What metaphors are used in The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins?

Consider Blackwater Park, Hampshire: everything about this place is a symbol and metaphor for darkness and discord. The creaking, ancient home has one wing in disrepair and the rest is maintained by a scant staff of servants. Nearby is a stagnant, shallow lake with a boathouse. It is in the boathouse that Marian finds Anne Catherick's dog dying. This sets a creepy impression of the place from the start. In this house, Sir Percival Glyde terrorizes Laura and Marian to get Laura's inheritance. His co-conspirators, the Count and Countess Fosco, keep watch on Laura and Marian by reading their mail, eavesdropping and spying on them.