The Woman in Black Revision Lesson

Monday January 25th

Learning Objectives

•  To explore the text of Woman in Black •  To refamiliarise ourselves with exam specification.

•  Develop interpretations of key characters and themes.

Starter: Find Quotations that link to the following ideas. Gothic Literary Context: • Grand remote settings • Large/Vast natural landscapes • Extreme weather • Darkness and shadows • Monstrous creatures • Women

Narration

•  First Person Narration: Makes the story vivid – descriptions of intense fear. We can experience Kipp’s perspective.

•  Allows Hill to build up suspense/sense of mystery.

•  Kipps makes sense of his feelings using hindsight; ‘Had I known that my untroubled night of good sleep was to be the last that I was to enjoy for so many terrifying, racked and weary nights to come.

•  Hill uses older, established Kipps to comment on his younger self.

Kipps Character Profile •  Make a ‘characterisation’ profile on an

A4 page- If written can be a spider diagram. Start listing what he says, thinks, feels and does. •  Use quotations the elaborate on what

they demonstrate about him as a character: E.g. •  ‘I did not believe in ghosts’ •  ‘For I must confess I had the

Londoner’s sense of superiority in those days [p.42]

•  Kipps is in his late fifties or early sixties at the beginning.

•  Older Kipps -Now, as our Storyteller he uses hindsight and is presented to interpret past events as a mature person – critical of his naïve younger self.

•  Intelligent- well-educated – expects a middle-class life – promotion, marriage, house, family.

•  Rational – Initial disbelief in the supernatural

•  He is determined to complete his work at Eel Marsh House, no matter how strange or scary the place is. He maintains his optimistic streak even after being haunted to a state of fevered terror. He hopes that he will be the last person the Woman in Black will torment.

•  At the end of the story his first wife and son are killed after he sees the ghost of Jennet Humfrye (The Woman in Black) one more time and finally we understand his unwillingness to share his tale on Christmas Eve.

Samuel Daily: Character Profile • Daily meets Kipps on the train journey to Crythin Gifford.

• TASK: gather quotations that present this character.

Across the Causeway Summary: You should have read this at home. •  Instead of a car, a pony and trap turns up. • Keckwick is going to drive Arthur to Eel Marsh House. Eel Marsh

House: it's its own little island and becomes separated from town when the tide goes up.  • Because the road is only available until five, Arthur tells Keckwick that

he'll come back tomorrow with clothes and food so he can stay overnight in order to get all his work done. Keckwick leaves. • Arthur explores the area, and sees the Woman in Black. He runs to find

her but she has vanished. • He begins to walk across the causeway due to his curiosity.

Sound of a Pony and a Trap: Summary then Read the Chapter and annotate. •  As he walks across the causeway, the water starts to seep in. •  Fog obscures his views – Kipps can’t see the town or Eel Marsh House. Kipps walks

on.

•  He hears a pony and a trap, thinking Keckwick is coming to get him – hears disturbing sucking noises and a terrified sobbing as if the trap is sucked into the mud with children dying.

•  Arthur goes inside and digests what has happened by drinking brandy.

•  Keckwick arrives at 2am and Arthur asks if Keckwick is trapped but Keckwick remains mysterious and silent.

Mr. Jerome is Afraid: Summary then read the chapter and annotate • Arthur wakes up and wants to leave the Drablow business – wanting to

pass it to Mr. Jerome. • Mr. Jerome refuses and says some vague things about stories that he has

heard – again – not in a lot of detail • Arthur writes a letter to Mr. Bentley

Extended Question

• How is setting used so far to create a foreboding atmosphere?