The fountain outside Sir Percival Glyde’s house at Blackwater has a “statue of a monster on a plinth” in its center. The fountain symbolizes the true, monstrous character of Sir Percival Glyde at the heart of his noble façade and, similarly, the ruthless and merciless character of Count Fosco beneath his veneer of gentility. The fountain also reflects Laura and Marian’s position when they are trapped at Blackwater. They are in the lair of the monster and, like the monster in the heart of the fountain, surrounded by water, are unable to cross the threshold of the grounds and escape from Blackwater or from Count Fosco and Sir Percival’s clutches. Madame Fosco’s habit of walking around the fountain in circles reinforces this metaphor. Although this seems to be an innocent activity, Madame Fosco uses this position outside the front door of the house, where the fountain stands, to keep watch over Marian and Laura’s comings and goings. This allows Madame Fosco to pass on information to her husband and to intercept the letters the girls send out, begging for help.
The Fountain Quotes in The Woman in White
This is the habitable part of the house, which has been repaired and redecorated, inside, on Laura’s account […] – all very nicely ornamented in the bright modern way, and all very elegantly furnished with the delightful modern luxuries. I was terribly afraid, from what I had heard of Blackwater Park, of fatiguing antique chairs, and dismal stained glass, and musty, frouzy hangings […] A large circular fish-pond, with stone sides, and an allegorical leaden monster in the middle, occupies the center of the square. The pond itself is full of gold and silver fish, and is encircled by a broad belt of the softest turf I ever walked on.
Except in this one particular, she is always, morning, noon, and night, in-doors and out, fair weather or foul, as cold as a statue, and as impenetrable as the stone out of which it is cut. For the common purposes of society the extraordinary change thus produced in her, is, beyond all doubt, a change for the better, seeing that it has transformed her into a civil, silent, unobtrusive woman, who is never in the way. How far she is really reformed or deteriorated in her secret self, is another question. I have once or twice seen sudden changes of expression on her pinched lips, and heard sudden inflexions of tone in her calm voice, which have led me to suspect that her present state of suppression may have sealed up something dangerous in her nature, which used to evaporate harmlessly in the freedom of her former life.
The Fountain Symbol Timeline in The Woman in White
