In Chapter 4 – The Funeral of Mrs Drablow Arthur first notices the character of The Woman in Black. The chapter starts in a positive manner describing Samuel Daily’s vehicle as ‘capacious’ and ‘plush’ and Arthur having a ‘warm glow of well being and contentment’, despite the title of the chapter.

In Chapter 7 of The Woman in Black: The prospect of a cycle ride evokes a sense of excitement and happiness to the point where Arthur decides to remain at Crythin Gifford to complete his task – ‘I felt one again my normal, equable, cheerful self’.

By Susan Hill Twenty-three year old solicitor Arthur Kipps is going on a business trip for his boss, Mr. Bentley. He’s headed to the home of recently deceased Alice Drablow to sort out her affairs and attend her funeral.

Written by Susan Hill, it tells the story of a young solicitor from London, Arthur Kipps who is sent to Crythin Gifford, a town situated next to the marshes of the Nine Lives Causeway. It is based on a true story that was said to have occurred in the Cotswold village, Lower Slaughter.

She draws on sounds in particular to unsettle the reader and create an unnerving sense of place. She uses a first-person narrator in the form of Arthur Kipps, drawing the reader in closer to the action. This increases the tension.

The main themes in this ghost story by Susan Hill are fear, isolation and the influence of the past. These are presented through the setting, characters and the layered storytelling structure.

Jennet Humfrye takes control in death that she did not have in life. She uses fear to take her revenge. She directed the purest evil and hatred and loathing, with all the force that was available to her. This energy that comes from the ghost is frightening.

In life, Jennet Humfrye’s child died in an accident and she was driven mad with her desire for revenge. She blamed her sister who had let them go out that day. Her emotion is so powerful that she pursues revenge beyond her life and returns to haunt other people.

The locals ,who lived in Crythin Gifford a nearby village, called her ‘The Woman in Black’….Jennet Humfrye.

By Susan Hill Arthur gets on the afternoon train and looks through Mrs. Drablow’s file. As he’s sitting there, a man comes in to share his compartment and introduces himself as Sam Daily. He shows some interest in the Drablow file, but Arthur pretty much ignores him.

There is a decayed, abandoned air about the graveyard, and Arthur turns to head up to the house—as he does, he takes one final glance around the burial ground and spots the wasted woman in black from the funeral. Arthur, intrepid as ever, decides to do some exploring and figure out what’s what at Eel Marsh House.

Arthur lies down and falls into a restless sleep, suffering all night horrible dreams of the terrified whinny of the pony, the calling of the ghostly child, and the dark, hovering presence of the woman in black. Arthur has been deeply traumatized by the things he has experienced at Eel Marsh House.

Arthur has had a pleasant day today, away from Eel Marsh House and even from Crythin Gifford—this, along with Daily’s hospitality, comfortable home, and offer of Spider, has lulled Arthur into a false sense of security. Hill uses his contentment and even excitement to build further upon her readers’ sense of dread.

In chapter 1, Hill uses foreshadowing to leave clues about the sinister story that Kipps is going to tell: The metaphor ‘long shadow’ is a mysterious way of describing a past trauma that clearly haunted Kipps for some time and contrasts to the sense of peace that comes from settling at Monk’s Piece with his new family.

Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a lawyer, is recently widowed and grieving the loss of his wife when he is sent to a remote village to put a deceased eccentric’s affairs in order. Soon after his arrival, it becomes clear that the villagers are hiding a terrible secret. Kipps discovers that his late client’s house is haunted by the spirit of a woman who is trying to find someone and something she lost, and that no one — not even the children — is safe from her terrible wrath.

The locals ,who lived in Crythin Gifford a nearby village, called her ‘The Woman in Black’….In 1989 TV adaptation.

The exterior shots of Eel Marsh House were filmed at Cotterstock Hall near Oundle in central England. The fictional Nine Lives Causeway leading to it was filmed at Osea Island in Essex. The village of Crythin Gifford was filmed at Halton Gill, north of Settle in the Yorkshire Dales.

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1983

She wants to ensure that no member of the township can escape having to feel the agony that she was put through in losing her own child. Both in Susan Hill’s novel and in early 1900s folklore, the “woman in black” is a supernatural figure that exists solely to punish.

The Woman In Black is fantastic in all aspects. It’s scary, suspenseful and so realistic that you can actually see it happening in real life. I first saw this on the TV back in 1989, and with all the lights off and the volume turned up, it was probably the most creepy experience of my entire life.

Based on the book by Susan Hill, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Kipps, a lawyer who is forced to leave his young son and travel to a remote village to attend to the affairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel Marsh House. …

Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black (1983) is a radical example of women’s Gothic horror. It is a popular ghost story that has been successfully adapted for the London stage. In addition, it offers a social critique of motherhood and contemporary rhetoric surrounding the family.

His fears are facing a raging battle as they go up, when he cannot explain something, and down again when he can. What becomes evident throughout this chapter is the idea that fear is shown in differing ways. One minute Kipps is calm and controlled. The next he is mortified and struck with abject fear.

Ghost story

Arthur Kipps

He explains that a child dies each time the woman in black is seen. At the end of the story, Arthur sees the woman in black again and his wife and son die in a terrible accident. The Woman in Black is a ghost story about heartbreak and revenge.

Cotterstock Hall Near Oundle Village, Northamptonshire Exterior shots of the fictional Eel Marsh House were filmed in Northamptonshire’s Cotterstock Hall, located near Oundle village.

Samuel Daily is the first Crythin Gifford local Arthur meets on his way north. As Arthur’s stay in Crythin Gifford unfolds, he learns that Daily is a newly moneyed landowner who is buying up several properties in town. Despite his affluence and desire to acquire land, Daily refuses to touch Eel Marsh House.

Crythin Gifford The fictional village where the novel is set is never really firmly located in any part of England apart from somewhere on the coast. Sam Daily describes Crythin Gifford to Arthur as they sit on the train together: “… There’s the drowned churches and the swallowed-up village,” he chuckled.

Keckwick – the driver of the pony and trap who takes Kipps to and from Eel Marsh House. The only villager who ever ventures to the house in Mrs Drablow’s time. He is the only person who had any contact with Mrs Drablow and would go to Eel Marsh House from the village.

It is nine thirty at night on Christmas Eve, and Arthur Kipps and his family have just finished a happy, festive meal at their country home, Monk’s Piece. Arthur states that his spirit has been “excessively affected by the ways of the weather” for many years.