Discussion Questions : The Woman in Black

1) What thematic parallels do you see between The Woman in Black and The Orphanage? What do both of these stories have to teach us about motherhood and grief?

2) How do children's objects function similarly in both narratives?

3) In what ways does Eel Marsh house continue to function like an animate body, as the novel reaches it end? And what about the landscape surrounding it (including the quicksand)? In what ways are these spaces mediums of communication for the Woman in Black and the message she wants to convey? In what ways are they a metaphor for ghosts?

4) We do not encounter the Woman in Black very often in the novel. Instead, she mostly is an atmosphere, a bad feeling, a glimpse of a specter in the window, a palpable absence. What might her palpable silence convey that her words could not?

5) What parallels do you see between Jennet's, Jennifer's and Rosemary's situations? What can these stories teach us about the relationship between women and the horror genre?

6) On the writing level, how does Susan Hill "spook" or horrify the reader? What narrative strategies does she employ to create this classical gothic ghost story?

7) How do you interpret the ending of the story? What does the Woman in Black's final revenge tell us about the nature of (some) trauma and grief?

8) Why do you think humans create haunted house narratives? What about ghost stories?

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