Explore The Ways In Which Susan Hill Presents The Woman In Black

Explore the centerings in which Susan pitchers mound presents the cleaning lady in black. Before we meet the adult female, Susan Hill drops the description of the setting in A London Particular to foresee what she is like, predicting something wicked. London was described as funny farm full of red-eyed and demonic ghostly figures. These all suggest that Hill was describing or comparing London to Hell, which could imply that Mr Arthur Kipps was about to enter into his own personalized hell, containing a ghostly figure of haunting and torment.Hill uses Londons filthy, lousiness smelling fog that choked and blinded the Londoners as a way to pre-empt the sea mist that appears later in the novel, in The Sound of a Pony and Trap. They both engulfed their surroundings like a head covering of mystery and poor. The fog could have as puff up as suggested that Kipps was unaware of the Hell in his near future, he could non see what lay in reckon of him. There is a possibility the fog was a metaphor for the impend suffering and misfortune that lay ahead for Arthur Kipps.The Funeral of Mrs Drablow is a crucial chapter in the novel as this is the first time the woman is seen and mentioned. Kipps describes her as a woman dressed in the deepest black and wearing a toughie which seemed to have gone out of fashion, which suggests straight away that the woman is out of place, not only at the funeral, but as well as in that time period. Her clothes were a little rusty looking and this gives the imagination that her clothes are ageing, which links with her alienation from the rest of the funeral attendants.She is described as having a terrible wasting disease with the thinnest layer of flesh tautly stretched and strained across her bones. Her face was pathetically wasted extremely pallid and gaunt with almost a blue-white sheen. This all gives a spirit of a ghost, the whole portrayal sounding ghoulish. Kipps instantly feels sympathy towards the woman, as he refers to her as a not inconsiderable former viewer and poor thing. This is highly argumentationed to how she was anticipated from the London setting.The womans haunting effect on her victims is shown through Mr Jerome and his reaction. Arthur Kipps had merely mentioned her physical appearance,before Mr Jerome halt dead. She has the power to scare a grown man to the core without beingness seen. The woman seemed to bring inextricable memories to Jerome that leave him, frozen, pale and paralysed with absolute terror. This is alike shown in the way Kipps acts in Christmas Eve. The thought of the woman sends him into a devotion of agitation all those years later. The woman was an inextricable part of his past. She leaves her victims with a horror that is now woven into their very fibres.The woman next appears in the small burial ground behind Eel Marsh House in Across The Causeway. Kipps became suddenly conscious of the extreme bleakness and ghostliness of the burial ground. This gives the impression that even before he sees the woman, Arthur is aware of the criminal atmosphere that she brings with her. Hill uses the presentation of the unsettling setting and atmosphere in the burial ground, to show that her presence is overwhelming and she is a malignant character.Hill then goes on to describe the woman as one with a pallor not of flesh so often as bone itself. This shows that, similar to his tint at the funeral, Kipps hush up pities the woman. However, this emotion alters virtually instantly. He notices her expression of fervent malevolence. She looked as though she was searching for something she wanted, needed-must have. Here, Hill presents the malevolent side to the woman, opposed at the funeral, where Kipps sees the woman as a pathetic figure.She uses an immediate contrast between the way Kipps felt previously and the feelings he felt towards the woman in the burial ground, the pity to sheer horror in a matter of sentences. This is effective because i t changes the feel of the novel and it also links to the diabolical setting of London in A London Particular. This same facial expression caused not only Arthurs mind but also his body, to become possessed and out of control. He had become paralysed by her aura. Hill uses the deep description about how Kipps is feeling as a substantive way to create an ominous atmosphere.In In The Nursery, Kipps was lulled into a pretended sense of security before he entered the childs spiel room. He heard the noise within the room that meant comfort and guard the sound of the wooden runners of a rockingchair. Hill uses the softness and sweetness of Arthurs memory to contradict the fear and shock he feels when he sees the glasshouse in shambles. The great difference between these two moods makes the obliteration of the babys room and the womans revenge more powerful and impactful.Susan Hill also presents the woman by using the weather to foreshadow how she acts in the side by side(p) chapter . The wildness, violence, strength and intensity of the woman is shown through the thick cloud craft low over the marshes, stronger wind and raw coldness.The womans yearning malevolence was finally fulfilled in A mailboat of Letters when she turned the childs nursery from being in such good order to a state of disarray. The end of the room was described as being caused by a clustering of robbers which shows that the woman, who was originally portrayed as a frail, extremely pale juvenile woman, suffering from some terrible wasting disease, had so much anger, such violence and disgust building inside her that she was able to manoeuver the same amount of destruction as a gang of condemnable men, the clothes dragged out of the cupboard like entrails from a wounded body.The powerful imagery shows the woman as a vicious murder, change shape on mad, senseless destruction. She was unable to bear the fact that Nathaniel would never use the nursery again, and she was so bitter that a fter sixty years had passed, she was still causing havoc.To conclude, Susan Hill presents the woman in black as the malicious ghost of a young spiteful woman full of hatred and hungry for revenge. She does this using contrast in atmosphere, weather and setting, as well as her appearance and actions throughout the novel. The actions of revenge she takes are ones of pain and suffering for others, she wishes for them to feel the same as she does. Her actions are understandable, but under no circumstances are they forgivable.