I Concurso de Escritura Crítica (2007-08)
Comentario crítico de la novela de Wilkie Collins The Woman in White
(600 palabras)
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Tercer premioElena GilEstudiante de ... |
The most brilliant characters in The Woman in White are, in my opinion, Marian Halcombe and Count Fosco. Beyond their intelligence, both of them are surprisingly strong.
Bearing in mind the status of women in the Victorian Age, Marian is quite an extraordinary character for the epoch. Then, women had hardly more rights than children and were raised to be dull and insubstantial characters much like Countess Fosco.
Marian, "intelligent, crabbed and odd", as she defines herself, has in the character of Laura, her half-sister, a close confident. However different these sisters may be, the truth is we find Marian entirely devoted to Laura, all through the novel. We might even see in Laura a profoundly selfish attitude towards Marian when she asks her not to marry anyone so as to remain always by her side.
Coming back to Marian, she confesses to Walter Hartright that she doesn't have a very high opinion of other women. Indeed, we can see she finds herself very much at ease near Count Fosco, this other unusual character who addresses her as an equal.
Regarding the Count and as the plot develops, we become aware of his being the main character in the novel, and the equivalent of Marian in the evil side. From the beginning, Laura despises him, a fact Marian doesn't understand. Still, Marian feels attracted to him from the very moment they met. In fact, after getting to know him, she is not at all amazed at the great change in Countess Fosco's conduct. She is convinced he could tame anything the way he tames his pets. More than that, she assures he could tame herself the same.
Nonetheless, Marian is not blind to Count Fosco's influence on Sir Percival, warning Laura: "Don’t make an enemy of the Count". Brilliant as he is, Count Fosco invents a perfect plan whose only weakness lies in his love for Marian, which he confesses openly in his final letter. However wicked we had considered him through the novel, his love for Marian redeems him somehow. Their impossible relationship could have turned, under happier circumstances, into a rather unusual couple for these times, composed of two equals.
Anyway, I find the best of the novel may lie in the part of the plot which develops at Blackwater Park, because of the suffocating atmosphere Wilkie Collins succeeds in creating. After that, the level of tension is hard to maintain, resulting in a weaker ending.
Besides, I find slightly disappointing the fact that a strong character as Marian ends up alone whilst the dull, boring Laura monopolizes the happy ending, with Walter Hartright marrying her. This fact, together with the death of Sir Percival and the Count, gives the whole story a rather traditional shade.
The final morals might weaken this very well-plotted story, where characters are extremely well depicted, particularly those of Mr. Fairly, with his funny eccentricities, or Mr Hartright, who becomes an adult as the story evolves and he faces problems, but especially this very particular couple around which the novel grows: Marian and the Count. We end up admiring the strength of this woman, intelligent and talented writer as we may see through her diaries, a devoted matriarch in her relationship with Laura, and a faithful support to Mr Hartright, without whom he wouldn't have reached the root of the evil plot. Finally, the Count, this mysterious fat man who turned out to be a Spy, may be the finest of masculine characters in The Woman in White, making a perfect match with Marian.
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