Study Guide

The Woman in White Part 1, Section 1, Chapter 8

By Wilkie Collins

Part 1, Section 1, Chapter 8

Walter goes down for breakfast and meets Mrs. Vesey.
Mrs. Vesey is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and she seems somewhat narcoleptic (prone to falling asleep). She's sweet though.
After breakfast Marian takes Walter outside to meet Laura.
Walter instantly falls in love and spends the rest of this chapter waxing poetic about the beautiful Laura.
Think Romeo rambling on and on about Juliet and you get the gist of Walter's feelings for Laura.
Later that evening Marian pulls Walter aside and says she's gone through her mom's old letters for some clue about the woman in white's identity.
Marian reads Walter an old letter that Mrs. Fairlie wrote to her husband, Philip Fairlie (Laura's dad).
A Mrs. Catherick was in town tending to an ill relative and enrolled her daughter Anne at the local school, run by Mrs. Fairlie.
Anne is a bit slow but is very sweet and insists on wearing all white after Mrs. Fairlie tells her it looks nice on her.
Anne also bears a resemblance to Laura.
Marian and Walter decide the woman in white is most likely this mysterious Anne Catherick.

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