The Woman in Black
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Monk’s Piece
• A long, perfectly
proportioned house
Set on a rise above a
Sweeping view down over
the whole river valley and
then for miles away to the violet
Blue line of hills in the distance
• The house stood on a grassy knoll, gazing first up at the house, so
handsome, so utterly right for the position it occupied, a modest
house and yet sure of itself, and then looking across the country
beyond…
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Monk’s Piece
• I could see the entrance to the old, overgrown
orchard that lay beyond the house and
petered out in a long grass and tangled thicket
at the far end. Beyond that, I glimpsed the
perimiter of some rough-looking, open land.
• Compare to the area surrounding Eel Marsh
House (the graveyard)
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Feelings about Monk’s Piece
• I was seized by something I cannot precisely
describe, an emotion, a desire – no, it was rather
more, a knowledge, a simple certainty…
• I was quite unable to escape the belief – nay, I
must call it more, the certain knowledge – that
this house was one day to be my own home…
• I felt on that instance a profound sense of peace
and contentment settle upon me such as I had
not known for very many years.
• It was with a light heart that I returned to the
pony and trap.
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Christmas Eve at Monk’s Piece
It was to this happy home that my family
repaired for Christmas.
There was something in the air that night,
something, I suppose, remembered from my
own childhood, together with an infection
from the little boys that excited me, old as I
was.
• I did give thanks, at the
sight of my family ensconced
around the huge fire.
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Kipps’ Family
Stella
(deceased)
Esme
(second
wife)
Arthur
Kipps
Captain
Ainley
Joseph Arthur Samuel
Kipps (deceased)
Aubrey
Pearce
Isobel
Oliver
3 children
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Will
Edmund
Questions on Chapter 1
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1) Why do you think Hill chooses to set the story on Christmas Eve, rather than any
other day of the year?
2) Describe what the atmosphere is like in the house a t the beginning of the
evening – support your answer with a quote.
3) Who are the new members of Arthur Kipps’ family?
4) How does the weather affect Kipps’ mood? Quote to show your understanding
of this.
5) Describe what kind of house Monk’s Piece is, and how it makes Kipps and his
family feel – use a quote to support your description.
6) How long has Kipps owned Monk’s Piece for?
7) Describe the scene in the drawing room before the ghost stories begin.
8) Why do you think Hill includes the ghost story scene in the story – what purpose
does it serve in terms of moving the narrative forward?
9) Describe Kipps’ feelings when he has left the room and gone outside.
10) When Kipps comes back into the house everything is completely normal once
again and his odd behaviour is not mentioned – why do you think this is?
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Stereotypical features of a ghost story
(all listed in C1)
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Dripping stone walls, uninhabited castles
Ivy clad monastery ruins
Moonlight,
Locked inner rooms
Secret dungeons
Dank charnel houses
Footsteps creaking on staircases
Fingers tapping at casements
Howling
Shriekings,
Groanings, scuttlings, clanking of chains
Hooded monks
Headless horsemen
Swirling mists
Sudden winds
Spectres
Sheeted creatures
Vampires
Bloodhounds
Bats,rats,spiders
Raving lunatics
White haired women
Vanished corpses
Curses upon heirs
Text in red used in ‘The
Woman in Black’
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Use of Pathetic Fallacy C2 – A London
Particular
The term ‘pathetic fallacy’ was first used by John Ruskin in the late
18th century. He used it as an insult to the poets of the time who
personified the weather. He thought it was over-sentimental and
untrue – hence fallacy (falsehood). It came to be used as a technical
term for writing that personifies the weather and attaches emotion to
people – supposedly caused by the weather. It is a technique most
commonly used in ghost stories to create atmosphere and tension.
It is most notably seen in
Chapter 2 in the description
of the London fog, known
as a ‘peasouper’. This
particular sort of fog was
caused by industrial
pollution, especially from
match making factories
creating sulphur coloured
smoke.
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Pathetic fallacy in ‘A London Particular’
“Fog was outdoors, hanging over the river, creeping in and out of alleyways”
“Seething through cracks and crannies like sour breath”
“Gaining a sly entrance”
“It was menacing and sinister”
“A fog that choked and blinded”
London is compared to hell:
“Pools of sulphurous yellow light, as from some circle of the Inferno, flared from
shops and the upper windows of houses, and from the basements they rose like
flares from the pit below, and there were red-hot pools of light from the chestnut
sellers on street corners; here, a great, boiling cauldron of tar for the road
menders spurted and smoked an evil red smoke, there, a lantern held high by the
lamplighter bobbed and flickered.”
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Exam question
How does Hill use the fog in
Chapter 2, ‘A London
Particular’, to create tension
and to show what is to
come in the rest of the
novel? January 2012
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The Journey North
L
London
Eel Marsh
House
Crewe
Crythin Gifford
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Homerby
Lift with Sam
Daily
Exam Question
•How does Hill use
description to create
contrast in ‘The Funeral of
Mrs Drablow?’
