The Woman in White

The Woman in White

by

Wilkie Collins

Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) Character Analysis

Anne Catherick is a poor, unfortunate and mentally fragile young woman who is locked in an asylum by Sir Percival Glyde because he thinks that she knows the secret of his false identity, as the Baronet of Blackwater—a title which is not his own. Anne is the daughter of Mr. Philip Fairlie and Mrs. Catherick (a maid whom he seduced before his marriage) and the half-sister of Laura Fairlie. She bears a striking physical resemblance to Laura, which Sir Percival and Count Fosco use to their advantage. Count Fosco kidnaps Anne, whom he knows has a heart disease and is emotionally fragile after years locked up in an asylum, and keeps her at his house until her death, publicly passing it off as Laura’s. Meanwhile, he and Sir Percival place Laura back in the asylum, which Anne escaped from, under Anne’s name. Anne is the titular “woman in white” and always dresses in white clothes because Mrs. Fairlie, Laura’s mother, whom Anne spent some time with as a child and to whom she was very attached, liked little girls to wear white and gave her some white dresses. Anne is a gentle and innocent woman who is mercilessly exploited by the Count and cruelly imprisonment because of Sir Percival’s paranoia and ruthless climb up the social ladder. Anne’s mother, Mrs. Catherick, later reveals to Walter that Anne never even knew Sir Percival’s secret. In life, Anne is proud and hates being called an “idiot,” and she demonstrates that she is caring and generous through her multiple attempts to warn Laura not to marry Sir Percival. Anne is a tragic figure in the novel and the wish she makes at Mrs. Fairlie’s tomb—that she could be in the tomb with her—is sadly fulfilled when Anne dies of stress-induced heart disease and her body is passed off as Laura’s.

Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) Quotes in The Woman in White

The The Woman in White quotes below are all either spoken by Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) or refer to Anne Catherick (“The Woman”). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Evidence and Law Theme Icon
).
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 5 Quotes

But the idea of absolute insanity which we all associate with the very name of an Asylum, had, I can honestly declare, never occurred to me, in connection with her. I had seen nothing, in her language or her actions, to justify it at the time; and, even with the new light thrown on her by the words which the stranger had addressed to the policeman, I could see nothing to justify it now. What had I done? Assisted the victim of the most horrible of all false imprisonments to escape; or cast loose on the wide world of London an unfortunate creature, whose actions it was my duty, and every man’s duty, mercifully to control?

Related Characters: Walter Hartright (speaker), Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 31-32
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes

To associate that forlorn, friendless, lost woman, even by an accidental likeness only, with Miss Fairlie, seems like casting a shadow on the future of the bright creature who stands looking at us now.

Related Characters: Walter Hartright (speaker), Marian Halcombe (speaker), Laura Fairlie, Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 11 Quotes

I looked along the two rays of light; and I saw down into his inmost heart. It was black as night; and on it were written, in the red flaming letters which are the handwriting of the fallen angel: “Without pity and without remorse. He has strewn with misery the paths of others, and he will live to strew with misery the path of this woman by his side.” I read that; and then the rays of light shifted and pointed over his shoulder; and there, behind him, stood a fiend, laughing. And the rays of light shifted once more, and pointed over your shoulder; and there, behind you, stood an angel weeping.

Related Characters: Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) (speaker), Laura Fairlie, Sir Percival Glyde
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 13 Quotes

‘Try to compose yourself, or you will make me alter my opinion of you. Don’t let me think that the person who put you in the Asylum, might have had some excuse— ’ The next words died away on my lips. The instant I risked that chance reference to the person who had put her in the Asylum, she sprang up on her knees. A most extraordinary and startling change passed over her. Her face, at all ordinary times so touching to look at, in its nervous sensitiveness, weakness, and uncertainty, became suddenly darkened by an expression of maniacally intense hatred and fear […] ‘Talk of something else,’ she said, whispering through her teeth. ‘I shall lose myself if you talk of that.’

Related Characters: Walter Hartright (speaker), Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) (speaker), Sir Percival Glyde
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

It is the great beauty of the Law that it can dispute any human statement, made under any circumstances, and reduced to any form. If I had felt professionally called upon to set up a case against Sir Percival Glyde, on the strength of his own explanation, I could have done so beyond all doubt. But my duty did not lie in this direction: my function was of the purely judicial kind. I was to weigh the explanation we had just heard; to allow all due force to the high reputation of the gentleman who offered it; and to decide honestly whether the probabilities, on Sir Percival’s own showing, were plainly with him, or plainly against him. My own conviction was that they were plainly with him; and I accordingly declared that his explanation was, to my mind, unquestionably a satisfactory one.

