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The Woman In White Essay Research Paper

The Woman In White Essay, Research Paper


THE WOMAN IN WHITE: THE CREATION OF A NEW REALISM?


I had now arrived at that partcular point of my walk


where four roads met – the road to Hampstead, along


which I had returned, the road to Fichley, the road


to West End, and the road back to London. I had me-


chanically turned in this latter direction, and was


strolling along the lonely high-road – idly wonder-


ing, I remember, what the Cumberland young ladies


would look like – when, in one moment, every drop of


blood in my body was brought to a stop by the touch


of a hand laid lightly on my shoulder behind me.


I turned on the instant with my fingers tighten-


ing round the handle of my stick.


There, in the middle of the broad, bright high-


road – there, as if it had that moment sprung out of


the earth or dropped from Heaven – stood the figure


of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in


white garments….. (p.47)


An analysis of the above passage will illustrate why The Woman in White and


novels of a similar nature have been labelled `sensational’ and denied any


significant status as realism. Most obviously, the extract shows the main


characteristic of sensationalism: the sudden shock or surprise – every drop


of Walter Hartright’s blood `brought to a stop’ on encountering the figure on


the highway: he grips his stick nervously in anticipation of the unknown. The


aspect of mystery and the ghostly, too, can be seen – the Woman is described


as being `out of the earth’, otherworldly, her white garments, too, evoking a


ghostly overtone. The text, here, highlights yet subtler aspects of


sensationalism which I wish to discuss. Walter comes to a point where there


is a network of roads, where `four roads met’. The number of directions in


which he can travel mirrors the multi-faceted and intricate plot of Wilkie


Collins’ novel. This importance of plot has become – rightly or wrongly – a


trade mark of `sensational’ fiction. A further aspect of this genre is


fatalism, the predestined, the notion perhaps that is not mere chance that


Anne Catherick appears on Hartright’s `lonely high-road’ and not on the other


four.


The `characteristics’ of the sensation novel which I have touched


upon superficially above have, critically speaking, prevented it being


bestowed with any notion of `realism’. Though I do not desire necessarily to


challenge the notion of sensationalism in the novel but I do wish to question


the apparent `lack of realism’ in The Woman In White. I hope therefore to


illustrate the sensation paradox – that Collins’ novel is bound in realism as


well as being `sensational’. I would like to suggest also that the result is the


creation of a new, higher realism, different to that of writers such as Eliot


and Trollope.


I believe it would be appropriate, initially, to define the traditional


connotation of the term `realism’. The common

view is that the main function


of realism in fiction is mimetic; that to be realistic is to attempt to convey


an accurate imitation of life as it is: we are supposed to be left with the


impression that these realistic characters have lived and breathed. I first


want to demonstrate the degree to which The Woman in White defies this


traditional code of Victorian fictional realism.


When reading Collins’ novel we cannot fail to be struck by the


intricacy of the plot. This is what grips us so, what makes us read on, what


forced Anthony Trollope to stay up all night to finish the book. It is the


design and plot that is uppermost in our minds; we are not necessarily


concerned about the feelings of Marian Halcombe or Walter Hartright.


Undoubtedly in The Woman In White, character is subordinated to plot. The


former is dictated by the latter. It is Anne Catherick’s initial confrontation


with Hatright on the road to Limmeridge House that sets the whole chain of


events in motion. In fact it could be traced back to Hatright’s association


with Pesca; it is the Italian – returning a favour to Hartright for saving him


from drowning – who secures his position as Drawing Master employed by


Frederick Fairlie. The first narrator observes:


If I had not dived for Professor Pesca when he lay


under water on his shingle bed, I should…never


have been connected with the story which these pages


will relate. (p.37)


Contemporary critics tended to link – wrongly I believe – novels of incident


such as The Woman In White to sensationalism and novels of character to


realism. I will illustrate later how I feel this judgement is flawed but I am


merely pointing out here that the supremacy of plot breached the realistic


faith.


As an adjunct to this, it must be admitted that depth of character


(with the possible exception of Count Fosco) and plausibility of motive is


wanting to a certain extent within The Woman In White. Frederick Fairlie is


just a hyperchondriac; Marian Halcombe’s characteristics are seen to be


those of strength and bravery; Laura is weak-willed and sensitive while


Hartright is a combination of the latter two. It would be a mistake to say


that the figures which populate the novel are colourless – they are not – but


they do lack the complexity of, say, a Dorothea Brooke. In addition,


traditional realism demands that the actions of a character and motives


behind them be plausible, be `believable’. Plausibility does seem lacking in


sections of the novel. Walter Hartright’s sudden move to Honduras is a prime


example of this. He becomes timid, frail and effete, deciding to go to `another


country to try a change of scene and occupation’. He is merely said to be


making `excavations among the ruined cities of Central America’. There is no


real description about the thought process behind such a decision.


Pyschological realism appears, on a superficial inspection, to be neglected.


32b

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