Juliette Duncan
The Woman in Black Essay Question
Q. How are ghosts and ghost stories presented in the novel, The Woman in Black?
When we think of ghost stories, many of us will automatically associate them with supernatural
apparitions as part of a non-sensical fantasy that we may only find particularly scary as a child. Yet in
this novel, we are presented with more than just a story of ghosts and visions. Susan Hill creates an
effective atmosphere right from the beginning of the novel, as Arthur Kipps comes to the realisation
that his own tragic story must be told.
We are first presented with the theme of storytelling in chapter one where Kipps’ children are keen
to tell ghost stories to one another in ‘near darkness’, making him begin to feel uncomfortable and
anxious so that he ‘shuddered’. Hill uses effective words such as ‘banish’ to convey Kipps’
desperation to escape the thoughts and memories that still haunt him. The ‘sensation of fear’ Kipps
has endured has driven him to desire a more solitary lifestyle, ‘avoiding all contemplation of any
remotely non-material matters…’. As readers, this is when we are first made aware of Kipps’ inner
battle with himself, and one of ‘haunting and evil, fear and confusion, horror and tragedy.’ Kipps
represses this past experience which therefore impacts the present and how he copes with his
family as they continue to tell what should be innocent, juvenile and fun story-telling. Hill uses short
fragmented sentences in the beginning of this passage as ‘it was near darkness…And then silence in
the room. I shuddered…’ These sentences are particularly effective here as it portrays a growing
sense of anxiety and tension within Kipps’ character.
Being a father, Kipps is naturally expected by his young and naïve children to be able to join in and
also tell a ‘blood-curdling’ ghost story. He attempts to put on a brave front by speaking ‘jocularly’,
however he still finds himself ‘paralysed’ by fear, ‘a long-forgotten, once too familiar sensation’,
hence revealing to the readers that ghost stories have struck a nerve. Children automatically have
high expectations of their parents, but Kipps is ‘unable to bear it any longer’ as he refuses to tell
them a story: ‘I am sorry to disappoint you…but I have no story to tell!’. Ghost stories tend not to
make someone feel so petrified that they have to leave the room, but Susan Hill adds this to imply
something important within the storyline. All Kipps could possibly think to say is ‘No, no, you have
none of you any idea. This is all nonsense, fantasy, it is not like this. Nothing so blood-curdling and
becreepered and crude – not so…laughable’. The writer gives the impression that there is something
depressing and troubling in the narrator’s background – something psychologically, deeply buried
but not extinct. Kipps expresses his mental turmoil, as ‘the truth is quite the other, and altogether
more terrible’.
In chapter five, Kipps first sees the woman in black vanish before him. He is so sure of himself that
ghosts do not exist, appropriately with his rather cynical character as a young man. Kipps refuses to
believe in any kind of supernatural powers or apparitions, but ‘What other explanation was there?’ ‘I
did not believe in ghosts. Or rather, until this day I had not done so…I did not believe in ghosts.’ The
repetition here emphasises Kipps’ confused, yet still, a determined and certain state of mind.
When we consider the novel as a whole, there lies a deeper story which is only revealed in specific
detail to Kipps in the penultimate chapter: A Packet of Letters. I think that this plays an especially
significant role in the novel, as it essentially reveals the reasonings behind the ghostly hauntings that
Kipps had experienced and will continue to encounter. This is when Kipps acknowledges why he is
being haunted at Eel Marsh House, as ‘whoever haunted it and whatever terrible emotions still
possessed them would continue to disturb and distress anyone who came near here, that I knew’.
The Woman in Black Essay Question
Q. How are ghosts and ghost stories presented in the novel, The Woman in Black?
When we think of ghost stories, many of us will automatically associate them with supernatural
apparitions as part of a non-sensical fantasy that we may only find particularly scary as a child. Yet in
this novel, we are presented with more than just a story of ghosts and visions. Susan Hill creates an
effective atmosphere right from the beginning of the novel, as Arthur Kipps comes to the realisation
that his own tragic story must be told.
We are first presented with the theme of storytelling in chapter one where Kipps’ children are keen
to tell ghost stories to one another in ‘near darkness’, making him begin to feel uncomfortable and
anxious so that he ‘shuddered’. Hill uses effective words such as ‘banish’ to convey Kipps’
desperation to escape the thoughts and memories that still haunt him. The ‘sensation of fear’ Kipps
has endured has driven him to desire a more solitary lifestyle, ‘avoiding all contemplation of any
remotely non-material matters…’. As readers, this is when we are first made aware of Kipps’ inner
battle with himself, and one of ‘haunting and evil, fear and confusion, horror and tragedy.’ Kipps
represses this past experience which therefore impacts the present and how he copes with his
family as they continue to tell what should be innocent, juvenile and fun story-telling. Hill uses short
fragmented sentences in the beginning of this passage as ‘it was near darkness…And then silence in
the room. I shuddered…’ These sentences are particularly effective here as it portrays a growing
sense of anxiety and tension within Kipps’ character.
Being a father, Kipps is naturally expected by his young and naïve children to be able to join in and
also tell a ‘blood-curdling’ ghost story. He attempts to put on a brave front by speaking ‘jocularly’,
however he still finds himself ‘paralysed’ by fear, ‘a long-forgotten, once too familiar sensation’,
hence revealing to the readers that ghost stories have struck a nerve. Children automatically have
high expectations of their parents, but Kipps is ‘unable to bear it any longer’ as he refuses to tell
them a story: ‘I am sorry to disappoint you…but I have no story to tell!’. Ghost stories tend not to
make someone feel so petrified that they have to leave the room, but Susan Hill adds this to imply
something important within the storyline. All Kipps could possibly think to say is ‘No, no, you have
none of you any idea. This is all nonsense, fantasy, it is not like this. Nothing so blood-curdling and
becreepered and crude – not so…laughable’. The writer gives the impression that there is something
depressing and troubling in the narrator’s background – something psychologically, deeply buried
but not extinct. Kipps expresses his mental turmoil, as ‘the truth is quite the other, and altogether
more terrible’.
In chapter five, Kipps first sees the woman in black vanish before him. He is so sure of himself that
ghosts do not exist, appropriately with his rather cynical character as a young man. Kipps refuses to
believe in any kind of supernatural powers or apparitions, but ‘What other explanation was there?’ ‘I
did not believe in ghosts. Or rather, until this day I had not done so…I did not believe in ghosts.’ The
repetition here emphasises Kipps’ confused, yet still, a determined and certain state of mind.
When we consider the novel as a whole, there lies a deeper story which is only revealed in specific
detail to Kipps in the penultimate chapter: A Packet of Letters. I think that this plays an especially
significant role in the novel, as it essentially reveals the reasonings behind the ghostly hauntings that
Kipps had experienced and will continue to encounter. This is when Kipps acknowledges why he is
being haunted at Eel Marsh House, as ‘whoever haunted it and whatever terrible emotions still
possessed them would continue to disturb and distress anyone who came near here, that I knew’.
