{"id":278,"date":"2015-02-20T01:37:39","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T01:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=278"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:51:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:51:39","slug":"is-three-really-a-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/02\/20\/is-three-really-a-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Three Really a Crowd?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her chapter on Wilkie Collins\u2019s unique variations on the standard marriage plot, Carolyn Dever discusses the ways in which Collins triangulates romantic relationships in The Woman in White<\/em>: \u201cThe novel distributes the emotional intimacy ordinarily credited to marital love among three figures, rather than the conventional two\u201d (113). Dever focuses her exploration of this idea on the novel\u2019s most overt triangulated relationship\u2014the relationship among Laura, Marian, and Walter. She asserts the relationship between the two sisters \u201cis the novel\u2019s most fully realized \u2018marriage,\u2019 if we consider marriage a union based on emotional depth, mutual trust, and the presumption of permanence\u201d (114). While Marian functions as an emotional \u2018spouse\u2019 for Laura, Dever continues, she simultaneously serves as an intellectual, masculine \u2018spouse\u2019 for Walter: \u201cWalter and Laura enter a marriage anchored by its essential bisexuality. Providing a masculine companion for Walter and a feminine one for Laura, Marian is a full partner in this marriage of three\u201d (114). The novel contains ample support for Dever\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

Laura and Marian share multiple scenes wherein emotions and thoughts are shared and accompanied by physical touch or gesture. For example, after Laura finally discloses some of the events of her unhappy honeymoon, the sisters embrace and ultimately kiss: \u201cI had caught her in my arms, and the sting and torment of my remorse had closed them around her like a vice\u2026 How long it was before I mastered the absorbing misery of my own thoughts, I cannot tell. I was first conscious that she was kissing me\u2026\u201d (Collins 262). The impassioned embrace and comforting kiss that follow a scene of emotional intimacy, though not overtly sexual, do seem as though they are gestures that would typically come from a lover or a spouse. Similarly, Walter frequently confides in Marian, sometimes asking her advice or for her assistance in carrying out a plot or scheme. In the wake of Sir Percival\u2019s death and the Count\u2019s disconcerting visit to Laura, Marian, and Walter\u2019s temporary London home, Walter turns to Marian for advice on how to protect Laura moving forward: \u2018\u201cI was guided by your advice in those past days,\u2019 I said; \u2018and now, Marian, with reliance tenfold greater, I will be guided by it again\u2019\u201d (558). Their exchange results in a plan to extract information from the Count as well as Laura and Walter\u2019s marriage.<\/p>\n

Though Dever is undoubtedly correct in pointing out Marian\u2019s unusual, and possibly subversive, partnerships with Laura and Walter, I do think she fails to address one important fact that may limit the extent to which we can read this triangulated relationship as a challenge to traditional marriage. Since Marian is a woman, she does not pose a threat to the main legal<\/em> purpose of marriage\u2014inheritance. At the end of the novel, Walter happily allows Marian to \u201cend our Story\u201d with her introduction of Laura and Marian\u2019s son as \u201cMr. Walter Hartwright\u2014the Heir of Limmeridge<\/em> (626-7). Marian\u2019s presence in Laura and Walter\u2019s relationship, while disrupting the institution’s traditional heteronormative binary, poses no threat to marriage\u2019s perpetuation of patrilineal inheritance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her chapter on Wilkie Collins\u2019s unique variations on the standard marriage plot, Carolyn Dever discusses the ways in which Collins triangulates romantic relationships in The Woman in White: \u201cThe novel distributes the emotional intimacy ordinarily credited to marital love among three figures, rather than the conventional two\u201d (113). Dever focuses her exploration of this … Continue reading Is Three Really a Crowd?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":510,"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-278","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\/278","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\/510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}