#Anne Catherick

[paris-in-space]

The idea for this has been circling around my head since I finished listening to the audiobook.

#the woman in white #the woman in white Wilkie Collins #marian halcombe #Walter hartright #Laura Fairlie #Anne Catherick #Paris’s box of classic lit blorbos

[gothlit-sexywoman-contest]

#anne catherick #rachel verinder #the moonstone #the woman in white #goth lit #gothlit sexywoman contest #bonus

[mxcottonsocks]

Thinking about Laura mirroring Anne today...

She gave me the letter. It began abruptly, without any preliminary form of address, as follows— "Do you believe in dreams? I hope, for your own sake, that you do. [...] - The Woman in White, First Epoch: Part 5

The guard closed the door. "Do you believe in dreams?" she whispered to me at the window. "My dreams, last night, were dreams I have never had before. [...]" - The Woman in White, Second Epoch: Part 14

#also thinking about marian's dreams... which feels so long ago now #i have been keeping up with twiww just between one thing and another i haven't had the time or energy to post about it #i have been enjoying it so much though #i think i may have some half-drafted posts so if i post anything that seems to be reacting to something from weeks ago that's why sorry! #laura fairlie #anne catherick #the woman in white #the woman in white weekly #1st epoch part 5 #2nd epoch part 14

[aftout]

Top ten gothic lit crossovers that JD has even though it probably shouldn’t

#‘doc your half sister is scaring me senseless’ #my art #doodle #juliette’s draft #hastie lanyon #anne Catherick #marian halcombe #the woman in white #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #jekyll and hyde

[red-umbrella-811]

I know it’s not her fault, but Anne Catherick is kind of a stressful person to be friends with.

#the woman in white weekly #the woman in white #Anne catherick

[the-busy-ghost]

Benefits of audiobooks- I can listen to them while I work, and I am forced to hear and consider every word, rather than read at my usual flying pace, which means I don’t miss things as much and get a deeper and more sustained enjoyment from a really good book

Disadvantages of audiobooks- When there are emotional details they aren’t blunted by the fact that my uncontrolled eye is already skimming the next passages and there are some Emotions that are not appropriate for working hours

#The Woman in White #Because Mrs Clements saying 'I made her first short frocks' broke me #And yet if I'd been reading a physical copy of that passage I'd probably have flown through it without remembering that sentence at all #Also the bit where Hartright says that Anne is buried in a place that Mrs Clements would have chosen for her herself #Was very upsetting #AND to top it all off I've just gone back an dlooked up the passage again and there's a sentence about how #Hartright 'is certain that she was not neglected in her last moments' #WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WALTER #Ok so she had medical attention and all the kindness that strangers could give her #But she died in a strange place confused as to why she was there surrounded by people who only wanted to use her #and the one person in the world who loved her not only didn't know where she was but never heard of her death until Walter told her #At least I suppose when he says that he means it as a comfort to Mrs Clements and that's totally fair and valid but still #Honestly I quite enjoyed the book but Anne Catherick deserved so much better than a single line on a tombstone #Maybe I'm just susceptible to statements about people who died without their loved ones near them for personal reasons #And I know it's a very common occurrence and even in the Victorian era when many people died at home it was common then #But poor Anne deserved better #Anyway also proof that audiobooks count as 'real books' #Because even though I don't always count them towards reading challenges I actually find that I pay more attention #and get a lot more out of fiction books at least than if I'd been reading them in a physical copy #Non-fiction is a different matter but I learnt to race through novels at an early age and just eat them up without much mulling over them #And it's hard to control my eye even when I'm trying to savour a book #So audiobooks actually make me read more carefully and sensibly #Perhaps the main disadvantage is I never know how the names of people and places are spelt #Especially if the narrator has an accent #reading log

[thethirdromana]

I have a bunch of thoughts inspired by @animate-mush and @vickyvicarious' discussion on asylums and madness in the Woman in White and Dracula, but that discussion moved on before I had a chance to add to it, so this is going to have to be a separate post.

I'm thinking about this from the perspective of Bad People vs Bad Systems.

The Woman in White is a novel what goes wrong is the fault of bad systems. Laura lives in a system - a patriarchal society - that enables bad people to take advantage of her, and denies her the means of protecting herself.

But it seems to me that Wilkie Collins doesn't quite commit to the idea. The system fails when it's abused by bad people like Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco. But Collins only shows things going wrong as a result of bad people in a bad system. He doesn't show that same system leading good people to do bad things.

It's noticeable when we get the revelation about Anne Catherick's parentage. Until then, Sir Philip Fairlie is presented as a good man, and Laura's slavish adherence to his wishes could be a demonstration of how the patriarchy causes even good men to make women suffer. But the reveal that Sir Philip Fairlie is Anne Catherick's father upends that: he's just yet another morally flawed man in Laura's life. He doesn't harm Laura deliberately, but through Walter's narration Collins explicitly makes the connection between Sir Philip Fairlie's sins and everything that Laura suffers.

Contrast him with Walter, our morally pure hero. Walter often doesn't seem to treat Laura much better, but Collins clearly doesn't see it that way. For instance, it's striking to me how much Walter's treatment of Laura echoes her treatment in the asylum: she's confined to one location, lied to, and infantilised. Except when Walter does it, he's a good person, and it's presented as a good thing - even as romantic.

Wilkie Collins is more interested in talking about social issues than Bram Stoker is, but Stoker is more willing to take that further step and accept that bad systems also cause good people to do bad things. Jack Seward is a good person: he wants the best for his patients, he means well, but he also uses his power as an asylum-owner to abuse Renfield. The heroes exclude Mina from their discussions with the best of intentions, but it still ends badly for them. Collins never pursues this kind of storyline with Walter - or at least he hasn't yet, and I don't think it's coming.

