Identity and Anxiety: An Analysis of the Characters’ Anxieties Revolving Identity in The Woman in White

As a literary genre of fiction which enjoyed its great popularity in Britain in the 1860s and 1870s when the country had just gone through a series of social changes and a variety of anxieties prevailing the whole society,the sensation novel presents to readers a wide range of anxieties and gives responds to some of them.The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins(1859),which is generally regarded by critics as a typical representative of the sensation novel,displays diversified anxieties through the depiction of various impressive characters,and especially through their processes of establishing,losing,regaining,strengthening,hiding and faking their identities.This essay will analyze the representative work,exploring and examining the characters’anxieties revolving their identities in relation to the social backgrounds of that era.