“THE WOMAN IN WHITE by WILKIE COLLINS: AN

ANALYSIS”

ROUGH DRAFT SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE COURSE

TITLED –

LAW AND LITERATURE

SUBMITTED TO:

Dr. PRATYUSH KAUSHIK

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

SUBMITTED BY:

NAME: ABHISHEK KUMAR

COURSE: B.B.A L.L.B (Hons.)

ROLL NO: 1803

SEMESTER: 2nd

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NYAYA NAGAR,

MITHAPUR, PATNA – 800001
 INDEX

INTRODUCTION

* AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

* HYPOTHESIS

* RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

* SOURCES OF DATA

* LIMITATIONS

TENTATIVE CHAPTRIZATION:

1. KEY FEATURES
2. THEME ANALYSIS
3. LITERARY STYLE
4. CHARACTER SKETCH
5. STORY BACKGROUND
6. PLOT SUMMARY
7. RELATING THE LAW WITH LITERATURE
8. CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:

1. The researcher tends to make a summary of the novel highlighting the relevancy of law in
the text.
2. The researcher tends to analyze the significance of the law in the literary texts
contemporary to the given literary work at that time.
3. The researcher tends to make a commentary on the literary style and theme selection of the
author.

HYPOTHESIS:

The researcher tends to presume that the author used those law aspects that was of utmost relevancy
at that time when this novel was written, in his work.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The researcher will be relying on Doctrinal method of research to complete the project.

SOURCES OF DATA:

The researcher will be relying only on secondary sources to complete the project.

*Secondary Sources: Book, websites.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

The researcher has territorial, monetary and time limitations in completing the project.
INTRODUCTION

The Woman in White is Wilkie Collins' fifth published novel, written in 1859. It is considered to
be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first in the genre of
"sensation novels". It was pretty much universally dismissed by critics. They complained that the
characters and plot were weak, the novel was all style and no substance, it was silly, and it wasn't
"real" literature. The use of multiple narrators (including nearly all the principal characters) draws
on Collins's legal training.

The theme of the story is the unequal position of married women in law at the time. Laura Glyde's
interests have been neglected by her uncle and her fortune of £20,000 by default falls to her
husband on her death. This provides the motive for the conspiracy of her unscrupulous husband
and his co-conspirator Fosco. In his later Man and Wife, Collins portrays another victim of the
law's partiality, who takes a terrible revenge on her husband.

The novel was first published in serial form in 1859–60, appearing in Charles Dickens' magazine
All the Year Round (UK) and Harper's Weekly (USA). It was published in book form in 1860.

The novel was extremely successful commercially, but contemporary critics were generally
hostile. Modern critics and readers regard it as Collins' best novel: a view with which Collins
concurred, as it is the only one of his novels named in his chosen epitaph: "Author of The Woman
in White and other works of fiction".

Dublin University Magazine in February 1861 reviewed the novel. It opens by saying that the
book, "which claims a passing notice from the marked disproportion of its actual merits to its
seeming popularity, the spirit of modern realism has woven a tissue of scenes more wildly
improbable than the fancy of an average idealist would have ventured to inflict on readers beyond
their teens."

And, like all good cult classics, The Woman in White has remained super-popular ever since it
was first published. It's been adapted into stage productions, movies, TV miniseries, and even an
Andrew Lloyd Weber musical. It was made into a movie six times between 1912 and 1948. And
it's never been out of print since it first hit the stands in 1860.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS TEXT

Sometimes it seems like identity is a perpetual maze (and a perpetual illusion) in our daily lives.
It can seem like identity is something that you switch-up at will… or something that can be
misconstrued, misunderstood, or taken from you at any moment.

But, identity issues are not a new phenomenon. The Woman in White is all about identity and the
way it can escape our control. We've got identity switchers, stolen identities, mistaken identities,
false identities, and super-secret spy identities… and this is all in a novel from the mid-19th
century.

The Woman in White asks all sorts of questions about how stable our identity is, how much our
identity is a product of what other people think of us, how difficult it is to maintain our originality,
and how we can never be sure who is lying about their identity. And all of those questions and
issues are still absolutely relevant today.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The researcher has to consult following sources to complete the final proposal:

BOOKS:

The woman in white by Wilkie Collins