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Kipps feels:
relaxed, quiet, peaceful,
rested, contented,
welcome, looked after.
The voices
are quiet
and
muffled =
sense of
peace and
quiet – no
tension at
all.
Hill uses food to create a sense of well-being
and peace. The list adds detail to create a more
vivid picture. Food is associated with health
and well-being(contrast with the woman in
black).
“The landlord recommended a glass of mulled
wine, which I drank sitting before the fire,
listening to the murmur of voices on the other
side of a heavy oak door leading to the public
bar, and his wife made my mouth water in
anticipation of the supper she proposed – home
made broth, sirloin of beef, apple and raisin
tart with cream, and some Stilton cheese.”
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RAVEN – bird of illomen or bad luck, often
linked to darkness or
death.
“I felt like a spectre at some
cheerful feast, and that our
appearance among the men in
workaday or country clothes was
that of a pair of gloomy ravens.
As we passed through the square
we were the focus of uneasy
glances, men drew back from us
slightly stiff and silent , in the
middle of their conversations, so
that I began to be unhappy,
feeling like some pariah.”
pariah
noun
1.an outcast.
"they were treated as social
pariahs"
synonyms: outcast, persona non
grata, leper, reject, untouchable,
undesirable;.
"they were treated as social
pariahs"
Notice the use of
silence in this
passage – it is
used throughout
the novel and is a
typical feature of
the people of
Crythin – they
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don’t talk.
Note the change in
mood and tone. Kipps
now feels
uncomfortable, an
outsider or
unwelcome intruder.
This theme is
continued
throughout the story.
“He was a particularly small man, only five
feet two or three inches tall at most, and
with an extraordinary, domed head, fringed
around at the very back with gingerish hair,
like some sort of rough braiding around
the base of a lampshade… with a blandness
and formality of manner and a somewhat
shuttered expression that revealed nothing
whatsoever of his own personality, his
mood or his thoughts. He was courteous,
business-like and conversational but not
intimate.”
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Use this passage to show
contrast with Jerome’s
extraordinary outburst
after the funeral – there
are no signs here of what
is to happen – or is he
deliberately concealing his
true feelings from Kipps?
Bland adjective blandness
noun
usually disapproving
not having a strong taste or
character or not showing any
interest or energy:
I find chicken a little bland.
Pop music these days is so
bland.
“Mr Jerome grabbed my wrist and held it in an
agonisingly tight grip, and, looking at his face, was
certain he was about to faint, or collapse with
some kind of seizure…beside me was a man in a
state of near-collapse…He seemed agitated now,
anxious to get away from the church and its
environs… he began to walk quickly, so quickly
that I was taken by surprise and had to run a few
steps to catch up with him”
Fill in the rest of the
slide with analysis and
definitions of the
language used.
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How many times does she
appear? Where in the story does
this happen? Is this significant
from the reader’s perspective?
What is she
a symbol
of? What
does she
represent?
Analyse the
impact of her
appearances
on Kipps –
how is he
affected
mentally?
Where does she
appear?
Describe what she is
wearing in detail,
with quotes
What has always happened
when she has appeared
before? Who has been
affected by her appearances?
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“I had prayed, as I had crouched on the
floorboards with the dog clutched to me,
prayed that whatever had disturbed me and
was within the house should be banished or at
least that I should gain possession of myself
enough to confront and overcome it.” p156
“There was nothing
here to harm or
frighten me, there
was only an
emptiness … and a
curious air of
sadness, of
something lost,
missing, so that I
myself felt a
desolation, a grief in
my own heart.” p 150
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“I asked myself
unanswerable question
about life and death and
the borderlands between
and I prayed, direct and
simple, passionate
prayers.”
Tracking the appearances of the woman in black
Where she
What leads up
appears with
to it
page reference
Quote
1) Churchyard
in Crythin
2) Graveyard
next to Eel
Marsh House
3) Nursery
window
4) London at
the fair
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Effect on Kipps Effect on
audience
How does the haunting of Kipps by the woman in black
affect him mentally?
Comment on:
• How he is at the beginning of the story
• His attitudes towards the supernatural at the beginning
• What his reactions are after the first time he has seen her and
witnessed Jerome’s rather odd reaction to the mention of her
name
• His feelings about the landlord’s attitude when he mentions
the nature of his business in Crythin
• How he starts to question his feelings after she has stared at
him in the graveyard at Eel Marsh house
• How he feels when he visits the house and hears the ghostly
sound on the marsh
• How he changes after he has spent the night at Eel Marsh
House with Spider
• How he feels when he goes in to the nursery and it is pristine,
then later when it has been destroyed.
• His feelings after the death of Stella and Joseph.
• How he feels when he realises he will have to retell the story
as an older man
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