Ghost Story features In Woman in Black

Annotations:

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1. Extreme Weather
   1. In the novel extreme weather plays an important role
      1. Usually reflects Kipp's Mood
         1. "excessively affected by the ways of the weather"
      2. Often foreshadows comming supernatural occurances
2. Gothic settings
   1. The house is set a remote and isolated area
      1. Certainly i felt loneliness ...outside that gaunt empty house"
   2. The building itself is rather gothic looking and meloncholic
   3. This anticipates that something bad is going to occur especially since the setting is isolated and away from the morals of civilisation
3. The concept of Religion and belief
   1. Reader/the character has to understand a christian moral: The novel has the theme that not everything can be explained and thus Kipps must learn to be less arrogant
   2. As novel progresses, Kipps resorts to earnest prayer, a contrast to his prior commitments done in vain
      1. "I prayed with a newly awakened zeal"
      2. "I prayed direct simple passionate prayers"
   3. Kipps' attitude towards reality and the supernatural changes: He was once a fellow who did not believe in events that could not be proved by science yet as he learns and encounter events what he once believed to be untrue, the idea of being unable to explain everything is a lesson he is forced to learn
      1. "I was a sturdy commonsensical fellow"
4. Main character's curiosity/Naivetes
   1. Kipps' overwhelming desire to seek more knowledge always consequences to a decline in order,things getting evermore out of control
      1. "I must know it cant hurt me now"
   2. He perpetually thinks he is immune to whatever W.I.B could: a feature that always tends to be a sense of false security
      1. "Felt sorry for J"
      2. "nothing could come near to harm or afright me"
      3. "[doubted] whether the W.I.B had any animosity towards me"
5. Contrast of Good and Evil
   1. The novel is full of contradictions between good and evil
      1. The Woman in Black and Children
         1. The evil and hatred of Janette is contradicted to the innocence of children whose lives are taken, unbalancing the equilibrium
         2. they looked so unlike children generally do...did not smile back
         3. "I had seen the ghost of Jennete Humfrye and she had her revenge" by taking his family and son away from him
      2. Safety of Rocking Chair vs the Haunting
         1. The same chair in which Kipps finds reasurrance, seems to be one of the predominant focuses of haunting
         2. Suggests that even in comfort there is an element of discomfort
            1. Paradox
      3. Nature VS Kipps
         1. "The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across the marshes"
            1. Out in the country side, Kipps is away from the contained settings of London; here he is vunerable to the vicissitudes of the ever changing weather. Perhaps could be even scarier than the ghost iself, or could be representing another evil sister force
               1. Like Two against One
         2. Nature often tries to wage war on Kipps, fooling and teasing him to think all will be fine when it is quite the opposite
            1. Mother nature plays the role of a crazy and murderous kind of mother- like Jennete
6. Supernatural elements
   1. The ghost
      1. The story behind the ghost always had significance: in this case it leads to all the suffering
   2. The Pony and Trap
      1. Key image portraying danger
         1. Could be to represent Kipps as the vunerable Pony, falling into an unforseen Trap, as he ignores the warning signs
   3. Death of Children
   4. Noises