# The Story Continued by Mrs. Catherick explained — The Woman in White

> Chapter companion for The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

## What happens

Mrs. Catherick writes to Walter Hartright, recounting her past actions and her relationship with her daughter Anne. She describes taking Anne to Limmeridge, where Mrs. Fairlie grew fond of her and encouraged her white dress obsession. After a quarrel over the secret, Anne was eventually placed in an asylum. Mrs. Catherick defends her reputation and warns Hartright against questioning Anne's parentage, while also detailing her social ambitions in Welmingham.

## Themes in this chapter

### Secrecy and Conspiracy

The central secret involving Sir Percival Glyde is hinted at, with Anne's knowledge of it leading to her confinement and Mrs. Catherick's careful precautions.

### Class and Social Hierarchy

Mrs. Catherick's efforts to gain respectability in Welmingham, including her aim to make the clergyman's wife bow to her, highlight class dynamics.

### Madness and Sanity

Anne is described as half-witted and her belief about the secret is framed as a fixed delusion, reflecting Victorian attitudes toward mental illness.

## Character check-ins

### Mrs. Catherick

Narrates her own story, detailing her actions and motivations regarding Anne and the secret.

### Anne Catherick

Mrs. Catherick's daughter, described as half-witted and obstinate, with a fixed delusion about knowing a secret.

### Mrs. Clements

Mentioned as a poor, spiritless woman who cared for Anne and was disliked by Mrs. Catherick.

### Mrs. Fairlie

The late lady of Limmeridge House, who took a fancy to Anne and encouraged her white dress habit.

### Walter Hartright

The recipient of Mrs. Catherick's letter, whom she reproves for questioning Anne's parentage.

### Sir Percival Glyde

Referred to as the 'highly born gentleman' and 'nameless gentleman' involved in the secret, now deceased.

## Key lines

> She was reported to have saved money, and I thought it as well (in case any accident happened to stop my allowance) to look after my own interests in that direction.

Mrs. Catherick went to Limmeridge to nurse her dying half-sister, hoping to inherit her savings in case her own allowance stopped.

_Reveals Mrs. Catherick's self-interested motives for visiting Limmeridge._

> The ruffianly side of him must have been uppermost, I suppose, when he got my letter, for he wrote back, refusing me in such abominably insolent language, that I lost all command over myself, and abused him, in my daughter's presence, as 'a low impostor whom I could ruin for life if I chose to open my lips and let out his Secret.'

When Sir Percival Glyde refused her request in an insulting letter, Mrs. Catherick angrily called him an impostor and threatened to expose his secret in front of Anne.

_Key moment where the secret is inadvertently mentioned to Anne, leading to later consequences._

> We merely turned her empty boast about knowing the Secret into a fixed delusion.

By confining Anne in the asylum, they transformed her vague claim of knowing the secret into a permanent, obsessive belief.

_Explains how Anne's madness was exacerbated by her imprisonment._

## Links

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