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Victorian Studies ssociation of Western Canada

Wilkie Collins, (185960)The Woman in WhiteAuthor(s): DALLAS LIDDLESource: Victorian Review, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 37-41Published by: Victorian Studies Association of Western CanadaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27793695

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2/6

Victorian

review

forum

:

Keynotes:

Key

Victorian

Texts

-.

The Nick of

Time:

Politics,

volution,

nd the

Untimely.

Durham: Duke

UP,

2004.

-.

Time

Travels:

Feminism,Nature,

Power.

Durham: Duke

UP,

2005.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley.The CollectedWorks ofGerardManley Hopkins. Ed. Lesley Higgins and

Michael

F. Suarez.

Oxford: Oxford

UP,

2006.

Levine,

George.

Darwin

and

theNovelists:

Patternsof Science

in

Victorian Fiction.

Cambridge,

Mass.:

Harvard

UP,

1988.

-.

Dying

to

Know:

Scientific

Epistemology

nd

Narrative

in

Victorian

England.

Chicago:

U

of

Chicago

P,

2002.

O'Connor,

Erin. Raw

Material:

ProducingPathology

in

Victorian

Culture. Durham: Duke

UP,

2000.

Ruse,

Michael.

Darwinism

and

its

Discontents.

Cambridge: Cambridge

UP,

2006.

Pater,

Walter

Horatio.

The

Renaissance:

Studies

in

Art

and

Literature.

ondon:

Macmillan,

1922.

The VictorianWeb. Ed. Alfred

J.

Drake. October

2001. 20

August

2008

.

Williams,

Carolyn. Transfigured

orld:

Walter

Pater

s

Aesthetic

Historicism.

Ithaca: Cornell

UP,

1989.

Wilson, Elizabeth A. Psychosomatic:Feminismand theNeurological Body.Durham: Duke UP, 2004.

Wilkie

Collins,

The

Woman

in

hite

(1859?60)

dallas liddle

?

Since

The

oman

in

hite

was

rediscovered

in

the

later twentieth

century

as

a

fit subject for serious literary riticism, ithas become grist foran unusually

diverse

range

of

criticalmills.

As

a

bestseller and

popular

publishing

phenom

enon

in

its

own

time,

it

has received

strong

responses

from

reader-response

criticism

and

New

Historicism. As

the

paradigmatic

1860s

"sensation

novel"

and

as

a

generic

bridge

between the

eighteenth-century

Gothic and

the

later

nineteenth-century

detective

story,

it

has been

investigated by

genre

criti

cism.

As

a

magazine

serial turned

independent

bestseller,

its

pages

have been

turned

by

scholars of

periodicals

studies and

publishing

history;

as a

proudly

plot-centered

fiction,

it

has

helped

drive modern

narratology.

As

a

sustained

engagement

with

women's

lives

and

legal rights,

containing

several

edgily

cross-gendered characterizations,

it

has been

read

into

the records of feminist

criticism

and

queer

theory.

As

a

domestic

fiction

with characters

who

suffer

in

the

jungles

of Central

America

and

flee the

oppression

of

Italy

by

foreign

overlords,

it

has been enlisted

in

the

postcolonial

canon.

The list of scholars

who have

engaged

Collins's

novel

on

these theoretical levels and others

is

an

honour

roll of

Victorian

studies

and

a

virtual

abc

(Auerbach,

Brantlinger,

Czetkovich)

of

its

theoretical

innovators.

I

believe

The

Woman in

White has

more

to

offer, however,

beyond

even

this

role

as

a

Victorian

proving-ground

for critical

theories,

beyond

even

its

being

an

index

to

them.

It

may

help

us

address

an

emerging

problem

in

Victorian

studies that

is

the obverse of

our success

at

theoretical

innovation?a

trend

toward theoretical

fragmentation

and

compartmentalization.TheVictorianists

37

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/6

Victorian

review

Volume

35

Number

1

who travel

today's

increasingly

diverse

scholarly

paths

cannot

be said

to

ignore

each

other,

exactly,

but much

of

our

work has

come

to

exist

in

parallel

rather

than

in

dialogue,

separated

not

only

into its

own

panel

sessions

but

into

its

own

conversations

and

even

its

own

conferences.

Is this

a

phenomenon

that

should

worry

us?

What would

greater

dialogue

between and

among

our

theo

retical

subspecialties

accomplish?

Like

Walter

Hartright

in

the church

vestry

at

Old

Welmingham,

we

may

not

know what

secret

is

ready

to

be discovered

until its

last

unexpected

piece

falls

into

place.

