1. Chapter 12: The Woman in Black
Inquiry Question: How important is the structure of the novel?

2. Predictions….
Why has Hill felt the need to create a final chapter, surely all of the mysteries are solved?
Write down what you think will happen next. Be ready to share your answer.
I think…
My story is almost done. There is only the last thing to tell. And that I can scarcely bring myself to write about.

3. Reading….

4. I have come home soaked through to the skin, to Esme’s considerable distress. And that has been another cause of anguish: she has watched me and wandered and had been too sensitive to ask questions, I have seen the worry and distress on her face and sensed her restlessness, as we have sat together in the late evenings. I have been quite unable to tell her anything at all, she has no idea what I have been going through or why: she will have no idea what I have been going through or why: she will have no idea until she reads this manuscript and at that time I shall be dead and beyond her. But, now at last, I have summoned up sufficient courage, I will use the very last of my strength, that has been so depleted by the reliving of those past horrors, to write the end of the story.
Why has the narrative
gone back to the
present?
What do the words ‘past
horrors’ suggest?

5. They asked for my story. I have told it. Enough
The End
Why is this so abrupt?
Do you think it is an effective ending?
Write down and be ready to share your answer.
I think…
They asked for my story. I have told it. Enough
because...

6. Plot vs. Structure
The plot is the sequence of events, that is what happens (i.e. the timeline).
The structure is the shape that these events take or the patterns they form (i.e. Chapter divisions).

7. Timeline –the chronological order that these events happened:
Jennet Humfrye is forced to give her son Nathaniel to her sister Alice Drablow for adoption.
Jennet convinces Alice to let her see her son.
A pony and trap drown in the marshes, killing Nathaniel, his nanny, and Keckwick senior.
Jennet catches a wasting disease and dies.
Children in Crythin Gifford die every time the Woman in Black is seen.
Mrs Drablow dies and Arthus Kipps is sent to organise her papers.
Arthur is haunted in Eel Marsh House.
Arthur recovers at Mr Samuel Daily’s house.
Arthur sees the Woman in Black in a park and his son and wife are killed.
Arthur buys Monk’s Piece and remarries Esme Ainsley.
Arthur’s family telling ghost stories upsets him into writing of his ‘past horrors’.

8. Chapter
The event occurs in this chapter, or the reader learns of the event in this chapter
1: Christmas Eve
2: A London Particular
3: The Journey North
4: The Funeral of Mrs Drablow
5: Across the Causeway
6: The Sound of a Pony and Trap
7: Mr Jerome is Afraid
8: Spider
9: In the Nursery
10: Whistle and I’ll Come to You
11: A Packet of Letters
12: The Woman in Black

9. Chapter
The event occurs in this chapter, or the reader learns of the event in this chapter
1: Christmas Eve
2: A London Particular 6.
3: The Journey North
4: The Funeral of Mrs Drablow
5: Across the Causeway 7.
6: The Sound of a Pony and Trap
7: Mr Jerome is Afraid
8: Spider
9: In the Nursery
7. 1.
10: Whistle and I’ll Come to You
11: A Packet of Letters
12: The Woman in Black 9.

10. Structure Ghost story How does Hill structure the novel?
First person narrative
How does Hill structure the novel?
Hindsight
Arthur occasionally interrupts the events to comment on the action.
The final lines, of the novel return to the present.
Chapter 1 is set 30 years after the main events

11. Chapter
What happens
Timing
1: Christmas Eve
Arthur Kipps, a man in his fifties, feels compelled to write his own, personal and true ghost story, spurred on by refusing his step-children’s request to contribute to the frivolous Christmas Eve ghost-story-telling session.
Christmas Eve sometime in the 1930s
2: A London Particular
The 21 year-old Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is sent to Crythin Gifford by his employer, Mr Bentley, to attend the funeral of Alice Drablow and to sort out her estate.
Sometime between 1900 and 1914.
3: The Journey North
He travels by train from London, King’s Cross via Crewe to Homerby.
Monday
4: The Funeral of Mrs Drablow
Kipps encounters the woman in black for the first time at Alice Drablow’s funeral.
Tuesday
5: Across the Causeway
Kipps visits Eel Marsh House
Tuesday afternoon
6: The Sound of a Pony and Trap
Kipps hears the sound of a pony and trap sinking in the marshes and the cries of a dying child.
Keckwick returns to collect Kipps
Tuesday evening
2a.m. Wednesday morning

12. Chapter
What happens
Timing
7: Mr Jerome is Afraid
Kipps visits Mr Jerome
Wednesday
8: Spider
Kipps goes to Samuel Daily’s for dinner
Wednesday evening
9: In the Nursery
Kipps returns to Eel Marsh House alone except for the dog.
Thursday
10: Whistle and I’ll Come to You
Kipps feels the ghostly presence. He nearly drowns in his successful attempt to save Spider.
Thursday and the early hours of Friday morning.
11: A Packet of Letters
Rescued by Samuel Daily. They return to Crythin Gifford and examine Alice Drablow’s papers.
All the details of the story are revealed.
Kipps collapses and is ill for approximately 12 days
Kipps returns to London
He marries his fiance’e, Stella.
Friday
Flashback to sometime in the 1850’s.
Twelve days later
Six weeks later
12: The Woman in Black
Tragedy strikes. Arthur Kipps is then a widower for a further 13 years until he marries Esme’, a widow with four children.
14 years later, the family gathers at Monk’s Piece for Christmas.
The story comes full circle. Kipps his written his story.
A year later, sometime between 1900 and 1914.
Christmas Eve sometime in the 1930s
In the New Year sometime in the 1930s.