Whistle And I’ll Come To You - Susan Hill

The novel, ‘The Woman In Black’ is a modern writer’s re-imagination of a Victorian ghost story.
Susan Hill skillfully uses suspense and an ominous atmosphere to assist tension thus creating a
dramatic impact.

Presenting the setting, characters and layered storytelling structure. Exploring the pathos of an
era when people sought refuge in superstition and ghost stories to depict unexplainable events.

In the full extract, the narrator, Arthur Kipps, recounts his experiences as a young man. Called to
sort out the papers of a recently deceased woman, requiring him to remain in the isolated house
overnight alone.

At the beginning of the extract, she uses a first-person narrator to draw the reader closer to the
action thereby to experience the ominous night and the mysterious feeling of the narrator.
Increasing the tension. The extract unfolds with pathetic fallacy ‘during the night the wind
rose’ draws on eeriness to unsettle the reader.

The comparative adjective ‘stronger’, ‘increased greatly in force’ portrays the unusual wind.

The simile ‘house felt like a ship at sea’, alliteration of ‘battered by’ visualize and hear the
turbulence of the strange night. Stereotypical unnatural sounds ‘whistling and moaning’ towards
the end of the first paragraph instills a sense of dreadfulness.

The simple sentence at the beginning of the second paragraph is an extension of the trepidation
created in the first paragraph.

Immediately, the writer calmly launches into flashbacks to alleviate himself from apprehensive
thoughts. This is discoursed through the idiom ‘gathering my wits’. Using amplification to
describe the miniscule parts of details “Eel Marsh’’ familiarizes us with a haunted environment.

The striking simile ‘steady as a lighthouse’ gives a clear picture of the wilderness and it makes
the phrase ‘quite alone and exposed’ meaningful. ‘Quite alone and exposed’. The narrator uses
alliteration to emphasize the impact of the weather: ‘bearing the brunt.’ Kipps tries to reassure
himself, reasoning that the house has survived many storms and is as ‘steady as a lighthouse.’
The detailed description of the location and surroundings of the house arouse a sense of solitude
and the repetition of 'winter after winter’ accentuates distressing seclusion.

The adverb ‘nostalgically’ clearly suggests that he no longer experiences the peaceful
atmosphere of his childhood days. Sibilance words ‘snug and safety’ point to a warm-secure
shelter and the narrator’s contentment.

A shift in tone, as Kipps recalls feeling safe in his childhood home during a storm. A simile is
used as he recalls how ‘the wind raged round like a lion.’
“Powerless to reach me’. Complex sentence and polysyndeton towards the end of the second
paragraph shows the writer again departing from reality, beginning to experience the same
warmth and comfort he experienced in his childhood.

The narrator's memory of safety ‘warm and snug safety’ of his childhood nursery contrasts with
his feelings of vulnerability in Eel Marsh House. His feelings about being safe as a child at home
help to emphasize the ‘desperation and anguish’ of the child’s cry he hears. The wind in the
nursery at home was ‘powerless’ and this makes the wind during the night seem fearful. The
memories of childhood create a hypnotic state in the narrator: ‘I lay back and slipped into that
pleasant, trance-like state’. Suggesting he is in a trance makes the reader doubt his sense of
reality and question if he really hears the cry of a child.

Single line paragraph retrieves the narrator and readers from the calm atmosphere. The active
verb ‘catapulting’ pictures the speed at which the narrator is taken back to the real threatening
world. Moreover, a beastly attribute is given to the wind through the onomatopoeia “howling
darkness”. This foreshadows the ominous and supernatural events that are yet to come. The
employment of the harsh verb “banishing” depicts how every ounce of tranquility has been
eliminated from his current reality which is brimmed with dread.

Through the short sentence, ‘I listened hard’ the narrator portrays his struggle to capture the
slight movements in the house and the minor sentence ‘Nothing’ is his consolation. She
compares the violent wind to a ghost, and the presence of ‘banshee’ the spirit hints at the
upcoming unfortunate events. A phantom vision from the Irish tradition which is an omen
warning of death.