But

in

this

space

I'd like

to

con

sider how

some

of

the

critical threads

Victorianists

have

spun

for

TheWoman

in

hite,

already

valuable

in

themselves,

might

become

more

valuable

if

they

were

intentionally

woven

together.

It

has often

been

shown

that

questions

of

identity

furnish

not

only

the

plot

of Collins's

novel,

but much of its thematic content. U.C.

Knoepflmacher

was

among

the

first

to

point

out

that

the

theft f the

identity

of

Lady Glyde/Laura

Fairlie

is

matched

in

the novel

by

a

strong

thematic

concern

with how the

identities of all

Victorian

women were

constituted and

regulated.

Later,

D.A.

Miller showed

that Collins

is at

least

as

concerned with how

the

Victorians

con

structed

male

identity

and

sexuality,

and

scholars

including

Jonathan

Loesberg

have

observed how central

questions

of

class

are

to

the novel. More

recently

still,

Cannon Schmitt

has

argued

that national

identity,

foreign

and

domestic,

is

one

of

Collins

s

chief

concerns,

and Tamar

Heller has demonstrated how

Walter

Hartright's

relationship

to

his

profession?artist

and

art

teacher,

and

laternewspaper illustrator?might offer the central piece of his identityand

characterization.

Appropriately mirroring

the

multiple

detective-characters within the

work,

these scholars

all

seem

to

have found

individually

significant

clues

to

how

The

Woman in

hite

engages

the

issue

ofVictorian

identity.

n

addition

to

being

indi

vidually

right

about the

issues

they

identify,

owever,

they

may

be

cumulatively

right

in

ways

we

have

not

yet

learned

to connect.

If

we

try

to

see

components

of

identity

in

the

novel,

such

as

gender

and

sexuality,

class,

nationality,

and

profession

as

pieces

of

a

larger

central

design

rather

than

as

separate

read

ings

achievable

only

from different

theoretical

perspectives

(feminism,

queer

theory, Marxism, postcolonial theory,

cultural

studies), different conclusions

about their

pattern

and

purpose

may

emerge.

Is

it

possible

to

read the novel

as

being

"about"

each

of

these

powerful

elements of

personal

identity

and

simultaneously

"about" the

multiplex

construction

ofVictorian

identity

itself?

Let's

try

to

imagine

how

a

reading

that

synthesizes

some

of the

criticism

on

identity

in

The

Woman in

hite

might

develop.

Collins

introduces

and

problematizes

five

major

variables of

identity?age,

gender/sexuality,

class,

nationality,

and

profession?so early

and

strongly

in

his

novel that

initially

he

seems

bent

on

creating

a

Dickensian

gallery

of

anti

types.

Within

the

first few

pages,

we

meet an

Italian

who

acts

English,

a

young

woman

who

acts

old,

and

an

older

woman

who

acts

young.

A

few

chapters

on,

we

add

a

notably

masculine

woman

(Marian

Halcombe)

and

a

notably

38



4/6

Victorian

review

forum:

Keynotes:

Key

Victorian Texts

effeminate

man

(Frederick

Fairlie).

But

it

soon

becomes clear that Collins

does

not

confine

his

study

of each variable

to

one

character,

or

to

the

binary

move of either

invoking

or

reversing

Victorian

expectations,

but instead builds

patterns

or

clusters

of

possibility

around each variable.

By midway

through

the

novel,

as

gender

critics

have

shown,

he shows

not

only

manly

women

and

womanly

men

but also

manly

men

and

womanly

women,

and all

ranges

of

sexual

motivation,

from

aversion

to

absence of

desire,

to

sublimation,

to

desire,

to

tigerish

sexual obsession.

He

plays

the

same

game

of

permutation

with

the

class

issues

that

attract

many

cultural

critics,

showing

a

member of the

upper

classes who behaves

boorishly

(Fairlie)

and

a

middle-class character

who

is

"naturally

a

gentleman" (Hartright),

but

also

lower, middle,

and

upper-class

characters who

act out

role-identity

expectations

precisely?if

sometimes

also

calculatedly and dishonestly (Sir Percival). His "age" cluster includes not only

themirrored

old/young

pair represented

by Hartright

s

mother and

sister

but

an

older

man

(Gilmore)

who

is

proud

of

his

years

and

generation,

an

older

woman

aging

into

vegetative

placidity (Mrs. Vesey),

and

an

older

man

for

whom

age

is

perfectly

irrelevant

(Fosco).

Th?

"profession"

cluster,

which

contains

multiple

doctors,

lawyers,

and

teachers,

also demonstrates

a

striking

range

of individual

self-expressions

possible

within

those roles.

