Tag: Percival Glyde

The Puppeteer, the Fool, & the Heroine

Full quote of Focus: (no pg #’s I used Project Gutenberg)

  • “Thank your lucky star,” I heard the Count say next, “that you have me in the house to undo the harm as fast as you do it. Thank your lucky star that I said No when you were mad enough to talk of turning the key to-day on Miss Halcombe, as you turned it in your mischievous folly on your wife. …” Can you look at Miss Halcombe and not see that she has the foresight and the resolution of a man? With that woman for my friend, I would snap these fingers of mine at the world. With that woman for my enemy, I, with all my brains and experience—I, Fosco, cunning as the devil himself, as you have told me a hundred times—I walk, in your English phrase, upon egg-shells! And this grand creature—I drink her health in my sugar-and-water—this grand creature, who stands in the strength of her love and her courage, firm as a rock, between us two and that poor, flimsy, pretty blonde wife of yours—this magnificent woman, whom I admire with all my soul, though I oppose her in your interests and in mine, you drive to extremities as if she was no sharper and no bolder than the rest of her sex. Percival! Percival! you deserve to fail, and you have failed.”

Response:

This passage above reveals the underlying threads of an informal empire forming in England with Fosco as the puppeteer, Percival as the reckless fool, and Marian as the heroine. Drawing on the informal empire reading my group was given in Thursday’s class, Fosco embodies hierarchical governance over the relationships in this novel. Fosco’s character serves as an informal governmental force on the actions of Percival Glyde, ultimately manipulating him to get what he wants. Fosco is the leverage of the novel as a whole, pulling the plot forward while revealing Marian’s emotional and moral force in the story. While Marian lacks social and legal power over the marriage, she presents herself as highly intellectual, and undeniably loyal to Laura and her well-being. The quotation opens with Fosco retaliating against Sir Percival: “Thank your lucky star that you have me in the house to undo the harm as fast as you do it.” Fosco makes his dominance known in relation to Percival, implying that he would be in great danger without him sweeping in to save the other. Fosco’s language suggests that Percival is foolish and abrupt about his decision-making and behaviors. The fear of Percival’s secret being exposed, makes him vulnerable to Fosco’s exploitation.

By having Count Fosco say, “This grand creature, who stands in the strength of her love and her courage, firm as a rock, between us two and that poor, flimsy, pretty blonde wife of yours—” reveals his recognition of Marian’s heroic qualities and morally strong interior. Yet, Fosco seems to commemorate Marian’s loyalty to Laura which is quite paradoxical of a man to express to woman. Fosco goes as far to say that he admires Marian “with all his soul,” but to the extent that perpetuates male superiority and control. Additionally, he presents a clear difference between Marian and Lady Glyde insinuating that most woman lack the willpower Marian has. 

Bastard Children of Noblemen: A Look at Percival Glyde and Anne Catherick

At first glance, Percival Glyde and Anne Catherick share almost nothing in common–he’s an esteemed Baronet with crippling debts, and she’s an escapee from an Asylum. However, as Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White progresses, these two characters exhibit surprisingly similar backgrounds: most plainly, the issues of both of their parentages.

The Secret™ that would ruin Glyde’s life, that Anne claimed to know, that Walter Hartright discovered in the discrepancies between the church records at Old Welmingham, is that his parents never married–in fact, his mother was technically still married to an Irishman, though they had since gone their own ways (531). This made Percival an illegitimate child, unable to truly claim his father’s property at Blackwater…unless he resorted to unsavory means.

After some sleuthing by Walter, it was revealed that Anne, too, was the product of an illegitimate union. “Philip Fairlie had been at Varneck Hall in the autumn of eighteen hundred and twenty-six, and that Mrs. Catherick had been living there in service at the same time (…) Anne had been born in June, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven” (553). However, in this circumstance, Anne’s parents did not remain together–their affair was brief , especially as Philip Fairlie “then left (…) and did not return to Varneck Hall till after a lapse of time, when he reappeared in the character of a newly-married man.” (553) Walter suspects that Anne did not even guess her true parentage–certainly she would have been unable to act upon it as Percival did, even if she was aware. She had no claim to the Fairlie fortune or estate, not to mention the fact that the legitimate Fairlie heir was very present, as opposed to the situation Percival found himself in.

With these similar origins of being born the illegitimate children of well-off men, it is interesting that Anne and Percival are so at odds in the narrative, and perhaps demonstrates the imbalance of power between Victorian women and men. Percival, a man, is made aware of his own “claim” to the Blackwater estate, and does everything he can to claim it, including forging a marriage record, blackmailing Mrs Catherick, and even shutting Anne away when it seems as if she might be too close to revealing The Secret™. Anne, a woman, is first of all described as “being always weak in the head” (534) by her own mother, and her true parentage is hidden from her. She is rejected by Mrs Catherick (perhaps her similarity to her father reminded Mrs Catherick of her own past mistakes?), and ironically receives some motherly affection from Mrs Fairlie, the wife of her true father.

However, the one direct confrontation between Percival and Anne, that leads to Anne’s imprisonment and drives almost the entire plot of the story, comes because Anne speaks up for herself against Percival’s dismissal of her as “the idiot” (536). In Mrs Catherick’s words, “she had always had crazy notions of her own about her dignity,” (536)–in order to gain the upper hand on Percival and establish her presence, Anne used the one thing she had heard that could potentially ruin him–a practice which backfires spectacularly on her, as this leads to Percival demanding she be shut up in an Asylum, a place where she would have even less dignity and autonomy than she had living with her mother. Anne is stripped of all power as Percival gains more.

The two illegitimate children of the narrative are treated incredibly differently, and what this unequal treatment seems to highlight is the unequal power afforded each gender in Victorian society.