thereof) to each other causes problems. For example, Mr. Fairlie’s distancing of Laura because although he is her legal guardian, she is not his daughter, causes several issues in the initial marriage proposal, as well as later, in failing (or refusing) to recognize her after her supposed “death”. Additionally, there is the added layer of members of a family unit having multiple roles within that unit. For example, Walter, Marian, and Laura are living together as siblings, while Walter and Laura are in love; and though Marian and Laura are in fact legitimately sisters, they have a running theme throughout the novel of having a level of intimacy that indicates potentially something more.
The fact that the majority of these disorderly family dynamics are kept hidden or secreted in the novel harkens back to Freud’s interpretation of symptoms of neurosis in his “Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through”. His perception of repetition comes from the idea that a specific habit is created by the brain and body working together to divert attention from an unsavory secret, memory, or desire (150). Therefore, particularly in the case of Percival Glyde, his neurotic and obessive tendencies to protect his reputation, to find Anne Catherick, to commit to the plot of taking Laura’s inheritance, and to control those around him reflects this need to cover up the Secret that he is hiding, which is the disorder of his family situation. This can also be reflected in Walter, Marian, and Laura’s living situation, as Walter’s paranoia that they are being watched and followed, and fear of their disordered dynamic being discovered, prompts him to obsessively communicate with Marian via letters whilst he is away.
I was under the impression that the biggest “family secret” of the novel was Sir Percival Glyde’s, so this is a fantastic list of all the ways that the novel subverts ideal families! You interpret here that almost all of the characters are inherently repetitive due to their wild family situations, all more complex than they seem on the surface due to that deviance from the norm. I wonder if, as well, the repetition of the non-normative family structure trope itself is a “symptom” of sorts? Does the novel suggest that it is one of the causes of the constant chaos that befalls the protagonist, the explanation for the “sensation” of the novel and multiple of its characters? If Sir Percival Glyde is considered to have an inherently rotten soul by the novel’s logic, perhaps all of the characters are a little prone to chaos.
This post does a great job of not just pointing out the lack of traditional family dynamics in The Woman in White, but the twisted nature of the family dynamics presented! This pattern of messed up familial dynamics and chaos makes the ending of the novel extra intriguing to me. While Laura and Walter being married with a child seems to be a neat restoration of traditional family values on surface-level, is that really the case? Marian still lives with them (as an unmarried woman), and her consistently queer-coded and incestual relationship with Laura is difficult to ignore. Further, Marian’s relationship to Walter is both sisterly and wife-like. Is familial order really restored?
This is a fascinating analysis of The Woman in White through the lens of the nuclear family. This is certainly a central problem of the novel as the big “Secret” of Sir Percival revolves around inheritance, which is linked with family. I also think that Walter/Marian/Laura’s “family” dynamic is just SO odd and you thoroughly piece out its bizarre nature. This novel features bizarre family structures from the beginning–before the conflict even begins–starting at Limmeridge House. I thought that the dynamic of Mr. Fairlie/Mrs. Vesey/Marian/Laura at that house BEFORE Walter even affects it was so odd for Victorian times. I wonder what you think Collins is trying to do with all these weird family structures, which are never quite resolved, as you point out. Perhaps he is trying to subtly disrupt the Victorian norm of family by proposing alternative models…? Or maybe his “correction” does enough of the job.
I love this analysis of The Woman in White from the perspective of the nuclear family! I also find it interesting that a huge part of how Anne grows up is also through Mrs. Clements. She basically has two seperate moms/caregivers during her childhood. Also thinking about how in class today one of the movies interpreted Laura as being pregnant with Sir Percival’s baby and then living with Marian and Walter with her baby. There really is not one nuclear family in this novel, which is really interesting for the time period.