The Woman In Black - Chapters 9-12 TOO MUCH SCARY!!!

DID I SAY IN THE LAST POST THAT THIS WASN'T SCARY ENOUGH??? SUSAN HILL OBVIOUSLY SAVED ALL THAT IS HORRIFIC, TERRIFYING AND DEVASTATING FOR THE FINAL FOUR CHAPTERS BECAUSE I WAS FLIPPING SCARED!!!! I take back my words from yesterday. I could NOT BEGIN TO IMAGINE what lay in store for me!! How do I begin?

Arthur returns to Eel Marsh House the next morning and surprisingly spends a whole day there completely unharmed by any supernatural beings. HOWEVER that night he is woken by Spider the dog growling at the door. He could hear a noise coming from down the hall which he recognised but couldn’t quite identify. I thought this was particularly good in increasing the tension, because not knowing what was down the corridor, relying on Arthur to describe the sound, and not being able to hear it ourselves was very powerful as it forced us to focus on what Arthur was saying, rather than if we were watching the film we’d be trying to work out what the sound was ourselves.

The sound is coming from a room which Arthur passed earlier and which he knows has a locked door. He slowly creeps up to it, building the tension by describing this sound as something from his childhood which he knew should be perfectly innocent but in this case would be perfectly terrifying if he could only work out what it was. This was interesting, as so many horror films use things related to children and make them absolutely terrifying: children's voices singing nursery rhymes, dolls (which actually were written about by Freud, explaining why they can be so scary), clowns etc. He approaches the door and cannot open it, but still hears the sound. He returns to his room and attempts to sleep, knowing again that there is someone or something else in the house with him.

The next thing that's important is that next day he continures sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers (that's what he was supposed to do from the start) and discovers letters sent from someone called J to Alice Drablow, who obviously had a baby out of marriage and whose parents are forcing her to give it away. She doesn't want to but eventually gives it to Alice and there are papers of adoption along with these letters. Previously Arthur had found a grave with a name on it that started with J, so she obviously died here. Also, remember that child in the pony trap? Well Arthur heard that same noise again the night before, so it's obviously not human, and can I just say now that I INSTANTLY thought of a theory: THIS J PERSON IS THE WOMAN IN BLACK, SHE GAVE UP HER CHILD TO ALICE DRABLOW, THE CHILD DROWNED ON THE MARSHES, AND WHEN SHE FOUND OUT SHE DIED TOO. That is what I came up with.

Ok so later he hears this strange sound again, and he thinks he realises what it is. He walks slowly along the corridor and up to the door and - THE DOOR IS FLIPPING OPEN!!! DJFSE;HAEKESH HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?? I AM NOW SCARED FOREVER!!! Inside is A NURSERY, which is scary in every way because it's preserved as though there's a child still living there, even though they died years ago, and THE ROCKING CHAIR IN THE CORNER IS ROCKING!!!! There's no one there, it's described as though someone has just left, but WTF? Man I was scared.

That night there's a storm (wow that's original) and Arthur opens his bedroom door to venture out into the corridor, but he can sort of sense another being just walking past him. Hold me whilst I cry with fear please :[ Then there's a power cut so he's in total darkness  - :O - so he can't do anything/go anywhere so he goes back to bed. When he re-awakes at dawn he decides for some reason to go outside for a walk, and Spider runs off across the marshes, no doubt trying to escape that awful place. BUT he gets stuck and starts being PULLED UNDER and Arthur tries to save him and IT'S NEARLY THE MOST HORRIBLE BIT OF THE WHOLE BOOK but then they get free, Arthur faints and then wakes up under the care of Samuel Daily who came to rescue him. PHEW!  I can breathe again.

After that there's the whole explanation thing going on, and I was 100% RIGHT ABOUT MY THEORY! Only thing is that Jennet was Mrs Drablow's sister. But then Daily says the worst thing in the entire history of horror books. Every time The Woman is sighted a child dies. It is her revenge for her child dying and no one can escape from it. But this time no child seems to have died. Maybe the 'curse' is broken.

Arthur returns to London and marries Stella, his fiance who we never met previously. He begins to put the pastbehind him and they have a child and everything is happy. Then one day they're all out and the child begs to go on a carriage ride in a park. He and Stella go on board and move off. Arthur sees in the distance The Woman. She walks up to the horse pulling the carriage and scares it. The horse rears and the carriage is upturned. Stella and the boy die.

And I finally understand why Arthur reacted the way he did when asked to tell a ghost story at the beginning of the book, because not only were his experiences terrifying, but his later happiness was completely ruined by this avenging ghost who cannot bear to see anyone with something she lost. I really was not prepared.