The Ways in Which Susan Hill and Thomas Hardy Present the Supernatural in The Woman in Black and Poems 1912-13 Katie Long 12th Grade

A key theme occurring across Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black and Thomas Hardy’s Poems 1912-13 is the concept of the supernatural. Both Hill and Hardy describe apparitions of ghosts and communication with spirits in their work; however, the meanings behind these differ greatly across the two writers. Hardy’s work explores a supernatural reunion with his dead wife Emma, whereas Hill’s novel describes a ghost-story revolving around an evil, vengeful spirit. Both writers also debate the existence of these concepts - Hardy questions the reality of his communication with Emma’s ghost, whereas Hill describes Arthur Kipps as having solid belief in the ghost of the woman in black.

A key contrast between Hill’s and Hardy’s presentations of the theme of the Supernatural is the way in which they describe the physical descriptions of ghosts. In The Woman in Black, Susan Hill presents the supernatural in the form of a malevolent, vengeful ghost - an emaciated figure of a woman dressed completely in black. The Woman is presented in this way from the very start of the novel; when Arthur Kipps sees her at Alice’s funeral, assuming her to be a living woman This causes him to be even more surprised at her emaciated features. Hill describes the...