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The Second Epoch: Part 4, Chapter 5
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 narrates the next section of the story. He now lives in London and rents the second floor flat above a “newsvendor’s shop” with two women who pretend to be his sisters. One is Marian and the other is Laura, who is publicly and legally believed to be dead. The public also believe that Walter and Marian have helped Anne Catherick escape from the asylum a second time. Although, Walter acknowledges, Laura strongly resembles Anne, he knew as soon as he saw her that this was the real Laura—the woman he loves—and he remains devoted to her although she has been stripped of her social position, fortune, and even her name.
The fact that people believe that Marian and Walter have helped Anne escape from the asylum suggests that, at some point, Laura must have ended up in the asylum disguised as Anne and that it is Laura they have really helped escape. Walter knows Laura on a deep personal level and recognizes her true self, beneath the public veneer of her social status and her name as the heiress of Limmeridge, and this is why he can tell who she is despite the superficial evidence of her death.
Themes
Literary Devices
