Category: 360: Victorian Sexualities

In The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, the binaries that are used in society- male/female, virtuous/villainous, domestic/foreign- are repeatedly broken, confused and overlapped. One passage that captures this fun house mirror effect is in the discussion between Percival and the Count about Lady Glyde’s death. To Percival’s exclamation “you make my flesh creep!” (327) the Count replies “Your flesh? Does flesh mean conscience in English?” (327). This seems to be intended to tease Percival about his ‘conscience’ but when looked at with special attention to the binaries presented in the book the passage is more about how virtue and honor are thought of in Victorian England. The first assumption about flesh and conscience brings the readers mind straight to virginity. A virtuous woman is a virgin. In other words your conscience is clean if your flesh is clean. Is the Count then criticizing the English obsession with virginity? In addition to this he adds the addendum “in English” (327), not England. He seems not to be making a point about English culture but the English language. What ideas are conflated with virtue? What does virtue mean about a person? With this in mind I believe this passage is meant to make the reader question the language of conscience and virtue whenever it is brought up in the book.

However another meaning for this passage is a commentary on how throughout the story the truth is told on people’s faces. Often times a character just ‘knows’ when looking at someone’s face, especially with the character of Anne Catherick. Her every emotion and thought is clearly written across her face in a similar sense to Laura Fairlie (this seems to change when she is Lady Glyde, but that is a discussion for another time). Both of these women are praised for their feminine characteristics which seem always to include their lack of guile. Here flesh and conscience are clearly linked in ways that they are not with the male characters. Fosco and Percival both trick people by outward impressions of virtue and honor but are in actuality contemplating murder. It is interesting to me then that the ability for trickery seems linked with masculinity when women are often labeled as the more mischievous and treacherous of the sexes.

The authorial decision to designate multiple narrators throughout a text influences the way a reader interprets a given scene and limits the amount of information available to the reader. In The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins creates smooth and seemingly logical transitions from one narrator to the next; however, thus far, Collins has not given the role of narrator to a number of the prominent characters. Therefore, there is a significant amount of mystery that still surrounds these characters—Laura, Sir Percival, Anne, etcetera. With each new narrator, these characters are described in distinctly different ways. In The Woman in White, Collins portrays Sir Percival in contradicting ways through the narrators of Mr. Gilmore and Marian Halcombe, which adds a level of mystery and uneasiness around his character.

Mr. Gilmore provides the reader with the first vivid description of Sir Percival’s character when he arrived at Limmeridge House. This provides the reader with his or her first impression of his persona. Despite his surprise at how old Sir Percival appeared, Mr. Gilmore describes him in a very positive light. According to him, Sir Percival is “easy and pleasant […] with perfect grace […and] a mixture of tenderness and respect” (130). Additionally, Sir Percival’s “tact and taste were never at fault on this or any other occasion” while Mr. Gilmore resided at Limmeridge House with him (130). From the perspective of the lawyer, Sir Percival embodies everything that a wealthy, well-educated man should be. It is easy to see why Laura’s father chose him as her future husband.

Even though Mr. Gilmore leaves with a lesser impression of Sir Percival after the negotiation over money, his overall description of him is exceedingly positive. However, when Marian Halcombe becomes the narrator, the overall impression of Sir Percival becomes convoluted because her portrayal of him is very negative. After attempting to have a more optimistic outlook on Sir Percival’s character for a few journal entries, Marian begins her entry on November 20^th by saying, “I hate Sir Percival!” (191) She then precedes in describing him as “eminently ill-tempered and disagreeable, and totally wanting in kindness and good feeling” (191). Her rant over her renewed hatred of him that completely contradicts Mr. Gilmore’s description is prompted by him whispering something in Laura’s ear that made her face turn white. Since Marian is so willing and able to adjust her description of one of the other characters so drastically from one day to the next, she becomes difficult to trust as a narrator.

The juxtaposition of the various accounts and descriptions by the three narrators presented so far in The Woman in White have allowed more clarity to certain situations but have also made character analysis extremely problematic. Due to her close connection with Laura, Marian seems like a trustworthy narrator, but this bias often muddles her judgment. Additionally, Mr. Gilmore and Mr. Hartright have their own reasons for being biased towards or against specific characters in the novel.

