English Literature GCSE: The Woman in Black - Themes

GUV:Hmm hmm. Yes. Yes. OK. Yep.

So we’re saying revenge, isolation and fear are three key themes in Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black?

(to Shane) Dane, you want to kick us off with the theme of revenge?

SHANE:Erm, well revenge is what it’s all about. The Woman In Black, or Jennet as we learn her name is, only exists for revenge. Mr Daily tells Arthur “and whenever she has been seen, a child has died”

(addressing team)She’s wreaking revenge on innocent people for what she went through, even after death.

GUV: Yes.

PC BENNETT:It’s like the old crone wants everyone to feel as miserable as she does.

SHANE: She was 36.

PC BENNETT:It overcomes Arthur in the house and especially the nursery.

(reading)“What I couldn’t endure more was the atmosphere surrounding the events: the sense of oppressive hatred and malevolence, of someone’s evil and also of terrible grief.”

PC GREEN:It’s a shame really cos’ Arthur actually had sympathy for Jennet.

He says about her that she was:
(reads)“A poor crazed, troubled, woman, dead of grief and distress, filled with hatred and desire for revenge”

SHANE: He thinks her actions are understandable, but not forgivable.

GUV:(smacking wall) Isolation!

Everyone jump.

SHANE:Jennet feels isolated at being sent away when she’s pregnant, only further cemented when Alice, AKA Mrs Drablow, refuses to let her see her son.

PC GREEN:Alice feels isolated too because she says. “She didn’t greatly care for visitors”.

PC BENNETT: Alice Drablow lives in a very remote house. Mr Bentley warns… (reading from wall) “When the tide comes in, you’re cut off until it’s low again.” Of course, I wouldn’t be scared, but I imagine someone one with weak nerves might find it absolutely terrifying.

SHANE:We also learn that when the tide’s up, accidents can happen.

PC GREEN:Yeah. Nathaniel, Jennet’s beloved son drowns.

PC BENNETT:And lets not forget Spider the dog nearly gets submerged.

PC GREEN:That was the scariest thing for me.

SHANE:Oh the description of the Woman In Black for me…

GUV:Don’t worry team, Don’t worry, don’t worry. Probably maintenance. Very good team, plenty of food for thought. We seem to be naturally crossing into fear now…

(to Shane)
Luke? You kick us off.

SHANE:It’s actual/my name’s Sh/forget it. (points to the title fear) We know early on that what we’re getting is a terrifying ghost story because the narrator himself, Arthur Kipps, refuses to share it with his step children.

PC BENNETT:We are drip fed things to unsettle us all the way through. (getting agitated)

Arthur’s boss, Mr Bentley is cagey, for starters. When Arthur asks him if Mrs Drablow had any children, he says “According to everything we’ve been told, about Mrs Drablow, no, there were no children.”

(almost furious) I mean, even the place names like ‘Gapemouth Tunnel’ and ‘Nine Lives Causeway’ are meant to evoke fear. Didn’t work of course.

SHANE:Then, there’s the reactions of the locals when Arthur mentions Mrs Drablow. “His face flickered with with… what? Alarm, was it? Suspicion?” or Mr Daily “stopped dead” at the mention of it.

PC BENNETT:“There was some significance in what had been left unsaid”. We’re kept in suspense.

SHANE:When Kipps experiences the hauntings, he often describes what’s happening physically.

(reads)
“I sat up paralysed, frozen” and he talks about “prickling of my own skin”.

We feel his fear.

Gasps and screams from the team.

GUV:(from the dark)Is someone playing silly beggers with the light switch? Green?

PC GREEN: I wish it was.

GUV:(trying to disguise panic) OK. Let’s call it a night.

Everyone screams and flees.

PC BENNETT:(from the darkness)

Guys? Guys…?

(horrified) Have you left without me? .