10 Sep 2013

Analysis of Chapter 1 of The Woman in Black GCSE Controlled Assessment and Exam

How does Hill use Gothic conventions to build tension and atmosphere at the start of The Woman in Black?

The title of the chapter ‘Christmas Eve’ suggests a time of celebration, family and joy, of anticipation. The mood at the start is ‘festive’, ‘happy’ and
the main character has just enjoyed a good meal in the company of his wife and her children. From the first, there is a slighly unsettling mood as he has lost a wife in tragic circumstances and it feels as if this family is laid over the ghost of something dark.


The family start to tell ghost stories, which Hill has the narrator describe as typical eighteenth century melodramas: of ‘monastery ruins’ and ‘hooded monks’, evoking Matthew Lewis’ ‘The Monk’. The castle of ‘shriekings, groanings and scuttlings’ is described in an almost farcical way - similar to the Victorians’ negative attitude to over the top novels like ‘The Castle of Ontranto’. Dickens uses the convention of the ghost story also on Christmas Eve in ‘A Christmas Carol’ where the link between the darkest day of the year - the cusp of Christmas day - and being haunted by the past, and revenge is made clear. It becomes clear that Kipps is similarly haunted. Words like ‘unease’ ‘trouble’ ‘bitter’ and ‘nervous’ suggests a dark, underlying tension. Hill alludes to a terrible event which has haunted him for many years.


The use of time in the chapter follows gothic conventions of novels like Frankenstein where the framing narrative sets up a contrast between now: a ruined man, and the past where a young, whole, hearty man rushes towards a terrible fate. The first person style colours the events black - as we experience them through the eyes of his terror and agitation - while bringing us claustrophoically close to them. The novel is told from Kipps’ point of view which, in the second chapter goes into the events of the past that have caused his nervous breakdown.
