Pony Trap

How is the sense of fear created and developed in’ The Sound of the Pony trap’

Susan Hill the creator of the woman in black , successfully creates fear through out her novel. It comes in ebbs and flows by using different techniques throughout to build up the tension. This book is a gothic horror which is a new genre but using the traditional horror aspects, one of the first books in the categories is’ The castle of Otranto’ published in 1767. They are typified by their dark, lachrymose atmosphere of hatred and fear. Hill used many traditional techniques such as the stereotypical use of pathetic fallacy reflecting the dark mood. The setting as its deserted and away from society, isolation , a ghost with hauntings all follow the conventional aspects. However the modern twist to hills novel is that the characters are unconvential, as in the normal gothic story the man is the scary character haunting a venerable or innocent young woman such as in’ Dracula’ he suck blood from all sweet caring ladies. Unlike in this case there is a ambitious young man being haunted by a revengeful young woman. From this the tension from new and old ways combine to create a heart pumping book which fear deeply impacts the reader. Fear is created in many ways in the chapter ‘The Sound of the Pony trap’ and many other chapters.

The chapter” the sound of the pony trap” creates and builds fear and tension through out using a climax technique. Similar to other chapters in the novel it is developed throughout with no clear resolution at the end. In this chapter Hill uses pathetic fallacy frequently to make a prediction what is going to happen next, as Arthurs mood reflect the weather. At the beginning of the chapter he describes the feeling trying to get back the causeway as’, as the weather is really bad you are expecting this night to be a bad one and develop the scene of fear, from the Woman In Black. However after Keckwick arrives to pick up Kipps at 2am the weather was described as ‘all was so changed’. This shows that the mood to Kipps is so relived to see Keckwick to save him so the weather reflects his thoughts.

Then finally the main element to the developing aspect of fear is haunting. These parts where the Woman in Black haunts Kipps are the moments when a cold feeling runs through the readers body and start to panic a little. The main haunting in this chapter is the sound of the pons trap and over all this is the most fearful part that distressed Kipps the most. The woman in black puts sounds in his head as a cart has over turned in the marshes and they are drowning so shouting for help with the cry off a child’s voice. After ‘an outburst of helpless sobbing’ , he was so overwhelmed by this a grown man cried over it. The haunting of the woman in black really breaks Kipps and this is the detrition of the man in till he becomes ill with fright. Fear is created, as hill shows how it effected Kipps and this is the part where the reader starts to feel afraid and fear is created.