Woman in Black Turning Point

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In the novel ‘The Woman in Black’ by Susan Hill. We look at the turning point which is crucial to Arthur kipps’s life while he is on a business trip. The point which changes him is when the woman in black whistles spider out to the marshes to try and get Arthur to follow and drown, this crucially changes Arthur as now he realises that she is sinister and he is no longer interested in finding out more about her, he now believes she is a dangerous ghost when he sees her on the way back to the house, the consequences of this are that his future son dies, after that Arthurs life changes forever. This is why this point in the book is so crucial. Arthur and the dog spider are both walking about the estate when then spider is whistled out to the marshes. The woman in black has whistled spider to try and lure Arthur after him, to drown in the marshes. Arthur doesn’t die but he is in shock and doesn’t want to go back to the house but he has to, he has nowhere else to go as the tide is in. When he does go back he then see’s the woman in black at the window and that’s when he realises she wants to kill him. Firstly Arthur see’s the ghost of Jennet Humphrey at El Marsh House which results in the death of a child; in Arthur’s case it’s his future son which will change his life forever. “He lay crumbled on the grass below it, dead” Susan Hill, the writer uses a theme of revenge here, after the woman in black’s child died in front of her own eyes she wanted to take revenge on everyone else, so whenever someone saw her, a child died. “I had seen the ghost of Jennet Humphrey and she has had her revenge” Susan Hill, the writer also uses the technique of sympathy for both characters; the woman in black and Arthur. We do not feel sympathy for the woman in black as she has murdered and haunted people for years whereas we feel sympathy for Arthur as he was a nice kind man trying to do
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