How Do the Description of Eel Marsh House and the Surrounding Land in Chapter 5 Create a Sense of Fear and Foreboding?

584 Words3 Pages
In Chapter 5 ‘Across the Causeway’ the descriptions of Eel Marsh House and the surrounding land create a sense of fear and foreboding. Hill opens the chapter by saying ‘shadow chasing shadow’, this creates a sense of terror as the word ‘shadow’ is something we link to darkness and dusk, this is often something we fear as what we cannot see panics us. The sense of the unknown creates a sinister atmosphere as it gives us chance to imagine the worst situations; in this case it causes us to expect something to unexpectedly creep up on us. The sense of the unknown also links into the rest of the book as Kipp’s is often kept conjecturing about Crithin Gifford and Eel Marsh House which causes alarm and anxiety amongst him. The word ‘chase’ indicates something predacious as we link chasing to something being hunted, this suggests something violent and horrific is going to happen, it could be a warning that Kipp’s will enter the Woman in Black’s territory and as a result she will prey on him. When crossing the causeway Hill describes the land, she says ‘gradually the soil gave way to rough grass’ this creates fear as the ‘rough grass’ shows that no one crosses this land as it has been left, the fact that no-body will go any closer to Eel Marsh House shows that there is something wrong with the area and therefore by the lack of information it leaves us to play on that idea in order to create an eerie atmosphere and spook ourselves. The word ‘soil’ is often something we link to dirt and unclean surfaces; soil is partly made up of eroding rock, the idea of things rotting links to death which creates fear as it links in to the common theme used by Hill of the unknown., it also foreshadows what Eel Marsh House and the surroundings are going to be like as they have been left to decay over time. The change in land from fertile to baron foreshadows the story of the Woman in Black as

More about How Do the Description of Eel Marsh House and the Surrounding Land in Chapter 5 Create a Sense of Fear and Foreboding?

Open Document