‘There was no child’, a simple sentence that is contradictory to the repeated ‘cry’ in the
previous paragraph. Here the narrator battles between his delusions and reality. Through the
rhetorical questions, the writer questions his sanity as his hallucination begins to haunt his mind.

Time reference ‘after a few moments’ unveils the narrator’s courage to relieve him from the
superstitious thoughts, providing us a sense of plot development. Chronological listing shows and
repetition of ‘trying’ emphasizes how he struggles to continue rationalizing his thoughts. The use
of ellipses at the end of the paragraph stresses his emotional and mental sufferings, hooks the
readers to the apprehension of the narrator.

A sense of comfort is brought with the introduction of the dog ‘Spider’. The poltergeist
‘someone who had just …..gone past me’ establishes the presence of a ghost, this is further
heightened by the pathetic fallacy ‘tremendous blast of wind’. This detailed description helps the
reader to feel the presence of a supernatural being which adds to our sense of nervousness. The
shift in tone links the readers to the supernatural thoughts of Arthur rather than the logical
thoughts in the previous paragraphs. The phrases ‘lights went out’ and ‘pitch blackness’
envelope the haunted house in darkness, moreover, it creates a sinister atmosphere and signals the
foreboding events.

As the frights, horrors, and traumas Arthur is experiencing continue to escalate, his rational
mind searches incessantly for factual reasons for the strange noises, feelings, and sights to no
avail. Arthur has begun to accept that the nature of his reality has shifted, and will perhaps
never be the same. The structural use of questions by the narrator suggests that his isolation
makes him unsure of what is happening: ‘How could there be?’, ‘how many years?’, ‘and
who was now in this house with me?’ The use of language referencing death rings terrors in
the narrator ‘long-dead ghost?’, ‘Rest in peace’.
Through a series of negative phrases the narrator tries to liberate himself from hallucinations.
The narrator uses negatives to suggest that he is unsure and disbelieving of what is happening: ‘I
had not bothered...’, ‘I had seen no one, felt nothing’, ‘I had not even heard a footstep’. This
is contradicted by the sibilance “certain sense of someone”, which illustrates his certainty that
he is being trailed around the house by a supernatural being, this creates unearthly emotions. The
narrator familiarizes the setting ‘down the short narrow corridor’ to show the reasons for his
claustrophobic feelings. The adverb ‘inexplicably’ challenges Kipps’ rational thoughts in the
previous paragraphs.

Internal thoughts of the narrator are brought through phrases; increasing the paranormal feelings
of the readers. Rhetorical question ‘Perhaps it was the woman in black? reconnects to the title.

His confused questions take the reader to the past and make us think of the ‘woman in black’.
The questions seem to add a layer of doubt that prepares us for the unsettling scenes to follow.
Hyperbole ‘my brain span’ shows how his brain spins wildly in mysterious thoughts as he
attempts to find out the reality. His desperate attempt to evaluate the situation ends in ‘wild,
incoherent fantasies’, which shows his inefficacy for ‘rational explanation’. Towards the end
of the paragraph, the minor sentence “No” changes the pace of his superstitious thoughts. Finally
accepting that his nature of reality changed and admits his denial of differentiating illusions from
reality.

The narrator's reactions are described as child-like as soon as he hears crying: ‘crawling about
on my hands and knees’, ‘weeping tears of despair’, ‘I drummed my fists upon the
floorboards’.

Emotive phrases ‘despair and fear’ and ‘frustration and tension’ help the readers to
understand the narrator’s consternation of the dark. His impatience is painted with the kinesthetic
line ‘I drummed my fists’.

A momentary tranquility is established in the last paragraph through the dog Spider’s
‘scratching’ and “licking”. Suddenly Hill heightens the tension by pathetic fallacy ‘the wind
boomed and roared’ suggesting that the threat is nearer. Repetition ‘again and again’ conveys
how torturous the ‘terrible cry’ is for the narrator.

The extract ends on an ambiguous note as the mystery continues whilst the narrator dreads for
uncertainty, building up tension to the end of the extract.

The theme of supernatural events, the narrator creating a gothic atmosphere to introduce the fear,
loneliness, isolation, influenced by superstitious beliefs of the 19th century.