Wilkie Collins, Feminism, and Victorian Society...
A Little Perturbed...
The first time I read the work of Wilkie Collins I remember being extremely perturbed that I had never been exposed to him in college. This was especially true considering that he has been credited with beginning the genre of mystery fiction. His work in The Woman in White is also credited with having created the genre of Sensational fiction. Collins didn’t just give birth to the genres of mystery or sensation. He blended gothic and realist elements seamlessly in The Woman in White as well. This combination of the real and the surreal make for an interesting novel that keeps the reader on his or her toes and completely engrossed in the plot.
Although he had been writing for some time, The Woman in White is the first of Collin’s works to bring him real commercial success. He would go on to publish three more successful novels throughout the 1860s too. These works include No Name, Armadale, and The Moonstone. His work in The Woman in White is a bit more interesting than these three though because it has an overtly feminist approach to the female characters in the story. This is something that is rarely seen in books written by men of the day. The Woman in White also gives great insight into some of the social issues of the day while remaining delightfully entertaining throughout.
Mystery and Controversy…
Like many novels from the Victorian period, The Woman in White was published in serial form. It appeared in the British literary magazine All Year Round from 1859 through 1860. This magazine was founded and owned by the famous author Charles Dickens, so The Woman in White was able to reach a wide audience. Given the publication’s connection with Dickens, the initial run of the serialized novel had instant prestige attached to it as well. This prestige was something that would help the novel as it crossed the pond that same year.
During the same time that The Woman in White enjoyed commercial success in England, it was also published in Harper’s Weekly in the United States. At the time of its publication, Collins seemed to be creating an entirely new genre in the form of a detective story. There has been some debate about this though with many literary critics claiming that the origins of the detective novel actually began with Edgar Allen Poe’s work The Murders in Rue Morgue which was published in 1841. This differing opinion seems to be a type of splitting hairs in the literary community in my opinion since Rue Morgue was a short story and The Woman in White is a plotted novel.
Regardless of who you credit with having created the genre of the detective story, a few things seem clear: First, that collaboration was alive and well among Victorian authors and artists. Secondly, many of these authors took inspiration from the world around them and…in some cases…specifically from their own life experiences. Thirdly, the serialized way that many of them published made it possible for a new form of narration to emerge.
It’s Everyone’s Story…
The Woman in White is demonstrative of the new form of narration that took hold during the Victorian period. This was one in which the story employed the use of multiple narrators instead of a singular omnipresent speaker or a voice. In these third-person narrations, the perspectives did not come from a singular character. Instead, each character added his or her own perspective on things which served to heighten the mystery in novels like The Woman in White.
Multipersectivity opened up a whole new creative world for Authors such as Collins. Instead of seeing the story through one set of eyes, the reader was invited into the minds of all of the characters of note and was forced to make up their own mind about which perspective might have been skewed…at least until the author chose to clue the reader into what they were really supposed to see. Some of the other novels of this era that use diary entries and several narrators include:
Frankenstein (1818) which begins with a series of letters from Robert Walton before allowing Victor Frankenstein to take over for most of the novel. Walton then takes over near the end to help the reader put all of the pieces together and to teach the reader the moral lesson.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) also takes on this formula with Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll sharing the narration at times through their entries to diaries or letters written. The anonymous narrator in this piece helps the reader put it all together in its proper order as well.
Dracula (1897) also changes narration throughout the novel as Bram Stoker uses diary entries, letters, and various other types of communications to carry the plot to its conclusion.
The Turn of the Screw (1898) is written in this way as well to some degree as, like Frankenstein before it, the story beings with one person telling it before the narrative is taken over by another.
This way of narrating worked well for serialized works in that with each installment the reader could be kept on the edge of their seat just as they are with modern-day television shows that use this format.
Challenging the Reader…
Multiperspectivity can sometimes present a challenge for the modern-day reader coming to Victorian literature for the first time because it feels very jolting. These jolts that the reader feels as they move between the differing consciousnesses of the characters threaten to push the reader out of the story which is why a lot of academics who have studied these works and the culture that produced them often tell new readers to break up the reading over the course of as many days or weeks. In other words, readers new to Victorian literature are often advised to read the pieces as intended…like a serialized novel. This is certainly good advice for an author like Dickens whose writing style can often come across as dense, poetic, and verbose all at the same time.
