The woman in white blog post #2
By Omar Andre
I am 212/1306 pages into The Woman In White, here’s what happened since last time:
Most of what has happened is describing Walter’s new job at the mansion, with a lot of words dedicated to Walter describing how much he likes the second sister he meets, Laura. There was also a new development about the woman in white. Marian –the first sister Walter meets– goes through some letters that their mother had written towards their first father, because she had been a teacher or something at a distant school that the woman in white had said she had gone to. In reading these letters, we discover that the woman in white’s name is Anne, and that Laura & Marian’s mother really liked her. We also discover that as a kid, Anne had neurological problems and had slower brain development than other children, which, while she was expected to grow out of, Walter and Marian speculate that she might not have grown out of. The sister’s mother, Mrs. Faire, had given Anne all white clothes, and Anne had really liked the white clothes, saying that she would wear white clothes for the rest of her life. The big reveal is at the end of the letter, when Mrs. Faire tells her husband that the reason why she likes Anne so much is that she is very similar to her own daughter, Laura. It’s obvious this will be important later in the story; I think the reason might have something to do with the differences in class between Laura and Anne, because it has been an underlying theme throughout the book. After reading the letter, Walter narrates, in a guilty tone, how he loves Laura. He feels like he let down his guard this time specifically, he tells us how he normally leaves those kinds of feelings outside easily, but not this time. Something to note here is that the story treats this as kind of inevitable; from the introduction of Marian, we are told how beautiful and great Laura is, from before that, Walter’s sister and mother tell him to go find a wife in that new job, and later even Marian does not blame Walter. Eventually Laura finds out how Walter feels, and we are taken through daily life again, but this time we’re taken through how awkward it feels. Walter is then “saved” from this awkward monotony by Marian, who takes him to a cabin far away, and informs him that Laura is engaged, and that even though he is a gentleman, and she is partial to him, he must leave for both Laura's and his sake. On the walk back to the mansion, Walter asks about the gentleman marrying Laura, and he learns that he’s from the same birth place as Anne, so that’s also probably important and likely related to the fact that Anne and Laura look the same.
I’ve overall enjoyed this section of the story much more, even if Walter is a little dramatic and sometimes it feels like he drags on describing something a little too much. I look forward to unveiling more of the mystery, and because of this, I give the novel up to here a:
