Throughout the novel Susan Hill creates fear around Arthur Kipps which gives a chilling sense to the reader that reflects the feelings that Arthur witnesses throughout his experiences. The three main creators of fear during the course of the novel are The Woman in Black, Eel Marsh House and the wind over the marshes.
Hill creates the majority of Arthur’s fear during the time he spent at Eel Marsh House, ‘There were perhaps fifty old gravestones, most of them covered in patches of greenish – yellow lichen and moss’, Hill creates a sinister atmosphere that represents death over the period of time that Arthur stayed at the house. Furthermore, Hill uses hyperbole to heighten the sense of fear and isolation that Arthur is feeling as it suggests that he is surrounded by the supernatural by the use of the word, ‘Gravestones’. Hill uses colour imagery here to add to the eerie, sinister atmosphere and unnerve Arthur. ‘Have you ever heard of the Nine Lives Causeway?’ Hill uses a metaphor here to give the perception that you are extremely lucky to pass over the marsh which would create fear and
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‘Like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came from the open marsh’, Hill portrays Arthur to be stranded, alone on an empty open mash. The simile creates a further sense of fear as though Arthur is isolated furthermore it suggests being a ship lost in the wide, threatening ocean. Hill uses kinaesthesia by ‘battered to give a sense that there was no escape from the gale only to be knocked about. ‘The sound of moaning down every chimney of the house’, creates the idea that he was isolated but yet surrounded by noises of the supernatural to create the intense sense of fear. Hill’s use of aural imagery allows the reader to recreate the sounds that Arthur heard throughout the long, everlasting nights at Eel Marsh House which Hill uses to give the reader the same feelings that Arthur