Mrs. Catherick (The Woman In White)

Mrs. Catherick was the
mother of Anne Catherick, the ‘Woman in white’ from Wilkie Collins’ novel of that
name. She conspired with Sir Percival Glyde of Blackwater Park.
She was
once married to a parish clerk in Old Welmingham. Prior she had been in service
at Varneck Hall, there she met Philip Fairlie, a guest of the master, whom she
had an affair with that resulted in her becoming pregnant with Anne. Before
Anne’s birth she became acquainted with Sir Percival Glyde who gave her fine
presents, a golden watch with chain, in return for letting him borrow the key to
the church register. She first learned later that Glyde had made a falsified
marriage entry to the register to conceal the fact that he was illegitimate.
Glyde’s mother was already married to an Irish man, when she met his father,
Sir Felix Glyde, but her husband abandoned her and she lived under her maiden
name and afterwards she and Sir Felix lived together as man and wife abroad
without anyone suspecting them as something else. While no one had raised any
doubts to Sir Percival’s right to the title and estate, he needed a certificate
of his parents’ marriage to borrow money on Blackwater Park.
However
Mrs. Catherick and Sir Percival were caught by Mr. Catherick who immediately accused
his wife for infidelity and abandoned her. When Mrs. Catherick demanded Sir Percival
to clear her name, he refused, pointing out that if the village thought they
had an affair, they would never suspect the truth. And if Mrs. Catherick’s role
in making that falsified entry was discovered she could be punish as his
accomplish. But Sir Percival did offer to make a generous annual payment as a
compensation on two conditions, Mrs. Catherick would hold her tongue and never
leave Old Welmingham without his permission. That way he would always know where
to find her. Mrs. Catherick, who was still pregnant with Anne, accepted them.
Afterwards
she and Anne lived in Old Welmingham. As agreed, she wrote to Sir Percival
asking for permission to leave the village and usually got it. One time she was
allowed to go to Limmeridge, Philip Fairlie’s estate, to nurse a dying
half-sister. She took Anne with her and left her in Mrs. Fairlie’s care to be
schooled. Mrs. Fairlie became very fond of Anne noticing the strong resemblance
between the child and her own daughter Laura. The fondness amused Mrs.
Catherick with the knowledge that the lady of the house was fond of her husband’s
illegitimate child.
After the
death of the half-sister Mrs. Catherick returned to Old Welmingham with Anne,
who, out of gratitude to Mrs. Fairlie, began always wearing white. That notion
strained the relationship further between mother and daughter.
One time
Mrs. Catherick got an answer from Sir Percival on one of her requests to leave
Old Welmingham, but the gentleman had probably been in a bad mood at that time,
because in the letter he refused her request in a foul language that angered
her so much that she spoke out in Anne’s present. She revealed that she could
ruin his life, if she told anyone his secret. Once she calmed down, she feared
that Anne might have understood too much of her words, despite that she didn’t
tell the secret.
The next
day Sir Percival came on an unexpected visit to make amends, having understood
that his angry letter might have consequences. But when he insulted Anne, the
girl demanded an apology threating to expose his secret and ruin his life. She was
repeating her mother’s words as if they were own. Mrs. Catherick tried to
convince Sir Percival that Anne had no knowledge of the secret and was only
bluffing, but Sir Percival insisted on shutting her away, but agreed to send
her into a private asylum rather and a pauper asylum on Mrs. Catherick’s
insisting.
Years later,
soon after Anne had died, Walter Hartright, who was searching for Glyde’s
secret visited her. She was very uncooperating, but a sarcastic remark about
Glyde’s mother, made Walter suspect that the secret was concerning the family of
Glyde’s mother, which led him to discover the falsified entry by comparing a
copy of the register with the original and saw that the marriage entry was not in
the copy.
When Sir
Percival died in an attempt to destroy the evidence, Mrs. Catherick wrote to
Walter explaining the whole story, feeling he deserved it.
Category:Adulteress
Category:Book Villainess
Category:Devious
Category:Family Murderer
Category:Humiliated
Category:Mother
Category:Murderer
Category:Sibling
Category:Would Hurt a Child
Category:Fate: Karma Houdini