The Woman In Black Gothic Essay

“The Woman in Black” by Susan Hill features many elements of gothic literature. Gothic literature uses the elements of death, gloom, fear, and mystery. The setting of this book is in London at some point in the early 1900’s. When Author Kipps starts telling his story, it begins in London when it was very foggy. He described it as “the thickest of London peasoupers” (Hill). The fog foreshadows on how the rest of the book will be, dark and gloomy. Hills’s use of the fog and sea mist, the funeral of Alice Drablow, and the Eel Marsh House add to the Gothic components in this book. First of all, the way Hill uses the fog and sea mist creates a mysterious, Gothic setting throughout the book. In the beginning, Kipps describes the fog as a “yellow fog, a filthy, evil-smelling fog, a fog that choked and blinded, smeared and stained” (Hill). The
The house has a dark, mysterious feeling about it. The Nine Lives Causeway separates the house from the rest of the town. When high tide comes, it is impassable. Kipps describes the house as a “tall, gaunt house of gray stone with a slate roof” (Hill). The description of the house gives it a personality in itself. It has an evil presence, like a vengeful ghost. As Kipps walks around the house, he discovers ruins of what looked to be an old church. When he passes under an arch, a bird flies off. He says the bird was “an ugly, satanic looking thing” (Hill). The description of the bird foreshadows what he is about to see. He approaches the burial ground, and that is where he sees the ghost again. Kipps gets a better look at her this time. He said the look on her face “was as though she were searching for something she wanted…and which had been taken from her” (Hill). The house itself is very dark and mysterious. When adding the satanic looking bird, the ghost, and the seclusion, it gives the reader a supernatural