During the Victorian era, Wilkie Collins composed a novel renowned for transforming ideas of family, law and brotherly affection brotherly affection. Leila Silvana May of North Carolina State University reviews Collins' book The Woman in White in her journal article "Sensational Sisters: Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White." According to her, Collins structures her main theme around the elegant English household, "the sisterly relationship as a model for the creation of her narrative, and...". . . allows its Victorian readers edification, titillation and horror all at once, for brotherly love. . . justifies the family organization on which society is based, while its potential anarchic and erotic intensity threatens to undermine the very edifice which contains it” (May 82-83). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay To support his argument, May bases much of his evidence on the culture of historical Victorianism of the 19th century. Before beginning to delve into Collins' novel, May highlights important aspects of this period. First, May argues that Victorian culture was obsessed with the foundations of class society, particularly family formations. The family is organized around high morality and a class society. Family is strengthened through sacrificial service and loving-kindness toward one another. The parts all contribute to the whole society by being a united house. In the Victorian era, the sororal (sister) bond was “the purest, most intact and most “natural” component of the family” (May 82). In other words, the sister bond is the most powerful part of the family. “The Woman in White is therefore a treatise on sorority” (Collins) (May 82). May uses other novels of the period like Sense and Sensibility, Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein to support her claim about Collins' potential focus on the brotherly bond. Collins draws inspiration from these Victorian novels to give another image of the foundation of society on sisters. May asserts that the same edifice that bears the 19th-century model of immaculate love between brothers and sisters "is the edifice that can be undermined by anarchy and erotic intensity"; in other words, he can go beyond the family nucleus (May 82). More specifically in The Woman in White, Collins plays with the idea of ​​breaking the laws of society through the fluctuating relationship between Marian, Laura and Walter Hartright (May 85). May states: "In sensation fiction, sisters are expected to conform to 19th-century conceptions of purity, constancy, and fidelity, both to other siblings and to the family as a whole" ( May 82). Collins redefines sensation fiction – literature that elicits great adrenal effects through its intense plots – through the “transgressive possibilities” of passion between sisters as they encounter the chaotic world of Rank and Power (Rubery) (May 84 -85). In this novel, family dynamics are described through the sibling relationships between Marian and Laura, Laura and Anne Catherick, and Marian, Laura and Walter (May 83-84). May compares sibling relationships in The Woman in White with the appropriate Victorian image of a family to reaffirm her position on sororal importance. However, May also states that the families formed in this novel are sensational because they are “not families at all” (May 83). In the Fairlie household, the masculinized Marian serves as mother and sister to the feminized Laura Fairlie, the secret sister of the ghostly Anne Catherick (May 83-85, 89). Thereonly possible father figure resides in Laura's uncle, Mr. Fairlie; unfortunately, his extreme ego and vanity prevent him from interacting with society regularly (May 83). As a result, Laura and Marian's relationship is even more heavily based on each other. May says that "the orphaned sisters live in a self-contained world of love, fidelity, respect, and erotic fulfillment" (92). Sisterhood seems to be a happy relationship at the beginning of the novel because Laura and Marian are completely dependent on each other. As the book progresses, the two half-sisters are placed in very different roles to see if their relationship will stand the test of temptation. Walter Hartright's Erotic Desires, Father's Law, and General Victorian Law Expose These Temptations (May 93). First, May thinks that Collins is using Walter Hartright in a very charming way to try to corrupt the image of the fraternity. For Walter is not only the protagonist of the novel, but also the narrator of the book; therefore, readers should read Collins' thoughts from a male perspective. Walter first enters the story through meeting Laura's mentally confused sister, Anne Catherick (Collins). This first meeting, May states, restarts the exposition of the plot. Walter then goes to the Fairlie house and meets Marian. He is erotically attracted to Marian's buttocks, but as soon as she reveals her masculine face, he retracts. However, he and Marian form a strong “sisterhood” bond that deepens as the plot thickens (May 94). When Walter meets Laura, he is immediately romantically attracted to her and she returns his attraction. In this review, May states that Laura and Walter's feelings for each other may be destructive to Laura and Marian's relationship; these are “feelings which must necessarily be established between the two sisters” (May 92). Marian, says May, subtly counters the