Reading Victorian literature piece meal may seem time-consuming, especially for readers who like to chug down as many words as possible as quickly as possible. This reading style will leave you wanting, frustrated, and confused if you try it with Victorian literature though. Consider that these works were like the weekly TV series of their day. They were meant to be taken in pieces and digested and discussed over the days leading to the next installment. Because of this, if you are patient with yourself as a reader and give yourself the time you need to properly ingest works such as The Woman in White, A Tale of Two Cities or Silas Marner you will find them well worth your time.
Criminal Inspiration…
Like Dickens, and many of the other authors we have talked about to this point, Collins did not have to look far for inspiration when he sat down to write The Woman in White. In fact, crime stories were all the rage in Victorian England. Given the massive shifts of populations from rural to urban settings during this period it is not hard to see why. After all, the more people you cram into a space the higher the crime rate tends to be.
Immigration was also starting to reach its peak during the 19th century, which brought strangers into contact with one another at an ever-increasing rate which tended to raise suspicion of the other. Victorian suspicions did not reserve themselves to fear of their neighbors or "the other" either. With the rise in medical advancements came a rise in suspicions concerning the sciences. In particular, surgeons and psychologists were eyed with a type of distrust.
Lawyers and the legal system also came under public scrutiny as women and workers began to fight for their rights and oftentimes were met with failure. It’s no wonder that true crime books and novels became popular during this period. In fact, it is said that as many as 6,000 crime fiction titles were published during the period stretching from 1800 to 1900. For his part, Collins seems to have taken inspiration from a particular story published in Maurice Méjan's 1808 book Recueil des Causes Célèbres. This 1776 case involved a French woman who was falsely imprisoned under an assumed name. Stories like this were also prominent in the Victorian newspapers that Collins often clipped and collected. One such case was that of Louisa Nottidge who was abducted and wrongfully imprisoned for monetary gain.
It’s a Sensation…
Even as they showed a great interest in sensationalized crime, Victorians were outwardly conservative so they were not initially as keen to popularize sensational novels as we are today. That did not dull their interest in them though. In fact, interest in true crime stories dates back to 1775 in England. It is this year that The Newgate Calendar began to be circulated.
Beginning as a collection of stories that were collected from broadsides, The Newgate Calendar was a book that provided information on the criminal activities of the inmates at Newgate Prison to the public. It also acted as a dire warning against falling from virtue into vice and was a staple in many British households much like the Bible. Incidentally, The New Gate Calendar had been feeding the British appetite for true crime stories for 65 years before Queen Victoria was crowned, 68 years before Poe published Rue Morgue, and 86 years before The Woman in White hit the stands. That is quite a bit of time to establish a fan base for the genre of crime drama.
Often times The Newgate Calendar placed the criminals in a sympathetic light which tended to cast suspicion on the justice system since it appeared to have no compassion for the circumstances that led the criminal to commit the crime in the first place. Dickens picks up on this in his novels such as Oliver Twist, but there is little to no sympathy to be had for the criminal elements in Collins’s work The Woman in White. In fact, not for lack of trying, for many readers there is little to no sympathy for the plight of Sir Percival once he has treated Laura so harshly, faked her death, and had her committed.
There is also no sympathy to be had for Count Fosco regardless of his proclaimed love for Marian and explained how that love made him do things in a slightly less sinister way because of his affections. This inability, or unwillingness on Collins’s part, to make his criminals sympathetic might be why his work has never received its due. This is a shame since Collins combines gothic elements with aspects of realism in such a way as to have created a whole new type of novel known as the Sensation Novel.
Location and Symbolism…
Like many Victorian novels, The Woman in White is a multi-layered narrative that is filled with both conscious and subconscious symbolism. Whether the modern-day reader picks up on some of the symbols is entirely owing to their knowledge of Victorian Era attitudes and social problems. Victorians reading the novel when it was first published would definitely have seen the critiques of British society and culture that Collins was putting forth though.
