Vincent Gilmore Character Analysis

By Stephen Bray

Vincent Gilmore is one of three lawyers who feature in 'The Woman In White' by Wilkie Collins. He doesn't feature in the Musical, nor in any of the films, or TV adaptations, with the exception of those made in 1982, and 1997. Yet in Collins original story he is a major narrator. Why is this so?

Collins trained at Lincoln's Inn as a barrister, so for him writing about lawyers was relatively easy. He knew their ways, their types and their fallibility. And for all his venerability Mr. Gilmore is as vulnerable as the rest of us, including most of his profession.

But more than this, 'The Woman In White' may be interpreted as that of one man's determination to win his bride, and also overcome the reversal of her fortunes in ways that would be impossible using the mechanism of the law.

Hartright writes in his conclusion: "It was strange to look back and to see, now, that the poverty which had denied us all hope of assistance had been the indirect means of our success, by forcing me to act for myself. If we had been rich enough to find legal help, what would have been the result? The gain (on Mr. Kyrle's own showing) would have been more than doubtful--the loss, judging by the plain test of events as they had really happened, certain. The law would never have obtained me my interview with Mrs. Catherick. The law would never have made Pesca the means of forcing a confession from the Count."

Through this statement Collins finally 'pulls the law's teeth', but the process began much earlier in the book with the introduction of Mr. Gilmore.

The key to his character comes when he agreed to the writing of Laura Fairlie's marriage contract, even though he would never let his own daughter marry under such conditions. He does so because, he rationalizes, if does not do so then someone else will.

By this act alone he also becomes fallible as a human being. For in making the contract he abnegates his personal, or moral, responsibility toward Laura Fairlie, even though as a lawyer he has done what he can, and more than most lawyers.

In acting legally where a moral imperative demands abnegation is, according to the tenet offered by 'The Woman In White', the lawyers professional trait, and one to be expected.

Gilmore is by his own admission a conservative, perhaps even a reactionary? He has no quibble with arranged marriages provided that the parties are evenly matched in status, and the conditions of the marriage settlement are fair.

He has hear nothing 'untoward' about Sir Percival Glyde, but he makes very few inquires about him. Certainly I would have thought that Gilmore should have been on his guard by Glyde's own choice of lawyer, Mr. Merriman.

Collins has contrived that Gilmore should be proper, but ultimately ineffective because that's what he believed the professions to be. He does something similar in the case of Mr. Dowson, Marian Halcombe's doctor, who although experienced still manages to administer inadequate treatment and fail to diagnose her condition as typhus fever, which the unqualified Count Osco can do easily.

Collins seems to think 'the professions' to be a humbug, and so writes a number of characters including that of Mr. Gilmore to make his point.