Miss Gwilt, by G. H. Thomas

Miss Gwilt

George Housman Thomas, 1824-1868

Engraved by William Luson Thomas (Thomas's brother)

1866

From Wilkie Collins's novel Armadale, Vol.1, facing p.273

Source: the 1866 Smith, Elder edition, uploaded to the Internet Archive by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

G. H. Thomas illustrates another key meeting here, showing us Miss Gwilt for the first time not through Allan Armadale's eyes, but through his friend Midwinter's. Allan had already met her, and noted her charms, but Midwinter is bowled over. [continued below.]

Caption and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the source and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print document]

Commentary

Fearing that she was the figure in Allan's dream, and prepared by the Reverend Brock's letter for a different kind of woman altogether, Midwinter is completely mesmerised by her when he sees her, in her role as governess, with Eleanor Milroy: "He looked, and saw the figures of two ladies walking slowly away from him towards the cottage. The shorter of the two failed to occupy his attention for an instant — he never stopped to think whether she was, or was not, the major's daughter. His eyes were riveted on the other figure; the figure that moved over the garden walk with the long lightly-frilling dress, and the easy seductive grace." He notes her "superbly luxuriant" red hair, her dazzling eyes, her beautiful complexion, her "straight delicately-moulded nose," her "full, rich, and sensual" lips, and "round and dimpled" chin, features all utterly different from those he had been led to expect (334-35). Noticing him, Miss Gwilt composedly asks her companion to introduce him, rebuking her gently for her ungraciousness, and acting with "charming grace" herself towards the silent, staring Midwinter (336).

Thomas has rightly shown Miss Gwilt to be taller and more impressive-looking than her pupil, her eyebrows slightly raised in amusement at the skulking youth. The illustration leaves us in no doubt that she is in charge of the situation. The heavy-browed Midwinter is seen at a particular disadvantage. He will prove to be easily manipulated by Miss Gwilt, until much later in the novel, when his journalistic career and friendship with (and worries about) Allan seem to take him away from her — at which point, it will be her turn to suffer. They do make a strange pair: "Even Dickens flinched at Midwinter and Miss Gwilt" (Davis 245).

"Authenticism and Post-Authenticism: The Case of Wilkie Collins's Armadale and Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night: A Confession"

References

Collins, Wilkie. Armadale Ed. Catherine Peters. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2008.

Davis, Nuel Pharr. The Life of Wilke Collins. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956.

Last modified 9 November 2011