The Legal Atmosphere Essay -- Literary Analysis, The Woman in White

Throughout the novel The woman in lily-white, the novelist Wilkie Collins makes unpatterned the weight of British Due Process in the life of the characters and the happenings of the story. A series of civil wrongs dictate the turning points of the novel. The law and its execution are presented to the referee from the beginning, in the style of witnesses testimonies , that as been collected and brought to court by Walter Hartright in what we could call the legal arena of Glyde v. Glyde. the events which fill these pages might concur claimed their share of the unrestricted attention in a court of justice (9).The legal atmosphere in The Woman in White, as described before, consists of narrative lines as if they were presented in front of a jury, and that shape what and how the events are perceived by the reader. In that sense readers become judges and jury. The narrative of the novel is one rational and integrated as the one used in the atmosphere of a court of justice. For instan ce, after the death of supposed death of Mrs. Glyde, four key witnesses certify it. Among them a doctor, Alfred Goodricke. In his statement we can appreciate the technicality that requires his profession I hereby certify that I attended Lady Glyde and that the cause of death was, Aneurism. time of disease, not known (405). The jargon of a practitioner of medicine is clear, which provides credibility. He also strengthens the legal authenticity of the certificate by signing it accordingly, by divergence proof of his expertise in medicine Prof. Title. M.R.C.S. Eng. L.S.A. (405), first thing that is required of and expert in a tribunal. The legal honesty of The Woman in White is not only portrayed in the way the characters speak to the reader, but in the interac... ...le. In Collins narrative the Victorian law is presented in its admittedly form a blind set of strict procedures in which a law-abiding attorney will not risk his own neck in a case where evidence proves to be insuff icient. As stated by Mr. Kyrle As a lawyer, and as a lawyer only, it is my duty to tell you, Mr. Hartright, that you have not the shadow of a case... The evidence of lady Glydes death is... clear and satisfactory (441). The reader soon suspects that there are testimonies that contain obvious lies as Foscos or that are just simply unreliable because the memory of the witness is not the best or because we are told that they are insane. A lot of suspense created by this lost of objectivity. But at the same time the credibility of the story itself suffer. However, Collins is very skillful to counter this unreliability by the veracity and realism of the law.