Juliette Duncan
The Woman in Black – Essay
Q. Write about some of the places and locations described in The Woman in Black. How are they
important to the novel as a whole? (40 marks)
Susan Hill uses places and locations in the woman in black to create a fitting atmosphere for a ghost
story. Whether we are taken to a lace of eeriness and foreboding, or a place of comfort and
reassurance, Hill effectively uses clever devices in order to intensify the overall atmosphere of the
novel.
In the first chapter, we are presented with Arthur Kipps as an old man in a retrospective narrative.
We learn that he is a person that takes great pleasure out of exploring and observing nature, as he
had ‘always liked to take a breath of the evening, to smell the air…to look about the sky above my
head, whether there are moon and stars, or utter blackness.’ Hill is creating a false sense of security
at the start of this chapter. She is luring the readers into a calm and tranquil place, just as Kipps was
once in too. She uses words such as ‘poor…morose…damp…sour’ and ‘dismally low’, all in the same
lexical field as negative and gloomy things. This is effectively juxtaposing what is supposed to be the
joyful and happy season of Christmas. But soon after this, as readers we are introduced to their
home, Monk’s Piece. Hill uses topography in naming the house ‘Monk’s Piece’, as it has associations
with faithfulness and peace, two very important themes that we come to realise throughout the
novel. ‘Monk’s Piece stands at the summit of the land’, therefore a place of ‘isolation’ and
‘remoteness’. This is effective here, as it begins to string up a pattern, a suggestion perhaps, that
something has caused Kipps to feel most at peace where there is no sign of civilisation, a place
where he wants to be ‘further’ from it. A Hill does several times throughout the novel, we are taken
back to when Kipps was just a young man working as a solicitor for Mr Bentley. We are given the
description of Monk’s Piece when he had first seen it, he describes it as a ‘perfectly proportioned
stone house’, unfortunately nothing was going to be perfect for Kipps in the years and events to
come.
In the following chapter, we are given a rather ‘menacing and sinister’ account of a Monday
afternoon in November amongst a ‘seething…sly…evil-smelling fog’ that ‘choked and blinded people.
Hill heavily uses pathetic fallacy in this chapter to create a foreboding atmosphere, something which
Kipps recognises himself, ‘it would be easy to look back and to believe that all that day I had had a
sense of foreboding about my journey to come.’ As well as pathetic fallacy, Hill deliberately uses
harsh and vicious words to help convey this.
I believe that The Journey North acts as a shift between what is comforting and reassuring, to what is
‘foul’ and ‘confusing’. It is a transition for Kipps, not only in the form of comfort to discomfort, but as
he is a young and innocent man, he will from then on forward begin to encounter things that will
challenge and ultimately destroy his innocence. Another location that is notable is the train station
at Crythin Gifford. A place of ‘clangour and cheerfulness’ described as being like a ‘glowing…
blacksmith’s forge’. The vast contrast between the train station at Crythin Gifford and London
provides a sense of escapism for Kipps here, and he ‘settled down in great contentment’ in one of
the compartments. Inevitably, Kipps begins to feel ‘less comfortable’ and the change in atmosphere
conveys a growing chill and gloominess.
The extract is taken from chapter 5, Across the Causeway. As a romanticist, Kipps is taken off his feet
by the ‘sheer, startling beauty’ of the Nine Lives Causeway. Everything about it conveys a stillness as
if they were at ‘the very edge of the world’, also implying a sense of pure escapism and beguiling
The Woman in Black – Essay
Q. Write about some of the places and locations described in The Woman in Black. How are they
important to the novel as a whole? (40 marks)
Susan Hill uses places and locations in the woman in black to create a fitting atmosphere for a ghost
story. Whether we are taken to a lace of eeriness and foreboding, or a place of comfort and
reassurance, Hill effectively uses clever devices in order to intensify the overall atmosphere of the
novel.
In the first chapter, we are presented with Arthur Kipps as an old man in a retrospective narrative.
We learn that he is a person that takes great pleasure out of exploring and observing nature, as he
had ‘always liked to take a breath of the evening, to smell the air…to look about the sky above my
head, whether there are moon and stars, or utter blackness.’ Hill is creating a false sense of security
at the start of this chapter. She is luring the readers into a calm and tranquil place, just as Kipps was
once in too. She uses words such as ‘poor…morose…damp…sour’ and ‘dismally low’, all in the same
lexical field as negative and gloomy things. This is effectively juxtaposing what is supposed to be the
joyful and happy season of Christmas. But soon after this, as readers we are introduced to their
home, Monk’s Piece. Hill uses topography in naming the house ‘Monk’s Piece’, as it has associations
with faithfulness and peace, two very important themes that we come to realise throughout the
novel. ‘Monk’s Piece stands at the summit of the land’, therefore a place of ‘isolation’ and
‘remoteness’. This is effective here, as it begins to string up a pattern, a suggestion perhaps, that
something has caused Kipps to feel most at peace where there is no sign of civilisation, a place
where he wants to be ‘further’ from it. A Hill does several times throughout the novel, we are taken
back to when Kipps was just a young man working as a solicitor for Mr Bentley. We are given the
description of Monk’s Piece when he had first seen it, he describes it as a ‘perfectly proportioned
stone house’, unfortunately nothing was going to be perfect for Kipps in the years and events to
come.
In the following chapter, we are given a rather ‘menacing and sinister’ account of a Monday
afternoon in November amongst a ‘seething…sly…evil-smelling fog’ that ‘choked and blinded people.
Hill heavily uses pathetic fallacy in this chapter to create a foreboding atmosphere, something which
Kipps recognises himself, ‘it would be easy to look back and to believe that all that day I had had a
sense of foreboding about my journey to come.’ As well as pathetic fallacy, Hill deliberately uses
harsh and vicious words to help convey this.
I believe that The Journey North acts as a shift between what is comforting and reassuring, to what is
‘foul’ and ‘confusing’. It is a transition for Kipps, not only in the form of comfort to discomfort, but as
he is a young and innocent man, he will from then on forward begin to encounter things that will
challenge and ultimately destroy his innocence. Another location that is notable is the train station
at Crythin Gifford. A place of ‘clangour and cheerfulness’ described as being like a ‘glowing…
blacksmith’s forge’. The vast contrast between the train station at Crythin Gifford and London
provides a sense of escapism for Kipps here, and he ‘settled down in great contentment’ in one of
the compartments. Inevitably, Kipps begins to feel ‘less comfortable’ and the change in atmosphere
conveys a growing chill and gloominess.
The extract is taken from chapter 5, Across the Causeway. As a romanticist, Kipps is taken off his feet
by the ‘sheer, startling beauty’ of the Nine Lives Causeway. Everything about it conveys a stillness as
if they were at ‘the very edge of the world’, also implying a sense of pure escapism and beguiling
