The Woman in White Characters

The Everyman Walter Hartright is a bit of a Renaissance man: he dabbles in everything. He's a modestly successful art teacher, but he's also an amateur detective and a lawyer. He's a romantic, but...

Damsel in DistressLaura Fairlie is so passive that she nearly disappears from view. Even Walter recognizes that Laura has a sort of dim, blurry aura hanging around her:A fair, delicate girl, in a p...

The Marian Halcombe Fan ClubWe are unabashed fans of Marian Halcombe, and we aren't alone in our fandom. At the time the novel was published, Marian became a sensation. Critics liked her, the readi...

A Star is BornFrom the descriptions we get of Count Fosco, he sounds something like an older Orson Welles or Marlon Brando—huge, powerful, and fascinating. Welles and Brando were riveting to watc...

Sir What Now?Who is that masked man? In a little throwaway line, Walter reveals that Sir Percival really isn't really Sir Percival after all:For her sake I wished to conceal it—for her sake, stil...

Goth GirlA lot is made of The Woman in White being a suspenseful gothic novel. But the only really gothic character is the creepy and mysterious Anne Catherick, the (in)famous woman in white hersel...

Frederick Fairlie is definitely a horrible person. We can't decide if he's hilariously awful or if he's just awful-awful: he's hypochondriac and an egomaniac. He's pretentious and narrow-minded. He...

Countess Fosco seems to be suffering from a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome, which has resulted in her developing a split personality. We'll let Marian sum it up:Clad in quiet black or gray gowns...

When we first meet Pesca, he's an energetic, kind-hearted Italian who provides a lot of (now totally dated) hilarity with his butchering of English slang."Well! Is four golden guineas a week nothin...

Mr. Gilmore is the Fairlie family lawyer, and an all-around good guy. He tries to help Laura out when he negotiates her marriage settlement, even though he's ultimately forced to give in to Uncle F...

Mr. Kyrle is a lawyer with a capital "L." For the most part, that's his only function. Marian writes him for legal advice. Walter visits him for legal advice. And Mr. Kyrle's topics of conversation...

The Woman in White loves to focus on the way appearances can be deceiving. The charming Sir Percival is really a brute; the crazy woman in the asylum is really the sane Lady Glyde; the concerned mo...

Mrs. Catherick could give Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest a run for her money. She is downright mean to her child, Anne: she doesn't bother to disguise her hatred for the girl.Pray understand that I...