Overall, harm in Dracula can happen regardless of intention. Harm in The Woman in White requires intention or at least indifference. I wonder how much of this is inherent to Collins' worldview, and how much is that the idea that patriarchal norms are bad even in the hands of good men would just have been a step too far for Collins' 1860s readership.

#woman in white weekly #dracula daily #dracula spoilers

[dodger-chan]

Maybe my mind will change once we meet her, but at the moment I feel a lot of sympathy for Mrs. Catherick.

Sir Percival set her up so that her neighbors and her husband would believe the two of them were having an affair and he used (and continues to use, I assume) his influence to force her to remain in the town where everyone judges and despises her. She doesn't seem like she was ever a very nice woman, but years of living with that sort of judgement couldn't have helped.

And while it's not impossible that Mrs. Catherick disliked her daughter just because getting pregnant altered the course of her life, the overall impression I'm left with was that Anne's mother didn't get married to cover up an affair, but something somewhat less consensual. Not that it would have been viewed at the time as anything but her poor moral character getting her in trouble.

#woman in white weekly

[thesporkidentity]

He has filled the house with walking-sticks of his own making, not one of which he ever takes up for a second time. When they have been once used his interest in them is all exhausted, and he thinks of nothing but going on and making more.

i'm ashamed to say my very first thought was "his wife has filled his house with chintz." but moving on, this is a nice little detail. sir percival is constantly moving onto the next thing, chewing people up and spitting them out when he's done using them. now obviously he's using laura for her money, but given her physical resemblance to anne catherick, it makes me wonder what he was also using anne for (before he finished with her and locked her away in an asylum) since i highly doubt she ever had any money. now if this were a modern story it'd be obvious, but i think that answer might be too ~salacious~ for the time period but who knows, so now i'm just burning up with curiosity because what else could he have had interest for in the former housekeeper's daughter? (if i'm remembering correctly)

#woman in white weekly

[thatscarletflycatcher]

I can relate to Anne Catherick because I too am a strange woman dressed in strange clothes saying strange things and making people uncomfortable with my weirdness.

#the woman in white

[syyskirjat]

Surely my chance meeting with him on the moor has disclosed another favourable trait in his character? Surely it was singularly considerate and unselfish of him to think of Anne Catherick on the eve of his marriage, and to go all the way to Todd's Corner to make inquiries about her, when he might have passed the time so much more agreeably in Laura's society? Considering that he can only have acted from motives of pure charity, his conduct, under the circumstances, shows unusual good feeling and deserves extraordinary praise. Well! I give him extraordinary praise—and there's an end of it.

Trying desperately to convince yourself, aren't you, Marian?

The one exception was Count Fosco.

OKAY SO THE TWO PARTIES WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM LAURA'S DEATH KNOW EACH OTHER, THAT'S GREAT.

It is likely to be the means of healing a family feud.

ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT, MARIAN?

#the woman in white #the woman in white weekly #god i hope she's right and im wrong

[paris-in-space]

The Woman in White main characters lineup.

Walter, Anne, Marian and Laura.

I listened to the audiobook over the past few weeks, really enjoyed it, and had an idea for a drawing with these characters, so I did these designs for them first.

#the woman in white #the woman in white Wilkie Collins #Walter Hartright #Anne Catherick #Marian Halcombe #Laura Fairlie #Paris’s box of classic lit blorbos

[gothlit-sexywoman-contest]

GOTHLIT SEXYWOMAN BRACKET (UPDATED POST ROUND 1)

Congrats to the winners!

ROUND 2 VOTING WILL START AT MIDNIGHT ON MARCH 1ST, EST.

Please spread the word :)

Round 1 Winners and New Matchups below cut!

ROUND 1 WINNERS

Christine Daae (Phantom of the Opera) vs Lady Brandon (Picture of Dorian Gray

Mina Harker (Dracula) vs Agatha DeLacey (Frankenstein)

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre) vs Sibyl Vane (Picture of Dorian Gray)

Elizabeth Lavenza (Frankenstein) vs Mme Giry (Phantom of the Opera)

Safie De Lacey (Frankenstein) vs Lucy Westenra (Dracula)

Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre) vs Mme DeFarge (Tale of Two Cities)

Victoria Wotton (Picture of Dorian Gray) vs Carlotta (Phantom of the Opera)

Justine Moritz (Frankenstein) vs Lucie Manette (Tale of Two Cities)

BONUS POLL WINNER

Anne Catherick (The Woman In White) vs. Rachel Verinder (The Moonstone)

ROUND 2 MATCHUPS

Christine Daae (Phantom of the Opera) vs Mina Harker (Dracula)

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre) vs Elizabeth Lavenza (Frankenstien)

Lucy Westenra (Dracula) vs Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre)

Carlotta (Phantom of the Opera) vs Justine Mortiz (Frankenstein)

#the picture of dorian gray #a tale of two citites #the phantom of the opera #dracula #frankenstein #jane eyre #gothlit #gothlit sexywoman contest #go vote! #polls

[mxcottonsocks]

I do feel sorry for Mrs Clements. She cares for Anne so much and does what she thinks is for the best, but walks right into all the traps set for her. I can't even begin to think how horrified she must be when / if she finally finds out the truth of what happened to poor Anne.

#mrs clements #anne catherick #the woman in white #the woman in white weekly #3rd epoch part 4

[aftout]

Silly girl waiting for her half sister to get off of a meeting (she is about to inhale so much Mephistopheles.)

#juliette’s draft #my art #gothic lit au #anne Catherick

[red-umbrella-811]

This is me, but about the parts of my apartment I haven’t cleaned

#the woman in white weekly #Anne catherick