{"id":261,"date":"2015-02-19T22:38:46","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T22:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=261"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:52:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:52:07","slug":"the-failures-of-walter-as-narrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/02\/19\/the-failures-of-walter-as-narrator\/","title":{"rendered":"The Failures of Walter as Narrator"},"content":{"rendered":"

The narrative structure of The Woman in White<\/em> presents the reader with a number of potential interpretations of Walter Hartright\u2019s intentions\u2014from attempting to reestablish Laura\u2019s identity to trying to avenge his rightful property. In the first chapter of the novel, Walter deceives the reader by stating that \u201cthe story [is] here presented\u2026by more than one witness\u2026to present the truth always in its most direct and most intelligible aspect\u201d (Collins 5). One key piece of information that Walter leaves out until later in the novel is that he will be the one collecting all of these narratives and, presumably, editing them to fit his purpose. According to Pamela Perkins and Mary Donaghy, Walter, through his role as editor and chief narrator, \u201cis in fact manipulating the narrative for his own ends\u201d (392). Therefore, Walter is not presenting the truth and clearly has ulterior motives.<\/p>\n

Walter\u2019s motives can be understood through his representation of the \u201cfacts\u201d that he portrays in the novel. Throughout his narrative, he presents information as though they had just occurred and as though he has the same amount of information as the reader. However, in the Third Epoch, Walter reveals that he \u201c[has] paused and rested for a while on [his] forward course\u201d and admits that he is \u201clooking forward to the happier time which [his] narrative has not yet reached\u201d (490). Due to his previous attempt at disguising his motives, Perkins and Donaghy argue that Walter\u2019s \u201cvoice is far from reliable despite its pretense of objectivity\u201d (396). This act of concealing his fundamental role in the text creates the initial doubt about his intentions in collecting all of this information that supposedly revolves around \u201cthe woman in white.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Laura is reestablished in society and Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde have been avenged by the time Walter collected this narrative, then his motives must lie in something else. Perkins and Donaghy claim that Walter only presents his retribution against Sir Percival to \u201cpersuade his readers that his investigative skills are unequaled\u201d (398). Perkins and Donaghy reference Walter\u2019s continual need to be justified in his actions by readers and other characters. His self-conscious nature reveals that Walter\u2019s actual intention in narrating this story is a self-justification of why he deserves his new position in society, and it is an act of pride rather than of selfless love.<\/p>\n

Walter fails in presenting himself as the hero, because, according to Perkins and Donaghy, his \u201cshortcomings\u201d prove that Marian is the \u201cstrong and capable figure\u201d in the novel (398). Count Fosco even admits that his \u201cfatal admiration for Marian restrained\u201d him from preventing his demise\u201d (628). Marian controls the entire plot of The Woman in White<\/em> even though Walter tries to claim all the responsibility. Therefore, Wilkie Collins goes against Victorian gender constructions in The Woman in White<\/em> through the flawed narrator and editorial figure of Walter and his representation of Marian as the strongest and most trustworthy character in his novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The narrative structure of The Woman in White presents the reader with a number of potential interpretations of Walter Hartright\u2019s intentions\u2014from attempting to reestablish Laura\u2019s identity to trying to avenge his rightful property. In the first chapter of the novel, Walter deceives the reader by stating that \u201cthe story [is] here presented\u2026by more than one … Continue reading The Failures of Walter as Narrator<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2596,"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-261","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\/261","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\/2596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}