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This is a Literature Review study.

September 16, 2025Open Access

The Status of the Nineteenth-Century Women in a Gothic Novel: Wilkie Collins’s the Woman in White (1859)

Key Points

The representation of women in gothic fiction critiques their secondary status in 19th-century society.
Gothic novels often highlight the struggles of marginalised minorities, as seen in The Woman in White.
Social class disparities and the exploitation of the lower classes are prominent themes in gothic literature.
The analysis focuses on Wilkie Collins's work, offering insights into the evolving status of women during this period.

Abstract

Though it is widely thought that Gothic fiction aims at evoking fear and terror in readers with the employment of Gothic elements, this genre actually addresses certain taboos and dogmas of its time intending to break or undermine them. By encompassing the othered and the marginalised minorities, it can be asserted that Gothic fiction aims to give them a sense of existence. As a consequence of such an aspect, in the examples of this genre, certain concerns related to the woman question, social classes, and particular ideologies that dominate specific periods can be scrutinised. To make it more precise, in certain Gothic novels, the secondary position of women in society can be discussed through the characters and their relationships. In particular Gothic novels, the gap between the social classes and how the lower classes are exploited can be examined. In this sense, in line with the concerns that are on the agenda of Gothic fiction, this paper aims at analysing Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (1859) in terms of the representation of its female characters by considering the changes regarding the status of women in nineteenth-century England.

The Status of the Nineteenth-Century Women in a Gothic Novel: Wilkie Collins’s the Woman in White (1859)

Key Points

Abstract

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