Miss Halcombe’s influence as an essential narrator and witness in The Woman in White causes the reader to consider if Wilkie Collins supported female rights during the Victorian era. Marian Halcombe’s voice is predominantly audible throughout the novel and is presented as rational and trustworthy, like the voice of a man. Mr. Hartright and Mr. Gilmore’s narratives comment extensively on Marian’s sensibility and astuteness. Marian’s most important moments of reason are obstructed, however, my her status as a women, and she is forced to sensor her opinion to please the men around her. For instance, after Sir Percival clears himself of all Anne Catherick’s allegations, Marian remains suspicious of his character and disagrees with Laura’s choice to continue with the engagement. However, after a conversation with Sir Percival about Laura’s happiness Marian explains that she “answered him- more because [her] tongue is a woman’s, and must answer, than because [she] has anything convincing to say” (175). Marian is expected to behave and speak as a woman and refrain from causing unnecessary controversy. If she expresses her true opinion on their engagement, which is defined upon her unsupported intuition about his character, it would be interpreted as female hysteria or irrational because her judgements are solely reinforced by her female emotions.

Another instance where Marian is barred from expressing herself rationally as a women occurs when she must legally witness Laura’s signature for Sir Percival’s business arrangement. Marian explains, when Sir Percival becomes angry at Laura’s desire to read the document before signing, that she will not “assume responsibility of witnessing her signature[…] unless [Laura] first understands what the writing” is about (245). From a legal standpoint Marian’s interjection is justified and unerring, but through Sir Percival’s perspective she has overstepped her boundaries as a woman. After threatening her ability to remain at his home with Laura, Marian explains that if she “had been a man, [she] would have knocked him down on the threshold of his own door, and have left his house, never on any earthly consideration to enter it again. But [she] was only a woman- and [she] loved his wife so dearly” (245)! Because she is a woman, Miss Halcombe’s relationship with Laura and her financial situation are dependent on remaining on good terms with Sir Percival. At this moment, Marian has no choice but to retreat into her thoughts and continuing advising Laura privately against his irrational persuasions to sign the document she is legally sanctioned to examine. Instead, she must use her wit to uncover legal support from a man, because as women in Victorian society they are powerless, expected to obey, and prone to hysteria. Why then does Collins have Miss Halcombe confront all these Victorian female stereotypes? Is he, by contrast, revealing the irrational, greedy, and sexist nature of Victorian men?

A passage in The Woman in White which I found to be indicative of the general ideas thus far was on page 232, under Marian’s narration, when she quotes the Countess. The passage reads, “‘I wait to be instructed,’ replied the Countess, in tones of freezing reproof, intended for Laura and me, ‘before I venture on giving my opinion in the presence of well-informed men.'” First, I think it interesting that in this section of the book, the Countess so easily submits to the will of her husband, intentionally setting an example for Laura and how she should interact with her new husband Sir Percival Glyde. It also demonstrates the ideal role for a woman at the time; the Countess is portrayed as the silent, submissive wife who only speaks when spoken to in contrast to Marian’s outburst, following the above passage, in questioning the Countess’ change of heart in advocating for the rights of women.

What struck me most about this passage is not that the Countess is passive to her husband’s wishes; that is to be expected of the time in which the book was published. Instead, I was shocked that the Countess sought to essentially shut Marian and Laura up and to discourage them from a further discussion with the Count and Sir Glyde. She, and, one can infer, Collins, believe that a woman should not speak until she is “instructed” to by her husband or the male guardian in her life. This yet again depicts a woman as inferior; Marian draws out the idea that the Countess once cared about the “freedom of female opinion”, yet no longer believes it since she has become the Count’s wife. It ties into the legal determinations that a woman is no longer a private entity when married, but that she becomes virtually a part of her husband and is subject to his demands as she technically no longer exists.

It is necessary, also, to look at this passage in context; the Countess’ comment takes place at the lake during a discussion of crimes which results in Count Fosco’s description that a crime is only considered a crime once it is discovered. It seems to me that this entire section is an incredibly overt instance of foreshadowing; one can infer that a crime, likely a murder, will take place or be attempted, and it may take place in this very location. I would even reach so far as to consider that the Countess may be complicit, or at least aware, though she would not see it to be her place to make anyone aware of what will or has occurred. This conclusion might be a stretch, but I think with all the foreshadowing in the lake section, it’s a reasonable conclusion to draw.