Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Woman in White, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Evidence and Law
Morality, Crime, and Punishment
Identity and Appearance
Marriage and Gender
Class, Industry, and Social Place
Summary
Analysis
Walter and Marian cannot find anyone in the village who knows about the letter’s sender, and they end up at the school which Mrs. Fairlie established. Inside is a class full of boys. One is being punished and is forced to stand on a stool separate from the others. The schoolmaster berates the boy for claiming to believe in ghosts. He dismisses the other boys, except the boy on the stool, before he speaks to Walter and Marian.
Walter and Marian arrive at the end of the school day, just before the boys are sent home. The boy who stays behind to be punished is reprimanded for spreading stories about ghosts—both frightening the other children and going against the religious beliefs he would have been taught.
Themes
Literary Devices
The schoolmaster has not seen the old woman that Marian is looking for. On their way out, Marian stops to question the boy who is being punished for saying that he saw a ghost. The boy says that he saw the ghost night before, in the graveyard behind the school, and that the ghost was all in white. Marian asks whose ghost it was, and the boy tells her that it was the ghost of Mrs. Fairlie. Marian is offended by this and thinks that there may be rumors or folk tales circulating about her mother, but the schoolmaster assures her that the boy only has this idea because he claims that he has seen the ghost standing over Mrs. Fairlie’s grave.
Ghosts often appear as white specters, but the white garments also link back to Anne Catherick’s determination to wear white clothes. Marian is insulted at first as she believes that the villagers have been gossiping about her dead mother. Marian feels that the people in Limmeridge owe her mother a great deal because she set up the school and that they should be grateful to her and respect her memory.
Themes
As they leave, Marian asks Walter what he thinks about this. Walter wishes to see Mrs. Fairlie’s grave himself. Marian asks him what he suspects, and Walter replies that he believes the figure, dressed all in white, was Anne Catherick. Marian tells Walter that she will show him to the grave and then return home because she is worried about Laura. She leads him to the entrance of the church yard and then leaves Walter by himself.
Walter has deduced from the boy’s description of the ghost, and from Anne’s connection to Mrs. Fairlie, that it is not a spirit that the boy has seen but Anne Catherick.
Themes
Walter looks around the grave for signs of interference but there are no footprints around it. However, he does notice that one side of the grave is dirty while the other looks as though it has been recently cleaned.
Walter uses techniques of deduction (such as looking for footprints and examining the grave) which are frequently used by detectives in later crime novels, mysteries, and modern thrillers.
Themes
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Walter leaves the church yard and, at the cottage next door, comes across an old woman hanging out washing. She tells him that she is married to the man who maintains the church yard but that he has been ill and unable to keep the graves clean. Hearing this and remembering the clean side of the grave, Walter decides to return at sunset and keep watch over the graveyard that night. He returns to his room to wait for dusk and, looking out from his sitting room window, sees Laura walking dejectedly through the grounds.
Walter deduces that, if the man who usually tends the graves is ill, then someone else must have cleaned Mrs. Fairlie’s grave. He decides to keep watch in the churchyard as he believes that this person also has a connection to Laura, the mystery of the woman in white, and the anonymous letter that Laura received. Walter can see that Laura is not at all happy or excited about her engagement.
Themes
Just before nightfall, Walter returns to the church yard and finds a place to hide, just inside the entrance of the church, where he can safely observe Mrs. Fairlie’s grave without being seen.
By taking matters into his own hands and investigating the mystery himself, Walter sets out a blueprint for many famous fictional detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, and Hercule Poirot.
Themes
