Analysis Of William Wilkie Collins The Woman In White

Before approaching the aspects of the novel, let me give you an insight about the life of the author, the time and also the genre. Born in 1824, William Wilkie Collins was the son of the celebrated painter William Collins. Sharing the same name as his father, his grandfather was an art dealer and writer. It was clearly evident that he was brought up in an environment that supported and encouraged creativity, so it was quite obvious and perhaps inevitable that he would eventually go on to become an artist or writer. From age 17 to 22 years old, William Wilkie Collins had to work as a clerk to pay his way out while he attempted to write his first novel. It was never published in his lifetime, but it did serve as an apprenticeship in the discipline …show more content…
Collins weaves together a complex narrative by presenting the reader with primary documents from the characters themselves, such as letters, journal entries and newspaper accounts, to give the book immediacy and suspenseful plot without controlling the story through an omniscient narrator, Collins serves to deliberately disorientate with his use of the first person narrative, making it difficult to ascertain which characters are to be trusted and which are not. Tackling the story in this way is also clear nod to Collin’s background of legal …show more content…
Although the plot of the novel is integral to the, The Woman in White and Collins felt that a good story was paramount to writing a successful book, his characterization is also inventive and varied. The delicate and beautiful Laura, whom Walter Hartright falls in love with, is in contrast to her intrepid and distinctly unfeminine half sister Marian, who proves to be an unconventional heroine by the end of the novel. The sinister Italian Count Fosco is the villain of the piece, along with the manipulative Sir Percival Glyde, who plans to steal Laura’s inheritance. Fosco’s devious and cultured personality undoubtedly influenced other writers in their depiction of similar characters in later crime novels. Also the sudden meeting of Walter with the mysterious woman in white is said to have been inspired by a real life meeting which took place when Collins, accompanied by his brother Charles and the painter Millais was strolling home one evening in 1858. The real woman in white was Caroline Graves (a widow). Caroline and Wilkie never married but lived together from about 1858 for the best part of 30 years which indicates