A

solicitor

can

choose the

identity

of

his client's

accomplice (Merriman),

a narrow

subject

specialist

(Kyrie),

or a

fatherly

mentor

(Gilmore).

For

at

least

some

characters,

moreover,

the choice of

how

personal

identity

will match

or

diverge

from

role

expectations

is

fully

conscious.

Gilmore

lives

"professionally

in

an

atmosphere

of

disputation,"

as

he tells

Hartright,

and

while

staying

at

Limmeridge

House

is

"only

too

glad

to

escape

from

it"

(142)

by

avoiding

argument

altogether.

Hartright

himself

is

even

better,

or

worse,

at

strategically compartmentalizing

his

identity,

s

when

he

writes

that

in

his

professional

role he has

habitually

left

"all the

sympathies

natural

to

my

age,"

by

which he

means

his

sexuality,

"in

my

employer's

outer

hall,

as

coolly

as

I

left

my

umbrella

there

before

I

went

upstairs"

(89).

If the scholars

who have

separately

identified the novel's

interest in

these

issues

of

identity

are

right,

do

we

gain

anything

by trying

to

reconcile

their

insights?

One

advantage

of

seeing identity

in

the novel

through

a

wider

lens

might

be

to

reveal

in

Collins's

identity

clusters

a

purpose

at

least

partly

descrip

tive,

making

the novel

to

some

degree

a

field

guide

for the

many

different

ways

to create

and

manage

a

mid-Victorian

identity.

This

metareading

would

suggest

a

generic

function for the

work

precisely

opposite

to

that

of

a

conduct

manual. Rather

than

inscribing

the cultural

expectations

for

any

given identity

and

prescribing

its

readers'

behaviour

on

the basis

of

them,

it

would

be

seen

as

laying

out

ranges

of

behaviour

that

can

be enacted within

or

despite

those

expectations.

It

becomes about

not

only

how

Victorian

culture

imposed identity

on

individual

subjects,

in

other

words,

but also

the

range

of

responses

that

remained

possible

to

those

subjects

even

under that

imposition.

In this light, it is surely significant that the text's most tragic victims?Anne

39



5/6

Victorian

review

Volume

35

Number

1

Catherick

and Laura

Fairlie?are also the

two

characters

who

assume

the least

personal

control

(Mrs.

Vesey

excepted)

of

their

own

identities and who

are

most

complicit

in the

attempts

of others to inscribe them into roles.The

pli

able

Laura

in

particular

becomes

student, lover,

wife,

and

even

madwoman

almost

literally

on

command.

By

contrast,

every

man or woman

in

the

text

who

actively

tries

to

remake

an

identity

succeeds.

Over

months

in

the

jungles

of Central

America,

Hartright

remakes

himself

into

a

modern

knight

errant;

over

years

in

the "civilised desolation"

(503)

ofWelmingham,

Mrs.

Catherick

rebuilds

herself

from

a

fallen

woman

into

the formidable

Mrs.

Grundy

of

her

community.

Pesca

transforms himself from radical Italian freedom

fighter

to

peaceable

"English"

tutor,

and

Fosco,

once

a

radical Brotherhood

member

alongside

Pesca,

transforms

himself

into

...

well,

Fosco.

Even Sir

Percival,

with

a relatively mpressive display of ingenuity, orgeshisway back into a cherished

identity

he has

been

in

danger

of

losing.

That Collins would

attempt

such

an

ambitious,

panoramic,

and

pointed

treatment

ofVictorian

identity

should

perhaps

not

be

a

surprise.

Tamar

Heller

has

pointed

out

in

a

recent

review

essay

that the

concept

of character

"hybrid

ity"

("Masterpiece"

64)

seems

central

to

many

of Collins

's

projects,

from the

gender

doublings

of The

Woman

in

hite

to

the

strange

half-white,

half-dark

hair

of Ezra

Jennings

in

The Moonstone.

But

in

this

essay,

Heller also

implies

that

modern

scholarship

on

Collins has

kept

pace

with

its

subjects

complexity,

and

I

think this

position

would

be

harder

to

support.

In

the novel's

preamble,

the narrator, Hartright, asks readers to approach the book as a collection of

evidence?and

we

have?but he

also

asks

us

to

treat

every

element

of that

evidence

as

fundamentally

connected?"the

course

of

one

complete

series

of

events"

(33)?and

there

we

have been less

successful.

While

our

various

theo

retical

tools

have

given

us

greater

analytic

strength,

they

also

seem to

inhibit

synthetic

thinking,

encouraging

scholars

to

assert,

when

a

text

responds

to

the

issues

favoured

by

a

specific

theoretical

position,

that

we

have

found

the

key

to

that

text.

