The following Woman in Black chapters have never been explicitly named in the any of the exam questions. You have been given essay titles on Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 – if you haven’t yet attempted these questions then please do.
1. Christmas Eve
4. The Funeral of MrsDrablow
6. The Sound of the Pony and Trap
7. Mr Jerome is Afraid
8. Spider
10. Whistle and I’ll Come to You
11. A Packet of Letters
It may be worth revisiting the other chapters: reread the chapter, look on old blog posts, reread your class notes and previous essays. Have a go at guessing what question might come up.
Here are your ideas on each chapter from Monday’s lesson:
If you struggle to locate quotes here a list of some key quotes for the above chapters:
Chapter 1 – Christmas Eve
- ‘my spirits have for many years now been excessively affected by the ways of the weather…’
- ‘since those earlier experiences I had deliberately avoided all contemplation of any remotely non- material matters, and clung to the prosaic, the visible and tangible.’
- ‘That my peace of mind was about to be disturbed and memories awakened that I had thought forever dead, I had, naturally, no idea.’
- ‘I wanted to banish the chill that had settled upon me and the sensation of fear in my chest’
- ‘Yes, I had a story, a true story, a story of haunting and evil, fear and confusion, horror and tragedy.’
- ‘I knew that I would have no rest from it.’
- ‘I would write my own ghost story. Then perhaps I should finally be free of it for what life remained for me to enjoy.’
Chapter 4- The Funeral of Mrs Drablow
‘However, towards the end of it, and on hearing some slight rustle behind me … very erect and still, and not holding a prayer book. She was dressed in deepest black, in the style of full mourning that had gone out of fashion except, I imagined, in court circles on the most formal of occasions. Indeed, it had clearly been dug out of some old trunk or wardrobe, for its blackness was a little rusty looking. A bonnet-type hat covered her head and shaded her face, but, although I did not stare, even the swift glance I took of the woman showed me enough to recognise that she was suffering from some terrible wasting disease, for not only was she extremely pale, even more than a contrast with the blackness of her garments could account for, but the skin and, it seemed, only the thinnest layer of flesh was tautly stretched and strained across her bones, so that it gleamed with a curious, blue-white sheen, and her eyes seemed sunken back into her head. Her hands that rested on the pew before her were in a similar state, as though she had been a victim of starvation. Though not any medical expert, I had heard of certain conditions which caused such terrible wasting, such ravages of the flesh, and knew that they were generally regarded as incurable, and it seemed poignant that a woman, who was perhaps only a short time away from her own death, should drag herself to the funeral of another.
Chapter 6 – The Sound of a Pony and Trap
The description of the fog:
‘Some minutes later, I could not tell how many, I came out of my reverie, to realise that I could no longer see very far in front of me and when I turned around. I was startled to find that Eel Marsh House, too, was invisible, not because of the darkness of evening has fallen, but because of a thick, damp sea-mist that had come rolling over the marshes and enveloped everything, myself, the house behind me, the end of the causeway path and the country-side ahead. It was a mist like a damp, clinging cobwebby thing, fine and yet impenetrable. It smelled and tasted quite different from the yellow filthy fog of London; that was choking and thick and still, this was salty, light and pale and moving in front of my eyes all the time. I felt confused, teased by it, as though it were made of millions of live fingers that crept over me, hung on me and then shifted away again. My hair and face and the sleeves of my coat were already damp with a veil of moisture. Above all, it was the suddenness of it that had so unnerved and disorientated me.’
Chapter 7 – Mr Jerome is Afraid
- ‘Now, I felt heavy and sick in my head, stale and tired and jangled too, my nerves and my imagination were all on edge.’
- ‘What frightened me… was not what I had seen – there had been nothing intrinsically repellent or horrifying about the woman with the wasted face’
- ‘An atmosphere, a force – I do not exactly know what to call it, of malevolence and bitter anger.’
- ‘I felt once again my normal, equable, cheerful self….spurt of glee’
- ‘His face took on the closed-up, deadened look of the previous day’
- ‘Mr Jerome’s face was one of panic’
- ‘I said in a soothing tone’
- ‘His hands… were working, rubbing, fidgeting, gripping and ungripping in agitation’
- ‘I said very calmly and quietly’
- ‘“She saw no on else. Not –“ his voice trailed away.
- “Not another living soul,” I put evenly.’
- ‘A sickly greyish pallor over his skin now’
- ‘ “I pray that you do not,” Mr Jerome said, and he held onto my hand with a sudden fierce grip as he shook it. “I pray that you do not.”
Chapter 8 – coming soon
Chapter 10 – Whistle and I’ll Come to You
The chapter opens with the description of the storm:
- ‘like a ship at sea’
- ‘roaring across the open marsh’‘
- the Sound of moaning’
- ‘howling darkness’
- ‘banging and rattling of the window’
- ‘battered by the gale’
- ‘windows were rattling’
- ‘whistling through every nook and cranny’‘
- tumult of the wind, like a banshee’
Tumult = violent and noisy commotion or disturbance of a crowd or mob highly distressing agitation of mind or feeling
Banshee = a female spirit whose wailing warns of impending death
- ‘the wind rage round like a lion’
And then …
- ‘A cry, that familiar cry of desperation and anguish, a cry for help from a child somewhere on the marsh.’
- ‘I was as near to weeping tears of despair and fear, frustration and tension, as I had ever been sine my childhood……….But instead of crying, I drummed my fists upon the floorboards, in a burst of violent rage, until they throbbed. (stumbling over the dog)’
- ‘I felt not fear, not horror, but an overwhelming grief and sadness, a sense of loss and bereavement, a distress mingled with utter despair.’ (entering the nursery room)
- ‘I was back within my own person, my own emotions, I was myself again.’ (closing the door to the nursery)
- ‘A strength I would never have dreamed I could have summoned up, born of terror and desperation’ (when rescuing Spider)
- ‘We were both trembling violently’ (on seeing the woman in black at the nursery window).
Chapter 11 – A Packet of Letters
‘But what I couldn’t endure was the atmosphere surrounding the events: the oppressive hatred and malevolence, of someone’s evil and also of terrible grief and distress. These, which seemed to invade my own soul and take charge of ne, these were what I could no longer bear.’
Page 138:
- ‘Might have been caused by a gang of robbers, bent on mad, senseless destruction’
- ‘left hanging like entrails from a wounded body’
- ‘Soft toys were split and unclothed’
- ‘ The tin Sambo was smashed as by a hammer blow’
- ‘Like a great brooding bird’
- ‘No one had entered here.’
Fingers crossed one of these comes up!
Miss O.
miss, the dog ate my homework 