![]() ![]() emerged from isolation to reunite with Allan” (123). Thoms also says that “Armadale describes not only the successful quest of Midwinter but also the failed journey of Gwilt” (127) and that “n his quest Midwinter has. In my reading, the “circumstances” which lead to the plots against Armadale’s life are not the “formative influences” (130) in Gwilt’s early life, but rather Midwinter’s obsession with Armadale’s dream and love is not so much a trap as an alternative end which she unwisely renounces. My view can be contrasted with that of Peter Thoms, who argues that “for Gwilt, imprisoned as she is by circumstances, love is just another trap” (131), and that “Gwilt fails both because of circumstances and because the weaknesses in her character triumph too often” (132). Thus the book is a marital tragedy rather than the melodrama that it at first sight appears to be. ![]() I argue that as far as the fate of Gwilt and Midwinter is concerned, the origin of the dream is irrelevant, and that the tragic end to the novel is brought about by their own personality flaws. At first sight the marriage between Gwilt and Midwinter appears to be subordinate to these two themes, but it proves potentially one of the best marriages represented in Collins’s fiction. Much of Wilkie Collins’s Armadale is taken up by Ozias Midwinter’s internal debate about whether the dream in the novel has a natural or a supernatural origin, and by Lydia Gwilt’s plots to acquire Allan Armadale’s fortune. ![]()
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