Related Characters: Mr. Gilmore (speaker), Laura Fairlie, Marian Halcombe, Sir Percival Glyde, Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
The Second Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 6 Quotes

He was kneeling by a tomb of white marble; and the shadow of a veiled woman rose out of the grave beneath, and waited by his side. The unearthly quiet of his face had changed to an unearthly sorrow. But the terrible certainty of his words remained the same. ‘Darker and darker,’ he said; ‘farther and farther yet. Death takes the good, the beautiful, and the young – and spares me. The Pestilence that wastes, the Arrow that strikes, the Sea that drowns, the Grave that closes over Love and Hope, are steps of my journey, and take me nearer and nearer to the End.’ My heart sank under a dread beyond words, under a grief beyond tears. The darkness closed round the pilgrim at the marble tomb; closed round the veiled woman from the grave.

Related Characters: Marian Halcombe (speaker), Walter Hartright, Laura Fairlie, Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 274
Explanation and Analysis:
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Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) Quotes in The Woman in White

The The Woman in White quotes below are all either spoken by Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) or refer to Anne Catherick (“The Woman”). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Evidence and Law Theme Icon
).
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 5 Quotes

But the idea of absolute insanity which we all associate with the very name of an Asylum, had, I can honestly declare, never occurred to me, in connection with her. I had seen nothing, in her language or her actions, to justify it at the time; and, even with the new light thrown on her by the words which the stranger had addressed to the policeman, I could see nothing to justify it now. What had I done? Assisted the victim of the most horrible of all false imprisonments to escape; or cast loose on the wide world of London an unfortunate creature, whose actions it was my duty, and every man’s duty, mercifully to control?

Related Characters: Walter Hartright (speaker), Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 31-32
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes

To associate that forlorn, friendless, lost woman, even by an accidental likeness only, with Miss Fairlie, seems like casting a shadow on the future of the bright creature who stands looking at us now.

Related Characters: Walter Hartright (speaker), Marian Halcombe (speaker), Laura Fairlie, Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 11 Quotes

I looked along the two rays of light; and I saw down into his inmost heart. It was black as night; and on it were written, in the red flaming letters which are the handwriting of the fallen angel: “Without pity and without remorse. He has strewn with misery the paths of others, and he will live to strew with misery the path of this woman by his side.” I read that; and then the rays of light shifted and pointed over his shoulder; and there, behind him, stood a fiend, laughing. And the rays of light shifted once more, and pointed over your shoulder; and there, behind you, stood an angel weeping.

Related Characters: Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) (speaker), Laura Fairlie, Sir Percival Glyde
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 13 Quotes

‘Try to compose yourself, or you will make me alter my opinion of you. Don’t let me think that the person who put you in the Asylum, might have had some excuse— ’ The next words died away on my lips. The instant I risked that chance reference to the person who had put her in the Asylum, she sprang up on her knees. A most extraordinary and startling change passed over her. Her face, at all ordinary times so touching to look at, in its nervous sensitiveness, weakness, and uncertainty, became suddenly darkened by an expression of maniacally intense hatred and fear […] ‘Talk of something else,’ she said, whispering through her teeth. ‘I shall lose myself if you talk of that.’

Related Characters: Walter Hartright (speaker), Anne Catherick (“The Woman”) (speaker), Sir Percival Glyde
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
The First Epoch: Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

It is the great beauty of the Law that it can dispute any human statement, made under any circumstances, and reduced to any form. If I had felt professionally called upon to set up a case against Sir Percival Glyde, on the strength of his own explanation, I could have done so beyond all doubt. But my duty did not lie in this direction: my function was of the purely judicial kind. I was to weigh the explanation we had just heard; to allow all due force to the high reputation of the gentleman who offered it; and to decide honestly whether the probabilities, on Sir Percival’s own showing, were plainly with him, or plainly against him. My own conviction was that they were plainly with him; and I accordingly declared that his explanation was, to my mind, unquestionably a satisfactory one.

Related Characters: Mr. Gilmore (speaker), Laura Fairlie, Marian Halcombe, Sir Percival Glyde, Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
The Second Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 6 Quotes

He was kneeling by a tomb of white marble; and the shadow of a veiled woman rose out of the grave beneath, and waited by his side. The unearthly quiet of his face had changed to an unearthly sorrow. But the terrible certainty of his words remained the same. ‘Darker and darker,’ he said; ‘farther and farther yet. Death takes the good, the beautiful, and the young – and spares me. The Pestilence that wastes, the Arrow that strikes, the Sea that drowns, the Grave that closes over Love and Hope, are steps of my journey, and take me nearer and nearer to the End.’ My heart sank under a dread beyond words, under a grief beyond tears. The darkness closed round the pilgrim at the marble tomb; closed round the veiled woman from the grave.

Related Characters: Marian Halcombe (speaker), Walter Hartright, Laura Fairlie, Anne Catherick (“The Woman”)
Page Number: 274
Explanation and Analysis: