How Does Susan Hill Create Tension in the Sound of the Pony and Trap

How does Hill create tension in ‘The Sound of the Pony and Trap?’

‘The sound of the pony and trap’ is a key chapter in the story of The Woman in Black because Arthur hears something that is very startling and is a key point in his discoveries of the Drablows.

As Arthur is walking along the causeway with Spider, he is feeling very vulnerable at all times and fully expects the ‘woman in black’ to be following him. He shows his fear by saying, “Once or twice, I glanced over my shoulder, half expecting to catch sight of the black figure of the woman following me.” One of the key words in the quote that highlights Kipps’ fear is ‘glanced’. The reason that this is important is because this means that he is quickly looking over his shoulder, in fear of seeing her. He feels that if he looks for too long she may almost capture him in her mystery.

Susan Hill also uses the weather to incorporate how Arthur feels. The dense fog has made Eel Marsh House invisible and this makes him feel vulnerable; the way he describes it captures its feeling, “It was a mist like a damp, clinging cobwebby thing, fine and yet impenetrable.” Hill compares the fog to a spider’s web, they are fine but it is very easy for things to get trapped and in this case that is Arthur. It is constricting him so that he is unable to see and have any real sense of direction. He goes on to say, “I felt confused, teased by it, as though it were made up of millions of live fingers that crept over me, hung on me and then shifted away again.” Susan Hill is using the sense of touch to emphasize how the fog feels. Not only that, but it makes the reader imagine actually having millions of fingers creeping up on them. When the atmosphere is this eerie, you can sense that bad things are to come and that is the vibe that hill tried to create at the start of the chapter.

Another way in which tension can be made is by using contrast- sort of a ‘calm before the storm’ effect. The author can use otherwise...