Whistle and I'll Come to You

Whistle and I'll Come to You

from The Woman in Black

Part 1

Let's remind ourselves of the text

Anthology p. 44 / Student Book p. 275

Multiple Choice

Who is the author of Whistle and I'll Come to You?

• Susan Mountian

• Susan Marsh

• Susan River

• Susan Hill

Multiple Choice

Does this text stand alone, or is it part of a longer text?

• It stands alone.

• It is part of A Woman in Black.

• It is part of The Woman in Black.

• It is part of The Road Home.

Open Ended

Can we trust everything the narrator tells us through this first person narration? If so, why? If not, why not?

Multiple Choice

"During the night the wind rose. As I had lain reading, I had become aware of the stronger gusts that blew every so often against the casements. But when I awoke abruptly in the early hours it had increased in force. The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across the open marsh. Windows were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook and cranny."

What type of imagery is mostly present here?

• visual imagery

• auditory imagery

• tactile imagery

• olfactory imagery

• gustatory imagery

Open Ended

Give as many examples of auditory imagery from the first paragraph as you can find.

"During the night the wind rose. As I had lain reading, I had become aware of the stronger gusts that blew every so often against the casements. But when I awoke abruptly in the early hours it had increased in force. The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across the open marsh. Windows were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook and cranny."

Multiple Choice

"During the night the wind rose. As I had lain reading, I had become aware of the stronger gusts that blew every so often against the casements. But when I awoke abruptly in the early hours it had increased in force. The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across the open marsh. Windows were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook and cranny."

What type of imagery can be seen in the highlighted phrase?

• visual imagery

• auditory imagery

• tactile imagery

• olfactory imagery

• gustatory imagery

Multiple Choice

"During the night the wind rose. As I had lain reading, I had become aware of the stronger gusts that blew every so often against the casements. But when I awoke abruptly in the early hours it had increased in force. The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across the open marsh. Windows were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook and cranny."

What technique is used to express this imagery?

• metaphor

• simile

• personification

• sibilance

Open Ended

What effect does this imagery have?

"During the night the wind rose. As I had lain reading, I had become aware of the stronger gusts that blew every so often against the casements. But when I awoke abruptly in the early hours it had increased in force. The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across the open marsh. Windows were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook and cranny."

Multiple Choice

Susan Hill is known to build suspense in her texts by describing the background and atmosphere. What does she mostly focus on in this first paragraph?

• The weather

• The isolation of the house

• The house

• The narrator's actions

Multiple Choice

"During the night the wind rose. As I had lain reading, I had become aware of the stronger gusts that blew every so often against the casements. But when I awoke abruptly in the early hours it had increased in force. The house felt like a ship at sea, battered by the gale that came roaring across the open marsh. Windows were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook and cranny."

What effect does the higlighted phrase have?

• It tells us what the narrator is doing.

• It contrasts something ordinary to the harsh weather.

• It shows the narrator enjoys reading.

• It shows the narrator is not scared.

Multiple Select

Which of these are characteristics of Gothic texts?

• Isolated locations

• Paranormal activity

• Damsel in distress

• Magical forests

Multiple Select

Which of these are characteristics of Gothic texts?

• A rational protagonist

• Spooky atmosphere and setting

• Animals with the ability to speak

• Omens and curses

Multiple Select

Which of these Gothic characteristics are part of this text?

• A rational protagonist

• Spooky atmosphere and setting

• Damsel in distress

• Paranormal activity

Multiple Select

What is the effect of the second paragraph?

• It changes the mood.

• It increases the tension.

• It breaks the tension.

• It shows the narrator's rationality.

Open Ended

What effect do the alliteration in "bearing the brunt of winter after winter" and sibilance in "sleet and spray" have?

Multiple Select

Which of these phrases from the 3rd paragraph bring the suspense back?

• a cry came to my ears

• catapulting me back into the present

• banishing all tranquility

• howling darkness

Open Ended

Find a simile in the 4th paragraph, and explain its effect.

Open Ended

What other techniques can you find in the 4th paragraph? Name and quote them.

"There was no child. I knew that. How could there be? Yet how could I lie here and ignore even the crying of some long-dead ghost?

'Rest in peace,' I thought, but this poor one did not, could not."

• Short sentences

• Rhetorical questions

• Death-related language that shows fear

• He is trying to rationalise what he hears.

• Unsettling atmosphere

Multiple Select

"After a few moments I got up. I would go down into the kitchen and make myself a drink, stir up the fire a little and sit beside it"

Why does he do this?

• He can't sleep and a glass of warm milk might help him fall asleep.

• He is trying to distract himself with something ordinary.

• He is trying to make himself feel safe by doing something normal.

• He is thirsty.

Multiple Choice

"trying, trying to shut out that calling voice for which I could do nothing, and no one had been able to do anything for ... how many years?

To what effect is the repetition used here?

• To emphasise he will try, but succeeding will be difficult.

• To emphasise he will try until he succeeds.

Open Ended

What is the effect of the ellipsis?

"As I went out onto the landing, Spider the dog following me at once, two things happened together. I had the impression of someone who had just that very second before gone past me on their way from the top of the stairs to one of the other rooms, and, as a tremendous blast of wind hit the house so that it all but seemed to rock at the impact, the lights went out. I had not bothered to pick up my torch from the bedside table and now I stood in the pitch blackness, unsure for a moment of my bearings."

• Tension builds again

• Narrator is panicked

• Isolated and extreme conditions

• Gothic elements

• Playing with the reader's imagination

Open Ended

What questions do you have about the part of the extract we have revised today?