couple's hidden affection by announcing Laura's previous engagement to Sir Percival Glyde (May 92). Marian appreciates Walter for accepting her accusation of leaving their home to protect Laura's feelings, but she also subtly attempts to save her own sisterhood with Laura (Collins) (May 93). Second, Laura's marriage to Sir Glyde threatens what Marian has just been fighting against. against: separation from his sister. The villain in this matter comes from the Law of the Father, which Laura feels inclined to obey (May 93). In the Victorian way of life, obedience is particularly required of ladies of rank (May 91) (Rubery). Laura's obedience to her father's dying wish overrides her wish to heed Anne's warning letter, Walter's feelings, and her own dislike for Sir Glyde (May 93). May says that Collins' portrayal of the father's role in Laura's life shows the lack of purity in the family. The brotherly bond is both more learned and more powerful than any other relationship, because although it is dangerous in its passion, it is very wise (May 90-92). Third, the general Victorian law of the time tested the sisterly bond. Using the example of Sir Glyde and Laura's marriage, May argues that the sisters' real enemy lies in general injustice (May 87). Whether in the form of a man or a paper document, the desire for satisfaction in brotherhood in the face of the rules of the world presents the constant struggle of the bond of brotherhood. In this case, Sir Glyde personifies injustice. He arrives, marries Laura, takes her and leaves Marian to fight for Laura as she had already done in Walter's case (May 94). Anne also seeks justice for Laura, sending her a cryptic letter against her marriage to Glyde. Laura still marries him out of obedience tothe cultural law (May 93). However, May argues that this same cultural law brings back the blissful sororal bond between Marian and Laura (May 94). The same relationship that attempted to ruin the bond between Laura and Marian's metaphorical family is the same one that creates a real family: Walter Hartright's marriage to Laura (May 94). Previously, when Marian, Walter and Laura lived in the slums, the sisterly bond suffered from Marian and Walter's troubling relationship with Laura – Laura is the daughter and sister of Marian, who is the wife and sister of Walter, the father, brother and lover of Laura while being husband and brother of Marian (Collins). May states that "incestuous relationships" are an image of untamed sisterly love, but ultimately, brotherly love "is tamed" in the form of a true family (May 84). May argues that relationships move from a state of total lack of control in the sense of Victorian didacticism to the term "normal" when the family becomes one (May 84). Collins uses these relationships to show the power of the sisterly bond, implying that it can transcend the laws of marriage, family, and culture. May says that Collins transforms the "Victorian vision of family happiness" by rightly ridding himself of the evil that struggles against said vision while "incorporating these evils into the very structure of that happiness" (May 84). In Collins's mind, he allows Victorian family idealism to be threatened before sensationally triumphing in a new form of brotherly love. By using abnormal family affairs, Collins goes against the purest form of the Victorian home (Rubery). Ultimately, the relationship between Marian and Laura is reborn through the ending of Collins' fairy tale and creates satisfaction for his critical readers who elevate the family as the highest social status (Rubery) (May 84-85) . With cultural law comes Victorian social classes. In this novel, Leila associates Collins' characterization of Marian and the resulting relationships with others as a break from societal norms. Sir Percival Glyde and Laura match well in the eyes of society due to their similar rank in the social class structure, but Laura likes the middle class Walter Hartright. Laura also likes her half-sister, Anne Catherick, even though Anne is working class. The greatest break with Victorian culture, however, lies in the relationship between Laura and Marian, for even though Marian is not part of any social class, Marian and Laura love each other in the face of life or death (May 88 -89). May asserts that victory over rank and power – i.e. cultural rules – comes from Walter's marriage to Laura and Marian's agreement to become an aunt to their children (May 88, 95-97). After reading May's argument carefully, his intelligent way of supporting his ideas with historical facts and evidence from the book makes his position extremely convincing. She uses the 19th century Victorian model to contrast the way Collins relates her own life to that of her characters (Rubery). In doing so, she presents Collins as the author of "sensational fiction" that the Victorian era established him as. His writing is considered radical because of the transformations in his family relationships; May effectively capitalizes on these changes throughout her article. She rightly says that she is making an "empirical claim" instead of a "tautological truth" at the forefront of her article, but supports her claims with examples and facts from Victorian culture that make her claims truer than the claims of many other critics. . For example, in her discussion of class structure, she dissects each main character in the novel to 92).