Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

husband and not the master of the house‟” (Arnstein 54). This reveals that Victoria was a powerful
matriarch both inside and outside the domestic sphere: Victoria and Albert were partners in marriage but
Victoria was the master of the house as well as Britain. Additionally, while Victoria enjoyed a blissfully
happy marriage, she was aware that most marriages were not as happy as hers had been. She said that “„[a] ll
marriage is such a lottery—the happiness is always an exchange—though it may be a very happy one—
still—the poor woman is bodily and morally the husband‟s slave‟”(Helsinger 74). Consequently, Victoria
felt worried about women‟s roles in marriage and the abuse of patriarchal power that husbands inflicted on
their wives. Victoria's private views about marriage and her superiority over Albert contrast with her
traditional image, and thus, represent the paradox of Victorian femininity. Victoria confesses her true
opinion on men and women‟s roles in Victorian society in a private letter to her eldest daughter, the
Princess Royal. Victoria warns her daughter that “men are very selfish and the woman‟s devotion is always
one of submission which makes our poor sex so very unenviable” (Fulford 44). A true angel in the house
would never call men selfish or complain about women‟s submission to men. Far from a progressive
feminist, Victoria did not voice these beliefs publically, but she did voice them strongly in private letters to
her daughter. Victoria‟s public persona clashes with her private opinions, and Marian Halcombe, the
heroine of The Woman in White also exemplifies this paradox.
Marian Halcombe is a conventional “good angel” at the end of the novel; she is Walter Hartright‟s
loyal confidant, Laura‟s dutiful sister, and a maternal aunt. Marian, however, represents the novel‟s
ultimate paradox: she is feminine and masculine, beautiful and ugly, powerful and powerless. Walter
Hartright describes Marian as “ugly,” (31) “swarthy,” (32) and lacking “in those feminine attractions” (32).
Through the character of Marian, Wilkie Collins demonstrates the juxtaposition of feminine subordination
and feminine power. Marian, therefore, represents Collins‟ conflict with the Victorian feminine ideal and
the excessively powerful, independent woman. Even though Marian often challenges the role of the
Victorian middle-class woman Victorian readers loved and admired her. Despite Marian‟s masculine
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