Nor

does

it

solve

this

problem

to

collect

our

diverse

readings

in

casebooks

or

essay

collections,

where

they

most

often

remain

a

set

of

opposed

or

diverging monologic

positions

rather

than

forming

true

problem-solving

dialogues.

In

the

same

way

that the

theft f

Lady

Glyde's identity

as

too

complex

and

ingenious

a

crime

for

a

single

detective

to

solve,

literary

texts

such

as

The

Woman

in

hite

may

be

both

too

diverse

to

be illuminated

by

any

single

critical

position

and

too

significantly

unified

in

overall

purpose

to

be

understood

piecemeal.

Precisely

because

it

has

been

almost

uniquely

successful

at

responding

with

intriguing

answers to

the full

range

of

our

current

critical

inquiries,

however,

The oman

in

hite

might

have

unique

potential

to serve as

the

key

to

a

dialogic

reengagement among

Victorianists.

Like the

East

End

neighbourhood

where

Walter, Marian,

and

Laura

go

to

ground,

it

may

provide

the best

place

for

us

to

gather

and

learn

to

better

pool

our

resources,

genuinely

share

our

knowledge

and

perspectives,

and

plot

our next

strategic

moves

together.

40



6/6

Victorian review

forum:

Keynotes: Key

Victorian

Texts

Works Cited

Auerbach,

Nina.

Women

and the

Demon:

The Life of

a

Victorian

Myth.

Cambridge:

Harvard

UP,

1982.

Brantlinger,

Patrick. "What

is

'Sensational' about the

'Sensation Novel'?"

Nineteenth-Century

Fiction

37

(1982):

1-28.

Collins,

Wilkie. The

Woman

in

hite. Harmondsworth:

Penguin,

1976.

Czetkovich,

Ann.

Mixed

Feelings:

Feminism,

Mass

Culture,

and

Victorian

Sensationalism.New

Brunswick:

Rutgers

UP,

1992.

Heller,

Tamar. Dead Secrets:

ilkie

Collins and

the

Female

Gothic.

New Haven:

Yale,

1992.

-.

"Masterpiece

Theatre and

Ezra

Jennings's

Hair:

Some

Reflections

on

Where We've

Been

and Where We're

Going

in

Collins Studies."

Reality's

Dark

Light:

The Sensational

Wilkie

Collins.

Ed.

Maria K.

Bachman

and

Don

Richard

Cox.

Knoxville:

U

of

Tennessee

P,

2003.

361-370.

Knoepflmacher,

U.C.

"The Counterworld of

Victorian Fiction

and The

Woman

in

hite."

Ed.

Lyn

Pykett.

Wilkie

Collins.

New

York:

St.

Martin's,

1998. 5"8?69.

Loesberg,

Jonathan.

"The

Ideology

of Narrative Form in Sensation Fiction."

Representations

13

(1986):

115-38.

Miller,

D.A.

"Cage

aux

Folles:

Sensation

and

Gender

in

The

Woman

in

hite."

Representations

14

(1986):

107?36.

Schmitt,

Cannon.

"Alien

Nation:

Gender,

Genre,

and

English

Nationality

in

Wilkie

Collins's The

Woman

in

hite." Genre

26

(1993):

283?310.

Janet

Hamilton,

"A Plea

for

the

Doric"

(1870)

FLORENCE BOOS

Forgi*e,

oh,

forgi'e

me,

aiild

Scotlan',

my

mither

Like

an

ill-deedie bairn

I've ta'en

up

wi'

anither;

[ill-behaved

child]

And

aft

thy

dear

Doric aside

I

hae

flung,

To

busk

oot

my sang

wi'

the

prood

Southron

tongue.

They

say

that

our

auld

hamlet

tongue,

my

ain

mither,

[homebred]

Is

deein',

and

sune

will

be

dead

a'thegither;

Whan

thy

callants

hae

ceased

to

be

valiant and

free, [lads]

And

thy

maids

to

be

modest,

oh

juist

let

it

dee

Shall

the

tongue

that

was

spoken

by

Wallace

the

wicht,

[valiant]

In

the

sangs

o'

thy

poets

sae

lo'esum

and

bricht,

[lovely/tender;

bright]

Sae

pithy

an'

pawkie,

sae

tender an'

true,

[sly,

roguish]

O'

sense

and

slee

humour

an'

feelin'

sae

fu';

Shall

the

tongue

that

was

spoken by

leal Scottish

men,

Whan

they

stood for their richts

on

the

hill

an'

the

glen?

Oh,

say,

maun

it

dee,

when

the

last

words that

hung

[must

it

die]

On the

lips

o' the martyr war ain mither

tongue?

41


woman in white critics

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