The Woman in White by Wilkie CollinsMystery, suspense, gloom and tidbits of romance – these are some of the elements that make an absorbing piece of Gothic fiction. And “The Woman In White” comes with all these elements, packed eloquently in a thrilling storyline.
Set between a period of 1849 to 1850, the novel is usually regarded as a “sensation novel,” but it is also epistolary, meaning, it is written in the form of letter-style narratives.
The novel introduces the story with a character named Walter Hartright, who is a drawing teacher in London. With the reference of an Italian friend, he joins a job in Cumberland’s Limmeridge House as a drawing teacher. One day before he joins his job, he goes on a walk on the London streets. It is a misty night. All is dark. Suddenly a hand lightly pats on his shoulder. He turns around to find the “woman in white.” She’s dressed in a white gown from head to toe.
He helps her get into a cab and go where she needs to go. But later on, discovers that the woman had escaped from a mental asylum. During this time, she had told him that she was once associated with late Mrs. Fairlie, the woman who was the mistress of the Limmeridge house, whose daughters he was going to teach.
Upon reaching Cumberland the next day, he meets one of his students named Miss Marian Halcombe in the house. Halcombe is depicted to be bold, fierce and clear-minded lady. She, in fact, is the hero of this story. Whereas, Laura, his second student, is depicted to be tender, sensitive and angelic.
Walter had since told Halcombe about the woman in white he had met. Upon reading Mrs. Fairlie’s old letters to her husband, Halcombe and Walter conclude that the woman in white could be a woman named Anne Catharick. Anne’s looks were quite similar to Laura’s looks during their childhood. And Anne was mentally weak too.
They spend autumn mornings sketching flowers and landscapes in their notebooks. Soon enough, Walter falls in love with Laura, and Laura with him. But Halcombe advices Walter to leave the village because Laura is already bonded into a marriage arranged by her late father Mr. Philip Fairlie. She was soon going to be engaged to a man named Sir Percival Glyde.
On his last evening at the place, he visits Mrs. Fairlie’s tomb to pray. There, standing like an apparition he finds the “woman in white.” Her name indeed is turned out to be Anne Catharick. She had sent a threatening letter to Laura advising her not to marry Percival. This is because it was Percival who had imprisoned her inside the asylum, and she was terrorized by him.
So, Walter returns to London. Laura gets married to Percival, and goes to Italy with him. Walter writes a letter to Halcombe informing her he is getting stalked by suspicious men ever since he returned from their house. Halcombe refers him to a job in Central England, as part of a sailing ship.
Meanwhile, the couple are about to return from Italy and settle in Percival’s house in an area called Blackwater Park in Hampshire. Halcombe is to join her sister and live with them after she returns. So, Halcombe reaches Blackwater Park, and through a servant comes to know that Mrs. Catharick, Anne’s mother, visited the house the previous day. But what Mrs. Catharick has to do with Percival, Halcombe wonders.
The next day Laura arrives with Percival, as well as Percival’s Italian friend Count Fosco and his wife Madame Fosco, who are to stay with them for a while. Halcombe’s sharp instincts tell her that Count is both charming and cunning.
Soon enough, harrowing events start taking place. Once Laura goes for a walk, and she stumbles upon the woman in white, who says she knows a secret of Percival that she will tell her in the next meeting. Laura is puzzled. She is already unhappy with her marriage, because Percival married her for her money, the 20000 pounds she received as the inheritance. On top of this, Anne’s comment caused her to become even more anxious.
Halcombe senses something fishy going on, and stalks Percival and Count by listening to their conversations. She becomes certain that Percival married Laura for her money, and Count has his share too. Halcombe gets determined to haul herself and Laura out of Blackwater Park before Percival insists her to sign the papers concerning money.
But alas, the next day Halcombe falls ill. Count reads her diary by covert means, and Halcombe’s plans are spoiled. Meanwhile, they tell Laura that Halcombe has driven away to London with Count and Countess. Frightened by what would happen to her sister in Count’s company, Laura follows her to London. But Halcombe had never left the house. She was trapped in an empty, secluded room in the house. This was all a part of Count’s plan, who wanted to separate the two sisters.
The Count had come across Anna Catharick in the woods and had utilized the similarity between her looks and Laura’s. He had made a foolproof plan. As Laura arrived in London, Count drugged her and got her clothes changed to Anne’s clothes, while Anne’s clothes were changed to Laura’s. Suddenly Anne died of a heart attack. Count had an opportunity. He got a death certificate made of Laura’s death using Anne’s similar looks with Laura.
Laura is declared dead, with the body of Anne, while the real Laura is sent to asylum, on the account of being mad because she declares herself as Laura. Luckily, one day Halcombe visits the asylum, and recognizes her sister. She brings her back home. However, to their utter misery, no one recognizes Laura anymore as she has grown paler as Anne was.
Meanwhile, after returning from his sailing job, Walter comes to know of Laura’s death. He visits Laura’s tomb, and there, two women step in front of him, Halcombe and Laura. He hears the entire story and makes it a mission to restore Laura’s identity and get the culprits caught by the authorities.
Later on, he discovers that Percival’s identity was a fraud. He was a mere pauper, and no baronet as he had told everyone. But at that very moment, Percival passes away by burning in the fire of a room in the church where he was visiting to destroy a marriage register that revealed his identity. Percival dies. Count confesses his crime, as Walter comes to know of his secret. Count was actually a spy from Italy’s secret society, and he had betrayed the rules of the community, which could mean death for him.
So, both Percival and Count are out of his way. Justice is deemed. Laura’s identity is proved, and the story wraps up with a happy ending as the baby of Laura and Walter becomes the heir of Limmeridge.
The book is a long read but rewarding in the end. Characters are crisply drawn, and the settings are well crafted; the plot oozes with the scent of Victorian era, flowery romance, mystery and suspense, and the novel is gripping till the very end.
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