Dreams are an important motif in The Woman in White. All three of the novel's main female characters dream, and tell either each other or the reader about them. The recollections of their dreams foreshadow future plot points and contribute to the building suspense.
Dreaming—or at least sharing the contents of one's dreams—is posed as a feminine activity. Early in the novel, Walter wonders what he will dream about one night, but this seems to mostly be a rhetorical remark. The dreams that Anne, Laura, and Marian share all relate to a looming menace, which leaves them feeling vulnerable. Dreams are thereby associated with weakness. At the same time, Collins and the character take dreams seriously, giving them weight as prophetic tools. Although dreams may remind the women of their powerlessness, they also give them valuable foresight about events to come. Characters in the novel use dreams as supernatural evidence that they are either on the wrong or right track.
The first time a character goes into detail about her dreams is when Anne Catherick warns Laura not to marry Sir Percival in an anonymous letter, in the first part of the First Epoch:
Do you believe in dreams? I hope, for your own sake, that you do. See what Scripture says about dreams and their fulfilment (Genesis xl. 8, xli. 25; Daniel iv. 18–25); and take the warning I send you before it is too late.
Last night, I dreamed about you, Miss Fairlie.
Citing the Bible to give credence to her allegorical dream, Anne goes onto describe it to Laura. To convince Laura not to marry Sir Percival, Anne could share concrete details from her own life that attest to his cruelty. Instead, she uses her dream, in which Sir Percival appeared as a demonic figure, as evidence that Sir Percival is a bad person. Laura takes the letter and dream seriously, trusting the anonymous writer's dream as evidence.
Before describing a dream of her own to Mrs. Michelson in the third part of the Second Epoch, Laura repeats the first line of Anne's letter:
‘Do you believe in dreams?’ she whispered to me, at the window. ‘My dreams, last night, were dreams I have never had before. The terror of them is hanging over me still.’
Until the very end of the Second Epoch, when it is revealed that Laura is in fact still alive, these three haunting sentences comprise the final words the reader hears from Laura before she supposedly dies. Through the repetition of the rhetorical question, Collins uses the dream motif to build suspense for the reader.
Dreams also foretell more positive developments, however. As Laura's and Marian's situation grows increasingly dark in the Second Epoch, Marian has a prophetic dream that Walter will survive a number of dangers in South America and come back to them. When he returns, the reader learns that he survived the very dangers that Marian envisioned in her dream. At the end of her dream, he meets a veiled woman who is risen from the dead. This foreshadows Laura's "return from the dead" when Walter and the reader discover that it was actually Anne who died. At the end of the Second Epoch, when Walter lays eyes on Laura for the first time since learning of her supposed death, Marian murmurs "My dream! my dream!" to herself. She is shaken by the fulfillment of her prophetic vision.
Dreams are an important motif in The Woman in White. All three of the novel's main female characters dream, and tell either each other or the reader about them. The recollections of their dreams foreshadow future plot points and contribute to the building suspense.
Dreaming—or at least sharing the contents of one's dreams—is posed as a feminine activity. Early in the novel, Walter wonders what he will dream about one night, but this seems to mostly be a rhetorical remark. The dreams that Anne, Laura, and Marian share all relate to a looming menace, which leaves them feeling vulnerable. Dreams are thereby associated with weakness. At the same time, Collins and the character take dreams seriously, giving them weight as prophetic tools. Although dreams may remind the women of their powerlessness, they also give them valuable foresight about events to come. Characters in the novel use dreams as supernatural evidence that they are either on the wrong or right track.
The first time a character goes into detail about her dreams is when Anne Catherick warns Laura not to marry Sir Percival in an anonymous letter, in the first part of the First Epoch:
Do you believe in dreams? I hope, for your own sake, that you do. See what Scripture says about dreams and their fulfilment (Genesis xl. 8, xli. 25; Daniel iv. 18–25); and take the warning I send you before it is too late.
Last night, I dreamed about you, Miss Fairlie.
Citing the Bible to give credence to her allegorical dream, Anne goes onto describe it to Laura. To convince Laura not to marry Sir Percival, Anne could share concrete details from her own life that attest to his cruelty. Instead, she uses her dream, in which Sir Percival appeared as a demonic figure, as evidence that Sir Percival is a bad person. Laura takes the letter and dream seriously, trusting the anonymous writer's dream as evidence.
Before describing a dream of her own to Mrs. Michelson in the third part of the Second Epoch, Laura repeats the first line of Anne's letter:
‘Do you believe in dreams?’ she whispered to me, at the window. ‘My dreams, last night, were dreams I have never had before. The terror of them is hanging over me still.’
Until the very end of the Second Epoch, when it is revealed that Laura is in fact still alive, these three haunting sentences comprise the final words the reader hears from Laura before she supposedly dies. Through the repetition of the rhetorical question, Collins uses the dream motif to build suspense for the reader.
Dreams also foretell more positive developments, however. As Laura's and Marian's situation grows increasingly dark in the Second Epoch, Marian has a prophetic dream that Walter will survive a number of dangers in South America and come back to them. When he returns, the reader learns that he survived the very dangers that Marian envisioned in her dream. At the end of her dream, he meets a veiled woman who is risen from the dead. This foreshadows Laura's "return from the dead" when Walter and the reader discover that it was actually Anne who died. At the end of the Second Epoch, when Walter lays eyes on Laura for the first time since learning of her supposed death, Marian murmurs "My dream! my dream!" to herself. She is shaken by the fulfillment of her prophetic vision.
