Who is the woman in white in The Woman in White?

Anne Catherick is the mentally fragile young woman Walter meets on a moonlit road near Limmeridge — dressed in white, fleeing unseen pursuers. She knows Sir Percival Glyde and fears him because he once had her confined. Her striking resemblance to Laura Fairlie is not coincidence; it enables the later identity plot.

Anne dies before full justice, but her warning and letters seed Walter and Marian’s suspicion. She embodies the book’s title and its theme that vulnerable women can be written over by powerful men. Readers should track Anne alongside Laura: two faces, one legal erasure waiting to happen.