Clock References in The Woman in White

This is really for my own personal benefit for when I write my research paper. I've noted every clock/watch reference and control reference that seems to be important or useful.

"It was, by my watch, nearly an hour and a half from the time of our leaving the station before I heard the sound of the sea in the distance..." (30).

"A little before nine o'clock, I descended to the ground-floor of the house" (31).

"As the clock on the mantelpiece struck eleven, Sir Percival knocked at the door, and came in" (168).

"The question of time in our question - and trust me, Laura, to take a woman's full advantage of it" (183).

"I hear the croaking of frogs, faint and far off; and the echoes of the great clock hum in the airless calm, long after the strokes have ceased" (204).

"Sir Percival hesitated, and looked at his watch" (252).

[referring to the Count]"He sat by the piano, with his watch-chain resting in folds, like a golden serpent, on the seagreen protuberance of his waistcoat" (291).

"The clock in the turret struck the quarter to twelve as they settled themselves in their charis" (328).

[the count speaking - control]"Human ingenuity, my friend, has hiterto only discovered two ways in which a man can manager a woman" (329).

"The clock struck the quarter after one, when I laid my hands on the window-still of my own room" (340).

"Catherick has found a lot of lace handkerchiefs, and two fine rings, and a new gold watch and chain, hid away in his wife's drawer - things that nobody but a born lady ought ever to have - and his wife won't say how she came by them" (478).

[spoken by Marian]"My own knowledge of Sir Percival's obstinacy and impatience of the count's control" (491).

"These precautions enabled the coroner and jury to settle the question of identity, and to confirm the correctness of the servant's assertion; the evidence offered by competent witnesses, and by the discovery of certain facts, being subsequently strengthened by an examination of the dead man's watch. The crest and the name of Sir Percival Glyde were engraved inside it" (534).

[From Mrs. Catherick's Narrative]"And I had not got a gold watch and chain - which was another still better. And he had promised me one from London, only the day before" (542).

"A more scrupulous woman than I was - a woman who had not set her heart on a gold watch and chain - would have found some excuses for him" (544).

"He gave me my watch and chain, and spared no expense in buying them; both were of superior workmanship, and very expensive. I have got them still - the watch goes beautifully" (545).

[Back to Hartright's Narrative]"I looked at my watch: it was ten o'clock" (593).

"Your letter is received. If I don't see you before the time you mention, I will break the seal when the clock strikes" (597).


That's everything I noted throughout my reading :)




[Victorian Literature]