{"id":203,"date":"2015-02-06T09:28:50","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T09:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=203"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:52:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:52:07","slug":"the-beauties-and-the-beasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/02\/06\/the-beauties-and-the-beasts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beauties and the Beasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Wilkie Collin\u2019s The Woman in White<\/em>, I noticed that the characters Marian and Count Fosco were similar in many ways: They are described to be intelligent, practical, and unattractive. However, even though they are similar, they work against each other to achieve different goals. While Marian works to protect Laura, Count Fosco works with Sir Percival to steal Laura\u2019s inheritance. This opposition shows Collins\u2019 ideas of the society in Victorian England: While Count Fosco symbolizes the driving forces behind the oppression of women, Marian becomes a symbol of those who defy this oppression.<\/p>\n

Count Fosco is Italian, and is described to be an intelligent man in the novel by Marian (219), and Count Fosco praises Marian to have \u201cthe foresight and resolution of a man\u201d (324). Both characters are also described to be unattractive, and they are fighting their cause with a less intelligent, but more attractive, counterpart. Compared to Marian, Laura seems to be a weak character who is prone to emotional outbursts, and her value is placed on her looks and inheritance. Similarly, Sir Percival is also described as attractive and rich. Sir Percival and Laura therefore have several Victorian ideals: While Laura is feminine, Sir Percival is upper-class and rich. Marian\u2019s unattractiveness and traditional masculine qualities, and Count Fosco\u2019s similar unattractiveness and foreign status, therefore make them unlikely candidates to be of importance in the Victorian English society, which then gives them room to attempt to control what happens to the people they care about.<\/p>\n

Count Fosco\u2019s oppression against women is exemplified in his behavior with his wife. Marian describes how he controls her briefly in her diary: \u201cThe rod of iron with which he rules [the Countess] never appears in company \u2013 it is a private rod, and is always kept upstairs\u201d (Collins 222). Marian\u2019s brief explanation that he \u201crules\u201d her with a \u201crod of iron\u201d suggests overtones of rape and domestic violence. As Count Fosco works with Sir Percival to steal Laura\u2019s inheritance, this suggests that Sir Percival could also \u201crule\u201d Laura with a \u201crod of iron,\u201d as Count Fosco is familiar with controlling women. On the contrary, Marian seems to be interested in women\u2019s rights: \u201c\u2018I remember the time, Countess, when you advocated the Rights of Women \u2013 and freedom of female opinion was one of them\u2019\u201d (232). Her criticism of the Countess\u2019 newfound lack of opinion suggests that Marian is an advocate for the Rights of Women as well, which would then make her a symbol of the New Woman. Furthermore, throughout the novel Marian and Count Fosco are shown to use their intelligence to take control of the situation to promote the interests of themselves or their partner. However, I am curious as to why there seems to be an attraction between Count Fosco and Marian at times. Marian\u2019s initial reaction to Count Fosco was attraction, and although it is not as explicitly stated later as she comes to know his true intentions, she still seems to get certain \u201csensations\u201d by his presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Wilkie Collin\u2019s The Woman in White, I noticed that the characters Marian and Count Fosco were similar in many ways: They are described to be intelligent, practical, and unattractive. However, even though they are similar, they work against each other to achieve different goals. While Marian works to protect Laura, Count Fosco works with … Continue reading The Beauties and the Beasts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,108029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-spring-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}