the woman in black . monk’s piece a long, perfectly proportioned house set on a rise above a...

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The Woman in Black


Monk’s Piece

• A long, perfectlyproportioned houseSet on a rise above a Sweeping view down overthe 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…


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)


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.


Christmas Eve at Monk’s Piece

• I did give thanks, at the sight of my family ensconced

around the huge fire.

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.


Kipps’ Family

Arthur Kipps

Stella(deceased)

Esme(second

wife)

Captain Ainley

EdmundWillOliverIsobelAubrey Pearce

Joseph Arthur Samuel Kipps (deceased)

3 children


Questions on Chapter 1• 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?


Stereotypical features of a ghost story(all listed in C1)

• 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’


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.


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.”


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


The Journey North

L

London Crewe Homerby

Lift with Sam DailyCrythin Gifford

Eel Marsh House


Exam Question

•How does Hill use description to create contrast in ‘The Funeral of Mrs Drablow?’


“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.”

Kipps feels:relaxed, quiet, peaceful, rested, contented, welcome, looked after.

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 voices are quiet and muffled = sense of peace and quiet – no tension at all.


“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.”

Note the change in mood and tone. Kipps now feels uncomfortable, an outsider or unwelcome intruder. This theme is continued throughout the story.

pariahnoun1.an outcast."they were treated as social pariahs"synonyms: outcast, persona non grata, leper, reject, untouchable, undesirable;."they were treated as social pariahs"

RAVEN – bird of ill-omen or bad luck, often linked to darkness or death.

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 don’t talk.


“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.”

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.

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?


“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.


How many times does she appear? Where in the story does this happen? Is this significant from the reader’s perspective?

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?

Analyse the impact of her appearances on Kipps – how is he affected mentally?

What is she a symbol of? What does she represent?


“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

“I asked myself unanswerable question about life and death and the borderlands between and I prayed, direct and simple, passionate prayers.”

“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


Tracking the appearances of the woman in black

Where she appears with page reference

What leads up to it

Quote Effect on Kipps Effect on audience

1) Churchyard in Crythin

2) Graveyard next to Eel Marsh House

3) Nursery window

4) London at the fair


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

the woman in black . monk’s piece a long, perfectly proportioned house set on a rise above a...

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