The Woman in White

by Wilkie Collins

Summary
Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 1203

Through the help of his Italian friend Professor Pesca, Walter Hartright is engaged as drawing
master to the nieces of Frederick Fairlie, of Limmeridge House in Cumberland. On the day before
he leaves to take up his new position, he meets a young woman dressed in white wandering about
the outskirts of London. Walter discovers that she knows Limmeridge and once went to school
there with Laura Fairlie. The young woman leaves him very suddenly, and soon after a coach
comes by whose passenger leans from the window to ask a police officer if he saw a girl in white.
The police officer did not, and Walter hesitates to intrude. As the coach leaves, he hears the man
say the girl escaped from an asylum.

Upon his arrival at Limmeridge, Walter meets the first of his two pupils, Marian Halcombe. Marian
is homely but intelligent and charming in manner. Her half sister, Laura, is the beauty of the family
and heir of Limmeridge House. The two girls are living under the protection of Laura’s uncle, Fairlie,
a selfish and fastidious hypochondriac. Walter falls in love with Laura almost at once. After hearing
his story about the mysterious woman in white, Marian searches her mother’s letters and discovers
that she must be Anne Catherick, a young woman in whom Mrs. Fairlie took great interest because
she so greatly resembled Laura.

After several months, Marian realizes that Walter is deeply in love with Laura. She advises him to
leave, as Laura’s father asked her on his deathbed to marry Sir Percival Glyde. One day, Walter
meets the woman in white again. She is in the graveyard cleaning the stone that bears Mrs. Fairlie’s
name, and she admits that she hopes to thwart Laura’s coming marriage to Sir Percival. Told of this
incident, Marian promises to ask Sir Percival for a full explanation.

Walter leaves Limmeridge. When Sir Percival arrives, he explains to Marian that Anne is the
daughter of a woman who was in his family’s service in the past and that she is in need of hospital
treatment. He says he kept her in an asylum at her mother’s request, and he proves the statement
with a letter from Mrs. Catherick. His explanation is accepted, and his marriage to Laura takes
place. Walter, heartbroken, goes to Central America as a painter for an archaeological expedition.
When Sir Percival and Laura come home from their wedding trip some months later, Marian finds
them much changed. Laura is extremely unhappy, and Sir Percival shows his displeasure at having
Marian living with them in his house at Blackwater Park. Count Fosco, a huge and self-assured
Italian, arrives with his wife, Laura’s aunt, for a visit. Marian soon learns that the count is involved in
money matters with Sir Percival. When Laura is asked to sign a document without looking at it,
both she and Marian know Sir Percival and Count Fosco are trying to obtain money from her by
fraudulent means. Over Sir Percival’s loud protests, Laura refuses to sign the paper unless he will
let her read it. The count interferes and makes Sir Percival give up the matter for a time. Marian
overhears a conversation between the two men, in which they decide to get loans and wait three
months before trying again to persuade Laura to sign away her money. The household becomes
one of suspicion and fear.

By chance one day, Laura meets the woman in white and learns that there is a secret in Sir
Percival’s life involving both Anne and her mother. Before Anne can tell her the secret, Count Fosco
appears and frightens the woman away. Sir Percival becomes alarmed when he learns that Anne is
in the neighborhood. He locks both Marian and Laura in their rooms, but Marian spies on the two
men by climbing to the roof during a pouring rain and overhears a plot to get Laura’s money by
killing her. Before she can act on this information, however, Marian catches a fever from the chill of
her rain-soaked clothing. She is put to bed, and Laura, too, becomes mysteriously ill.

When Laura is better, she is told that Marian went to London. She cannot believe her sister left
without saying good-bye and insists on going to London herself. Actually, Marian is moved to
another room in the house. When Laura arrives in London, she is met by Count Fosco. She is given
drugs, falsely declared insane, dressed in Anne’s old clothes, and taken to the asylum from which
Anne escaped. Sir Percival finds Anne in the meantime. Because of her resemblance to Laura, he
plans to kill her and bury her as Laura. Anne is already very ill, and when she dies suddenly in
London of natural causes, Sir Percival announces that Laura, Lady Glyde, died.

After Marian recovers, she is told that her sister is dead. She refuses to believe either the count or
Sir Percival. Determined to find Anne, she discovers that the woman in the asylum is really Laura.
She arranges Laura’s escape and takes her back to Limmeridge. At Limmeridge, however, Fairlie
refuses to recognize the sickly Laura as anyone but Anne. Laura’s memory is so impaired by the
experience that she cannot prove her identity. Marian and Laura go to look at the false tomb
bearing the name of Lady Glyde. There they meet Walter, recently returned from Central America.
He came to pay his respects at Laura’s grave.
There is no possibility of returning Laura to her rightful estate as long as her mind is impaired by
her terrible experience. While she is recovering, Walter attempts to learn Sir Percival’s secret. He
finally discovers that Sir Percival’s father and mother were never legally married. Hoping to destroy
the evidence of his birth, Sir Percival attempts to burn an old church record that Walter needs. In
the fire he sets, Sir Percival burns up the church and himself as well. After his death, Mrs. Catherick
hints that Laura’s father was the father of illegitimate Anne as well. After searching, Walter finds
that this must be true.

Walter returns to London. Together, the three plan to clear Laura by forcing the count to confess.
Walter’s old friend Pesca reveals that Count Fosco is a traitor to the secret society to which both
Pesca and the count belong. Through Pesca’s help, Walter is able to frighten the count into giving
him a confession and written proof in Sir Percival’s handwriting that Laura was still alive when
Anne was buried under the name of Lady Glyde. The count flees England and is killed soon
afterward by the secret society he betrayed.

Walter, Marian, and a much-improved Laura are happy to have proof of the substitution that was
made. Walter and Laura marry and go to Limmeridge to confront Fairlie with the evidence. He is
forced to admit Laura’s identity. The friends then leave and do not return until after Fairlie’s death,
when the son of Laura and Walter takes over the estate. Marian lives with the family until she dies.

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"The Woman in White - Summary" Critical Survey of Literature for Students

Ed. Laurence W.
Mazzeno. eNotes.com, Inc.
2010 eNotes.com
25 Nov. 2022
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