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The First Epoch: Part 1, Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Woman in White, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Evidence and Law
Morality, Crime, and Punishment
Identity and Appearance
Marriage and Gender
Class, Industry, and Social Place
Summary
Analysis
Walter wakes up in Limmeridge House and goes down to breakfast. On entering the dining room, he sees a woman with a beautiful figure standing with her back to him in the parlor. When the woman turns around, however, Walter is shocked to discover that she is “ugly” and that her face does not match her graceful figure. The woman introduces herself in a frank, confident manner and, teasingly, adds that Walter will have to put up with just her at breakfast as her sister has a headache and her uncle, Mr. Fairlie, never comes down. She tells Walter that she is one of his students and that her name is Marian Halcombe.
Walter thinks that Marian’s face will match her figure, which he finds beautiful, and is shocked when he discovers that, instead, he thinks she is ugly. Although Marian is self-deprecating and tells Walter he will have to settle for her company, her manner is extremely confident and witty, which is unusual in an upper-class young woman from this period, as wealthy women were encouraged to be reserved and demure in public.
Themes
Walter likes Marian’s friendly and cheerful manner and listens to her as she tells him about herself and the other inhabitants of Limmeridge House. She tells him that she and her half-sister, Laura Fairlie, are complete opposites—Marian is the daughter of a poor man, while Laura is heir to a fortune—but that they are extremely fond of each other. Marian explains that it is Laura who is interested in drawing and that she, herself, is very bad at art and music but that she can play parlor games. She hopes that between them they will be able to keep Walter suitably entertained and that he will not long for “adventures.”
Marian’s taste in entertainment is “unfeminine” by British nineteenth-century standards. Women were expected to be proficient in artistic pursuits such as music and art, and were not believed to be good at games. Women were considered less rational and intelligent than men and thought to lack the mental quickness and acumen needed for “parlor games.” It was even considered improper for women to enjoy games.
Themes
Literary Devices
This reference to “adventures” reminds Walter of his meeting with the woman in white clothes. He tells Marian about the experience and Marian is shocked to hear that the woman mentioned her mother, Mrs. Fairlie, since she has no idea who the woman in white could be. Walter explains that the woman in white claimed to have been at school in Limmeridge, although not a native of the countryside nearby, and that she knew Laura Fairlie during her time there. Marian is completely baffled by the mystery but does ascertain that her mother, Mrs. Fairlie, ran a school for a while in the village of Limmeridge, after her second marriage to Laura’s father.
Marian’s interest in “adventures” and her fascination with the story Walter tells her about the woman in white demonstrate her adventurous and enquiring spirit: traits considered masculine in the nineteenth century. Marian implies that the woman in white may have told the truth about her relationship with Mrs. Fairlie, as Mrs. Fairlie ran a school at Limmeridge which the woman may have attended as a young girl.
Themes
Marian feels that Walter has done the right thing by helping the woman in white clothes to escape as she is sure that she is a poor, persecuted woman rather than a criminal. She tells Walter that she is fascinated by the mystery and that she has a stash of her mother’s letters which she will examine for clues. A note arrives from Mr. Fairlie, inviting Walter to visit him, and Walter leaves Marian to her breakfast.
Marian also believes that women are unjustly treated in her society. Women’s rights and protests about the unfair treatment of women were a central issue in the 1860s when Collins was writing. Marian demonstrates her sharp intelligence and natural ability for detection when she thinks of a plan to find evidence of the woman’s in white relationship with her mother to discover the woman’s identity.
Themes
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