The Woman in White

Laura - Very beautiful, sweet, feminine, and gentle, but doesn't really do anything in the novel.  Not physically or emotionally strong.  No real brains.  Love beautiful things and is very loyal.  Has a strong sense of honor.  Depends a lot upon others.

Marian - Laura'a sister and protector.  Very clever, intelligent, nurturing, and practical...ugly.  She takes care of Laura.

Anne Catherick - Weak and not mentally there...very childlike (mentally).  Extremely grateful to Marion and Laura's mother.  Therefore, she tries to save Laura.

The Countess - Was a wild woman until the Count "tamed" her.  A trophy-wive figure because she doesn't have any of her own thoughts; merely goes along with her husband.  The Count has excessive power over her.  Very jealous of any other woman who comes near her husband.
----------
At the beginning of the novel, Walter sees a woman dressed entirely in white.  White is a color typically associated with purity and perfection.  Using this idea as the title of the novel leads the reader to analyze each woman in the story to see if they fit this perfect ideal.

The women depicted in this novel are very typical of the women popular with Englishmen in the nineteenth century; particularly Laura.  Her passiveness and lack of action was the type of woman men were looking for - the beginnings of Trophy-wives.  While Laura depicted the ideals, her sister Marian is the exact opposite.  Because she is ugly, but intelligent, most men would steer clear of this type of woman.  The Countess shows the outcome of a marriage in the nineteenth century.  Because she was a wild and fun woman, many men were attracted to her as a type to be tamed like a wild horse.  She doesn't have any of her own thoughts.  This subservience is quite a strong tie to much of the political views of the age.  Men had the upper-hand.  Women were to support and follow whatever the men around them decide.

Anne later reveals herself to be the woman in white and points out that she has escaped an asylum. This aspect of madness in the novel is not unheard of in Victorian times.  Madness was not entirely understood or was classified quite differently than in modern thought.  Lady Audley (Braddon) confesses that she is mad, and again we see here that Anne is shut away for madness.  In Jane Eyre, we see a woman being shut away for the same "crime".