{"id":285,"date":"2015-02-20T02:45:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T02:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=285"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:51:38","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:51:38","slug":"laura-fairlie-the-instrument-for-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/02\/20\/laura-fairlie-the-instrument-for-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Laura Fairlie, the Instrument for Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the article, “A Man’s Resolution: Narrative Strategies in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White<\/em>” Pamela Perkins and\u00a0Mary Donaghy parallel\u00a0Laura’s emptiness of character with the concept of the ideal woman as an aesthetic object. Laura exists throughout the narrative as male property, which is exchanged\u00a0through marriage transactions, disposed of through the forgery of her death, and in the end undergoes another marriage transaction only to ultimately benefit more\u00a0men. Laura’s loss of agency and identity through male objectification is especially highlighted by Marian’s character, because she remains “[her] own mistress,” and in control of her own property by never being married off (258 Collins). Although Walter’s character exudes more superficial kindness and love towards Laura, his intentions are paralleled with Sir Percival and Count Fosco. He wishes to gain property, by having Laura as his<\/i> wife, and thus he makes sure to mold her into the wife\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0desires.\u00a0Laura exists as “a blank to be filled by male desire” and is used for “her ability to fit into the role of a charming and innocent young girl” (393 Donaghy). Laura’s character is portrayed as empty and dependent\u00a0because all the characters, including Marian,\u00a0need her to be that way so that they feel purposeful. Walter explains that he “is indebted to Marian’s courage” because “Laura’s brighter looks and better spirits told [him] how carefully she had been spared all knowledge,” and how carefully her growth had been stunted to maintain her\u00a0childlike innocence and dependency on both Marian and Walter. Had Laura been exposed to all the details of the investigation Laura might have disagreed, or might have wanted to make decisions for herself. She may not have wanted to marry Walter after hearing about how Sir Percival died just inches beyond his\u00a0reach. Walter or Marian could not bear the thought of Laura’s loss of innocence, because Marian\u00a0could not cope with\u00a0losing her\u00a0purpose as a protector and Walter could not withstand losing his opportunity to possess two women and an estate. Thus, Laura is designated from birth to serve everyone else’s needs by remaining a piece of\u00a0blank\u00a0parchment, where Laura Fairlie’s life story is determined and narrated by everyone else but Laura.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the article, “A Man’s Resolution: Narrative Strategies in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White” Pamela Perkins and\u00a0Mary Donaghy parallel\u00a0Laura’s emptiness of character with the concept of the ideal woman as an aesthetic object. Laura exists throughout the narrative as male property, which is exchanged\u00a0through marriage transactions, disposed of through the forgery of her death, … Continue reading Laura Fairlie, the Instrument for Purpose<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2608,"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-285","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\/285","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\/2608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}