At Blackwater Park, some blood is witnessed; this can be seen as a foreshadowing of events to come later on in the story. Their conversation is of criminals and murderers, another foreshadowing, pg 205:
“It looks just the place for murder, doesn’t it?”
The setting is greatly influential in Gothic novels; it not only invokes the atmosphere of horror and dread, but also the deterioration of the world. The environment of Blackwater Park is very gloomy, dark and sinister and so this fits perfectly, not only with the Gothic style, but also with the conversation of murder. They talk of a perfect place for where a murder could take occur, Percival saying that the lake is a perfect location, count Fosco saying it isn’t and that wise men know better, and Laura saying that, Fosco’s statement is a contradiction, for, pg 206:
“…heard that truly wise men are good men, and have a horror of crime.”
Laura is basically saying that wise men are seen as good men, and a good man would find murder a horrific event therefore there’s no such thing as a wise man knowing better for when committing a crime.
All this talk of committing crimes and getting away with it allows Collins to make the reader become distrustful, as count Fosco is able to justify how it is possible for criminals to get away with murder. He reasons that if a person does not hear about a case, it does not mean it didn’t occur, perhaps the police simply did not want their humiliation publicised. Now this is where the suspense is, as now the reader is waiting for something to happen, it is a foreshadowing of sorts.
In the first epoch there is a lot of mystery involved behind the mysterious ‘woman in white’, whom we later find out to be called Anne Catherick. There are many questions surrounding her character, such as; why she has such a resemblance to Laura Fairlie, the heroine of the novel. There seems to be a connection between Anne and Laura’s mother. There is a mystery surrounding the heroine, which by following the gothic novel criterion, means the hero will have to unravel the many secrets.
In the second epoch, it has been six months after Laura and Percival’s marriage. The reader does not know the specifics of what happened during that time. Laura’s character seems much more reserved and she does not like to approach the subject of her marriage, therefore the reader wonders what is it that happened that makes her not want to talk about it. In general throughout the novel we don’t get much dialogue out of Laura, but going by Marian’s judgement, it is obvious that she is much more reserved than usual.
Throughout the novel, although we are left with so many questions, they are also answered for us as we continue reading. Why did Percival not say anything to Laura after finding out who her true love is? Did he already know, is that why he’s not so surprised? Does he not care? Obviously he doesn’t love her because he continued to marry her knowing full well that Laura loved someone else. Even an outsider can clearly see that Percival only wants Laura for her money, otherwise he wouldn’t go to such lengths for the money to be arranged and be so persistent about it.
Collins has already made us suspicious of Fosco, but the fact that he was able to tame the once wild Countess Eleanor and make her much more reserved and docile, makes us inquire what his methods were?
Laura finally meets Anne and there is confusion to what she says. There is a mention of a secret that Percival harbours. For the remaining of the novel, Walter is on a mission to find out what Percival’s secret is. Fosco’s motives are being doubted, Laura had mentioned before in her letters to Marian, that Fosco had changed his plans to meet Laura and Percival when they were on their honeymoon. What were his reasons?
In Marian’s narrative, there are too many unanswered questions and unresolved issues. By the end of the first epoch, we find that Walter has the impression that someone is watching him; Collins is able to involve the reader in to the story, as the reader wants to know who is watching Walter. At this point of the narrative, the reader already has suspicions that it may be Sir Percival, it is later confirmed that it was Percival who had him watched, as he found out that Laura loves Walter. Collins has already hooked the readers into wanting to read the 2nd epoch.
Marian falls ill suddenly and other people’s narratives are used now to explain the events that occur. This does affect the reliability of their stories, as the reader doesn’t know if they can trust them. The language changes significantly as now different characters give their account of things, and so the lower the class they are, the simpler the English. Collins has cleverly portrayed the different class structures and how they would talk subtly.
Laura hears that Marian has gone to Count Fosco’s house so she goes there as well to meet with Marian. The reader is confused as to why Marian would willingly go to Fosco’s house when we know of her feelings towards him. When Lady Glyde returns she has a sudden fright and is quickly taken to bed to rest; what had made her so frightened? Sir Percival and count Fosco fire all of the servants; why? Is it to hide something? All of this is very important as it adds to the mystery and suspense of the novel, much mystery behind the reasons towards such actions, and suspense as to what happens next, now that the servants are gone there are no witnesses, and if they were witnesses, what would they have witnessed?
The sudden death of Laura comes to a shock to the readers, as she is the main heroine of the novel. By the end of the epoch Walter sees Laura by her grave! If Laura is alive, then who has been buried? It seems to have been Anne Catherick. We later find this out when we read the third epoch, but Collins has cleverly placed a cliff-hanger at the end of the second epoch. Laura is really alive, but how? He wants the readers to buy the next one and wait in anticipation, to find out what is going on. The reader already has suspicions that it could be Anne Catherick we know that Anne suffered from a weak heart, whereas Laura was in fine health.
In the third epoch all the many questions that we had are finally answered. We find out that Percival’s big secret was that he was born illegitimately and he did not want anyone to know as it might ruin his reputation. We also discover that Fosco and Percival were in on the plot together to claim the money. The reason for why Anne and Laura resembled each other so much is because they had the same father. Anne and Laura’s bodies were swapped so really Anne Catherick died. There is more back-story given of Mrs Catherick, Anne, and Fosco’s past. Walter is on a mission to prove all of this and prove Laura’s existence and a nice conclusion is placed where they get married so they live happily ever after. Good conquers evil, as it should be.
Gothic novels have mystery and suspense as a fundamental part of the narrative, and it is apparent that this is true in ‘The Woman In White’.
