Whistle and I’ll come to you (from the women in black) by Susan Hill
Context and Content
Susan Hill is an English author of many works of fiction and non-fiction. Her novel, “The Women in Black”
was published in 1983. It is a ghost story using suspense and atmosphere to create its impact. In this passage,
the narrator, a retired solicitor Arthur Kipps, is recalling his experiences as a young man when he was
summoned to the isolated house of a recent dead woman to sort out her papers. Whilst there, he endures an
increasingly terrifying sequence of unexplained noises, chilling events and appearances by the “women in
black”
Themes
Themes include: the supernatural: fear, reality vs fantasy; the mystery of the unknown.
Structure
The style is that of a traditional gothic novel. Hill listed what she considered some of the essential
ingredients “Atmosphere. A ghost, not monstrous. Haunted places especially a house. Weather- mists, a thin,
moaning wind. The hour, particularly that disturbing time, dusk”. At the start of the passage the wild
weather is described and contrasted with memories of being snug in bed as a child. A single, complex
sentence paragraph introduces the eerie cry of a child and racks up the tension. In the only three words of
direct speech (though they are thoughts) Arthur addresses the ghost. The rest of the extract shows Arthur’s
struggles to explain rationally what is happening but towards the end he is plunged into darkness. Short
sentences and rhetorical questions also serve to build up the spooky atmosphere.
Language
Key features include; many verbs relating to sound; references to light and dark; similes and words
describing negative emotions and repetition.
Analysis
How the narrator of the story is presented
• The passage starts ‘During the night’ and the weather is windy
• The narrator says that the wind ‘increased greatly in force’
• The house is being ‘battered by the gale’ and ‘seemed to rock at the impact’
• The wind changes to being described as a ‘gale’ that is ‘roaring across the open marsh’
• The verbs used to describe the sound and behavior of the weather show how intense it is: ‘increased’,
‘battered’, ‘roaring’, ‘rattling’, ‘boomed’
• A simile is used to describe how the house is moving because of the strength of the wind: ‘The house felt
like a ship at sea’
• The description of the house mirrors the narrator's isolation: ‘quite alone and exposed’
• The narrator uses alliteration to emphasize the impact of the weather: ‘bearing the brunt’
• Repetition also shows the extreme conditions: ‘winter after winter’
• The use of a list of types of weather shows how desolate the setting is: ‘gales and driving rain and sleet
and spray’
• Adjectives are used to describe isolation and extreme conditions: ‘howling’, ‘ill-fitting’, ‘tremendous’,
‘mysterious’
• The Gothic setting: ‘pitch blackness’ and ‘howling darkness’
• The juxtaposition of the chaos of the storm and ominous calm: ‘no movement, no brush of a sleeve against
mine, no disturbance of the air’
• The claustrophobic setting: ‘short narrow corridor’
• The noises of the weather are described in human or animal terms: ‘roaring’, ‘moaning’, ‘like a banshee’
and this links to the sound of the child crying: ‘child’s terrible cry borne on the gusts towards me’.
How the events are described
• The setting of the events creates a sense of mystery: it starts ‘During the night’ and the wind ‘increased
greatly in force’.
• It seems as if the house is being treated violently: it is ‘battered by the gale’, ‘Windows were rattling
everywhere’ and it ‘seemed to rock at the impact’.
• The setting is shown to be desolate and lonely, as seen in the use of a list of types of weather: ‘gales and
driving rain and sleet and spray’.
• The narrator’s description of the ‘howling darkness’ shows how the timing of events affects how
mysterious they are.
• His feelings about being safe as a child at home help to emphasize the ‘desperation and anguish’ of the
child’s cry he believes he hears.
• The conditions are described as isolated and extreme: ‘howling’, ‘ill-fitting’, ‘tremendous’, ‘mysterious’.
• The chaos of the storm is juxtaposed with ominous calm: ‘no movement, no brush of a sleeve against mine,
no disturbance of the air’
• The narrator thinks about doing normal, everyday activities to distract himself from the mysterious events:
‘I would go down into the kitchen and make myself a drink’
• Two events happening together creates a sense of panic in the narrator: he feels someone going past him
and ‘the lights went out’
• The event of the door to the nursery opening is described in a mysterious way: ‘whose door had been so
firmly locked and then, inexplicably, opened’
• The narrator attempts to create a rational set of events to explain what is happening: ‘Had Mrs Drablow
harboured some reclusive old sister or retainer, had she left behind her a mad friend that no one had known
about?’
Use of Language and Structure
• Short sentence structures create a sense of fear and tension from the beginning of the extract: ‘During the
night the wind rose’, ‘No light came on’, ‘The torch had broken’, ‘No. But what was ‘real’?’
• Adverbs are used to emphasize the confused feelings of the narrator: ‘abruptly’, ‘nostalgically’, ‘vividly’,
‘inexplicably’, ‘desperately’
• Verbs used to describe the intensity of the weather create a feeling of lack of control and chaos:
‘increased’, ‘battered’, ‘roaring’, ‘rattling’, ‘boomed’
• A simile is used to describe how the house is moving because of the strength of the wind: ‘The house felt
like a ship at sea’
• The narrator uses alliteration to emphasize the impact of the weather: ‘bearing the brunt’
• Repetition also shows the extreme conditions: ‘winter after winter’
• Use of questions suggests the narrator’s isolation makes him unsure of what is happening: ‘How could
there be?’, ‘how many years?’, ‘and who was now in this house with me?’
• The use of language related to death creates fear: ‘long-dead ghost?’, ‘‘‘Rest in peace’’’
• The use of coordinated sentences suggests confusion and a lack of coherence caused by being alone
• The narrator uses negatives to suggest that he is unsure and disbelieving of what is happening: ‘I had not
bothered...’, ‘I had seen no one, felt nothing’, ‘I had not even heard a footstep’
• The impact of the confusion created is seen in the use of verbs to describe negative or out-of-control
actions: ‘groped’, ‘stumbled’, ‘dropped’, ‘spinning’, ‘fell’, ‘cursed’
• Non-specific nouns and pronouns create a sense of isolation: ‘no one’, ‘someone’, ‘another human being’,
‘a person’, ‘who’, ‘Whatever’, ‘whoever’
• The noises of the weather are described in human or animal terms: ‘roaring’, ‘moaning’, ‘like a lion’, ‘like
a banshee’ reminding the reader of the child crying: ‘child’s terrible cry borne on the gusts towards me’.
