Fear in "The Woman in Black" extract

The three words Susan Hill used, “desperate yearning malevolence”, creates fear and suspicion, indicating that the mysterious woman is searching for something. The word “malevolence” also suggests she is bad and evil. A tiny bit later in the extract the author had written “wanted, needed-must have” which creates a definite feel of tension a horror as the woman will not let anything stop her from whatever she is searching for. The use of the triplet emphasises the necessity.

Later, the writer had written “more than life itself” which shows how helpful this thing is by saying that they need it “more than life”, which is practically impossible as you need a life to live but the author could be implementing that the woman is not even alive showing us the supernatural gothic characteristics as it clearly bring fear to the reader. The line “towards whoever had taken it she directed the purest evil and hatred and loathing” creates fear by stating that she loathes whoever took it. This could be a hint that Mrs Drablow took it and that is why she is now deceased. By contrasting the words “purest” and “evil”, Hill builds up a sense of juxtaposition and reminds us how malicious the woman in black really is.

The set of words “extremely pallor, her eyes, sunken but unnaturally bright, were burning with the concentration of passionate emotion” and “blue-white sheen, and her eyes seemed sunken back into her head” shows that tension and fear. This is because it was describing the woman at Eel Marsh, in the same way she had described the mysterious woman at the grave. Although we know that this woman must be the same, however this bring us the question in what way is she in relation to Mrs Drablow.