The Woman in White

The Woman in White combines a close interest in the realities of contemporary society—its laws, its treatment of the vulnerable, and its class structures—with an uncanny element that often verges on the supernatural. This is characteristic of sensation fiction, but it also raises thematic questions about the haunting nature of guilt and the ultimate arbiter of justice. In a novel where the law proves utterly unable to judge not only guilt and innocence but also basic fact (e.g., Laura’s identity), characters must look beyond human institutions for answers and justice.

The novel immediately establishes that human justice is fatally flawed: “[T]he Law is still, in certain inevitable cases, the pre-engaged servant of the long purse” (3). In other words, the legal system is concerned not with justice but with preserving the interests of the wealthy and well-to-do. It is also interested in preserving the interests of men; it is the law that gives married women like Laura so little control of their financial resources.

The law’s intertwinement with unjust class and gender dynamics is not its only failing. As Mr. Kyrle explains, the legal system’s emphasis on material evidence can encourage a superficial interpretation of events that ignores the complexities of human experience. Walter’s explanation of Laura’s belief that she spent a night with Mrs. Vesey—that she has conflated intention and reality under conditions of extreme stress—strikes Kyrle as psychologically plausible. However, the law is not interested in such searching explanations. There is also the concern that a court case would mean retraumatizing Laura, which is one reason why Walter avoids going to court even after he has written documentation backing up his claims. The novel implies that if the court ruled in Laura’s favor, the result might be unjust.

Walter’s extralegal investigation is one solution to these problems, but it is not the only one. Rather, the novel uses its supernatural or quasi-supernatural elements to evoke a form of justice that isn’t bound to human limitations. The first hint at something supernatural comes with Anne Catherick, whose appearance on a dark road is so sudden and alarming that she strikes Walter as an “extraordinary apparition” who “had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven” (20). Later, Anne is mistaken for the ghost of Mrs. Fairlie when a schoolboy sees her standing at her grave at Limmeridge. This idea of haunting coincides with Anne’s role as an embodiment of Sir Percival’s sins: the supposed repository of his secret and the victim of the measures he has taken to hush that secret up. When discussing whether the lake at Blackwater would be a good place to commit a murder, Sir Percival scoffs at the idea that “crimes cause their own detection” (265), but that is what the suggestion of haunting suggests; crimes don’t stay silent in the past but come back to accuse their perpetrators.

Another example of the supernatural is Marian’s dream about Walter, in which he tells Marian that he will survive various events because he is destined to save Laura. The final image of the dream is of a veiled woman rising from a grave, anticipating Walter meeting Laura over the tomb that bears her name. This scene, in which a prophetic dream comes true, introduces an idea of predestination, suggesting that justice is inevitable and that Walter’s investigation is a mere instrument for reestablishing Laura’s identity and position in society. Likewise, it is worth noting that neither the law nor Walter punishes either of the novel’s villains. Instead, both Sir Percival and Count Fosco fall prey to the consequences of their treachery, contributing to an idea of justice that transcends the law.