Analysis of The Woman in Black

In the book The Woman in Black, the author, Susan Hill uses many
gothic elements to create a sense of suspense, horror and
depression, as well as to illustrate an atmosphere of an eerie and
intimidating nature. She uses the words like decayed and crumbling
to imply the isolation of the decaying monastery and we could even
imply that the narrator is stepping into a place of evil, as if this was
the personification of hell on earth.


To reinforce the feeling of isolation in the setting, Hill injects a single
living creature into the ruins, a satanic-looking bird, and this gives
us the sense that this bird is evil and that it is not from this world.
But the birds most important role in the piece is symbolic, the sea-
vulture symbolises the isolation and the evil and darkness of the
monastery. The bird also suggests that because the monastery is so
foul, the only creature able to live there is this horrible creature.
Additionally, by the hostile activities of the sea vulture towards the
narrator, it can be suggested that the narrator is trespassing into the
birds territory, and we can sea that the bird is acting in a hostile way
by marking its territory as the author nearly steps onto its foul
droppings.


In contrast to the first paragraph, the author infiltrates a somewhat
happy sense in the second paragraph as the narrator explains that he
likes the lonely monastery and he describes that he imagines it on a
warm summer evening and describes the balmy breezes coming
from the sea and how the June birds poured their fine songs. This
can give off the sense that the place could become a quite nice spot
to lie down in the summer evening and gaze at the sea and when the
narrator describes the birds singing, it suggests that the spot may
actually hold more live in it apart from the sea vulture and that the
spot might actually be transformed.


In the fourth paragraph, Hill takes away the warmness of the
monastery and re-inserts the coldness and darkness of the
monastery by making the sea vulture come back and further
describing it as a snake necked bird and by having the bird
restraining a small fish in its beak. This is can also be symbolical
because the fish represents the narrator trapped in the birds beak
and means that something bad is about to happen to him.
Furthermore, this can also symbolise the fish being the happiness and
warmness of the monastery trapped under the cold and dark, with
the bird symbolising the bad nature of the monastery.
In the fifth and sixth paragraphs, the narrator snaps back from his
morbid thoughts, and decides that he wants to leave this place and
go home when he sees the shape of a woman with a wasted face.
In the way the narrator describes it, I saw her again and she wore
the same black clothing and bonnet we can deduce that the author
has seen her before and that she gives off an eerie sense.
Furthermore, he describes her face as if she were a ghost by stating
In the greyness of the fading light, it had the sheen and pallor not of
flesh so much as bone itself and the first thoughts we get are that
the woman is dead. This is a great finish for the piece because it
leaves us in a cliff hanger and leaves us in a sense of dread that this
is the bad omen that came from the warning of the fish and the bird,
the Narrator being the fish and the woman being the Sea vulture
and that something bad is going to happen to the character.


Above all else, this piece can be clearly catalogued as a gothic and as
a great descriptive piece of writing where the author plays with your
mind by giving you a bad start, then by raising your hopes by
describing the good side of the place, after that by giving you a
warning and finally by answering the warning and making you scared
and definitely wanting to read more.