Like many Gothic/Victorian novels, location is everything in The Woman in White. This can be seen by looking at the way that Collins uses the spaces in his novel to establish a mood. One of the most significant ways that Collins does this is through his description of Blackwater Park. It is here that the Gothic elements of the novel really come into focus as Blackwater is presented, both in name and in appearance, as a dark and foreboding place. In this instance, the 500-year history that has led to the disrepair of the house and the half-drained lake are meant to symbolize the decay of British society.
The use of the word black in the title of the estate is also meant to symbolize the black characters that reside there in the form of Sir Percival and Count Fosco. Take notice that the seemingly good elements in the story have a farm-like setting, and the places where Collins uses urban settings are often those places in the novel where he is heightening both suspicion and drama. Other places of symbolic interest besides location include Anne Catherick’s white dress and the appearances of both Laura and her sister Marian.
It’s Madness…
Anyone who has read The Woman in White also knows that there is a lot of fainting and fawning in it. Personally, I lost count of the times that Marian, Laura, or Anne fainted or became faint. I also lost count of how many maladies these women had, and how often the men in their lives seemed to refer to their loss or lack of mental faculties. In creating the three women in his novel though, Collins has done something brilliant. He has given a balanced view of all of the behaviors that Victorian women may have displayed while simultaneously allowing these women to exist as characters in their own right rather than an extension of the men around them. This makes The Woman in White a distinctly feminist novel.
It is hard to see the feminist aspects at first given some of the misogyny and sexism present in the descriptions of some of the female characters. Take for instance the fact that Walter Hartwright describes Marian as ugly at first. As soon begins to understand that she is a woman of marked intelligence and he begins to respect and trust her because of it his perspective changes though. Count Fosco also falls under Marian’s spell because she is brilliant. In fact, he even marks her as his intellectual equal. This seems to be Collins’s subtle way of fighting the gender essentialist belief system that plagued Victorian understandings of the sexes.
Collins also allows Marian to feel anger and passion in ways that, typically during this period, were reserved for a man. This can be seen several times in the novel where Marian asserts that if she were a man she would punch someone’s lights out or get loud. Collins allows Marian to carry the bulk of the narration, rather than handing it off to a male character as well. Several other women also get a chance to tell their stories in the novel, and not all of these women are evil or conniving like Mrs. Catherick or dumb as a brick-like Margaret Porcher.
Wife, Mother, Ruler, Lover…
When reading the novel it is hard to deny that Laura falls ill due to her nerves and Anne comes across as a bit touched. Using a feminist read though it is quite possible that Collins treats these characters in such a way as to bring to the forefront the consequences that women often suffered during this period for suppressing who they truly are in order fit the mold of femininity produced by the cult of motherhood/true womanhood/domesticity.
The Cult of Motherhood/True Womanhood/Domesticity is a set of beliefs that were popular in the 19th century that relied on gender essentialism in order to maintain themselves. Most people who have worked with these concepts have applied them to American culture and womanhood from 1820 through 1870. These ideologies also existed in Victorian England and were often upheld by the pictures of Victoria and Albert’s domestic bliss.
During Queen Victoria’s reign, the English believed that a woman’s place was in the home and that women should and could find intellectual and emotional fulfillment through the roles of mother and wife. Fun Fact: it is also during this time that new treatments began to arise for what was known as female hysteria. The most common treatment was for the doctor to give the lady an orgasm through clitoral stimulation. This treatment was administered through the use of medical devices which were the forerunners for today’s modern-day vibrators. Incidentally, the symptoms of female hysteria included anxiety, shortness of breath, fainting, nervousness, sexual desire, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in the abdomen, irritability, and loss of appetite for food or sex. Perhaps all Laura and Anne needed then was a few good vibes.
It’s a Love Affair…
Given the role that Marian plays in the novel and the ways in which Collins handles all of the other women in his work, a case could absolutely be made for this being a feminist novel. Perhaps this is because of the way that Collins interacted with the women in his own life. This can be seen by looking at his love affair with Caroline Graves.
