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In your exam, you may be asked a question about the whole text OR about an extract from the text as well as the whole text. Either way, these are the analysis skills you will need to use.

The question

How does Hill use setting to create a sense of threat and danger?

Write about:

• How Hill presents the sea mist in this extract
• How Hill presents other aspects of setting in the novella

The extract

Some minutes later, I could not tell how many, I came out of my reverie, to realise that I could no longer see very far in front of me and when I turned around. I was startled to find that Eel Marsh House, too, was invisible, not because the darkness of evening had fallen, but because of a thick, damp sea-mist that had come rolling over the marshes and enveloped everything, myself, the house behind me, the end of the causeway path and the countryside ahead. It was a mist like a damp, clinging, cobwebby thing, fine and yet impenetrable. It smelled and tasted quite different from the yellow filthy fog of London; that was choking and thick and still, this was salty, light and pale and moving in front of my eyes all the time. I felt confused, teased by it, as though it were made up of millions of live fingers that crept over me, hung on to me and then shifted away again. My hair and face and the sleeves of my coat were already damp with a veil of moisture. Above all, it was the suddenness of it that had so unnerved and disorientated me.

From 'The Sound of a Pony and Trap' The Woman in Black

Before you go to the next page make some initial notes on the extract:

• What is the house like in this extract?
• Which words or phrases seem threatening or hint at danger?
• How does this presentation of the mist relate to Kipps' claim in chapter one that he is affected by the weather?