The circumstances of how Collins and Caroline met are a bit obscured, but what literary critics can agree on is that Caroline lived with Wilkie from 1858 until his death in 1889. Collins also dedicated his 1879 work The Fallen Leaves to her. If you are seeking to argue that Collins was a feminist writer then this piece could certainly be helpful.
Although it was not well received, The Fallen Leaves follows the lives of four women as they weave their way in and out of the protagonists’ life. Like The Woman in White, this novel also affords a type of sexual freedom to a few of its female characters and takes on subtle discussions regarding how these women are treated by society as a result. The treatment of the unmarried women in his works and the way that Sir Percival’s and Anne Catherick’s parents were never married might be inspired by the fact that, although Collins and Caroline cohabitated for an extended period, they never married.
It wasn’t all domestic bliss for Collins and Caroline. Caroline married in 1868 and Collins is said to have had an affair with Martha Rudd which was at the heart of why Caroline chose to do so. Collins must have been quite the ladies' man as well given that he was able to negotiate a situation for himself in which Martha saw at the bottom here and Caroline in the picture on the right, were aware of each other and the situation yet still remained with Collins and continued to have their affairs with him Perhaps it is his insight into women, and their ability to be as sexually active, emotionally intelligent, and intellectually challenging as men that we find in the pages of The Woman in White.
It’s About Class…
The Woman in White can also be read using the Marxist literary lens for interpretation. Like Dickens and others of his day, Collins used his work to make significant statements regarding the social classes in England at the time that he is writing. This makes his work a goldmine for anyone seeking to understand how art imitated life and acted as an allegory during the 19th century in Europe. For instance, Mr. Farlie’s art collection and mental state are meant to be a commentary on the state of the British upper class which was often self-absorbed and out of touch with the growing middle class in England.
Sir Percival’s entire downfall also hinges on a piece of information that he is desperate to protect in order to protect his social status. Count Fosco’s collection of pets is also meant to speak to the eccentric ways that the aristocracy often behaved, but there is more to it than that when it comes to the detailed descriptions that Collins provides of how Fosco interacts with his pets. It is meant to symbolize his foreignness.
It’s All Very English…
The fear of foreigners and an emphasis on proper English behavior as a marker of the civilized were very real things in Victoria England. This is why the reader often finds references to them in Collins’s novel. Take note that both Italian men in the novel take great pains to behave as proper English gentlemen for instance. The secret society presented near the end of Collins’s work is also about casting suspicion on foreigners who might, at any moment, attempt to overthrow the British monarchy.
Collins was also writing at the height of British colonialism which meant that the crown had a lot of foreign enemies. This is evident by the fact that Queen Victoria had no less than 8 plots against her life. During her reign, foreigners were often blamed for any decay that was seen in British society as well. Looking at the way that Collins uses Count Fosco and gives the count the power to manipulate Sir Percival you could argue that Collins bought into these ideas. That is at least until you realize that Sir Percival’s undoing was entirely of his own making and that Count Fosco often tried to stop the Baronet from acting against his own best interests.
It’s Time To Move On…
It is true that the British who lived during the Victorian Era were often suspicious of immigrants, very narrow-minded when it came to ideas surrounding sex and gender, and were even a bit racist. For all of their flaws, they certainly produced some wonderful pieces of groundbreaking literature though. Chief among these is Collins’s novel The Woman in White. Usually overlooked courtesy of his more famous work The Moonstone, The Woman in White does not just offer the reader a glimpse into a not-so-distant past, it also demonstrates that Collins had something worthwhile to say about the lives of women in Victorian England and that he recognized how these female voices were often silenced.
Although many female voices were drowned out during the Victorian period, one that would not be silenced was that of Mary Shelly. Her work, Frankenstein, or the Modern Day Prometheus is one that I will be tackling in the coming days. In the process, I will be discussing the claims that she did not actually write this work, and I will be looking at how she created the genre of Science fiction long before any of her male counterparts even dreamed of it. Until then, feel free to visit Grace Slick and me over on Instagram by clicking on any of the images on this blog post, and as always seek joy and go read!
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