 Hello and welcome to a summary of everything you need to know about whistle and I'll come to you which is taken from the woman in black by Susan Hill Now I will explain the meaning related to this text as it appears in the Pearson International GCSE anthology And I'll highlight literary and language devices as well as contextual factors that you should be aware of when studying this text So let's get started Now before I read through this text and point out important techniques It's important to first talk about Susan Hill herself and of course this text is taken from a longer novel called The Woman in Black which is a gothic style of fiction Now do bear in mind that Susan Hill is an English writer and this is a modern book and essentially this book charts the journey of Arthur Kipps who's the protagonist and he tells a story of his early professional days of solicitor where he visited Catherine Gifford for a job that focused around Ilmarsh House and here he heard many unexpained noises Which will read through in the passage and the local community then informs him that these noises are from the woman in black A really well-known ghostly figure in the area and of course the story discusses the child or rather the death of a child Which consequently affects this protagonist So let's begin and I'll stop every so often to point out important techniques 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 woke abruptly in the early hours it had increased greatly in force The house felt like a ship at sea battered by the gale that came roaring across the open marsh Winders were rattling everywhere and there was the sound of moaning down all the chimneys of the house and whistling through every nook and cranny At first I was alarmed then as I lay still gathering my wits I reflected on how long Ilmarsh House had stood there Steady as a lighthouse quite alone and exposed bearing the brunt of winter after winter of gales and driving rain and sleet and spray It was unlikely to brawl away tonight and then those memories of childhood began to be stirred again And I dwelt nostalgically upon all those nights when I had lain in the warm and snug safety of my bed In the nursery at the top of our family house in Sussex hearing the wind rage around like a lion howling at the doors and beating upon the windows But powerless to reach me I lay back and slipped into that pleasant trance-like state somewhere between sleeping and waking Recalling the past and all its emotions and impressions vividly until I felt I was a small boy again Then from somewhere out of that howling darkness a cry came to my ears catapulting me back into the present and banishing all tranquility Now this extract opens like a typical gothic style of literature and do bear in mind that gothic literature is essentially a type of horror fiction It's supposed to make us feel really fearful. It has very macabre scary elements And of course the atmosphere that's created from the opening is of this really dark tempestuous evening There's a lot of pathetic fallacy and we really feel as readers a sense of tension Now it begins with a simple sentence During the night the wind rose and this simple sentence of pathetic fallacy already creates a sense of suspense And of course this is very typical hallmark of gothic fiction Now we then focus on the protagonist and this is through the repetition of the first person pronoun I And he awakes abruptly so he says I awoke abruptly and the assonance here, the assonance of A makes us feel really uneasy We sense that something terrible is going to happen Now the simile, like a ship battered by the girl The simile here and the alliteration battered by creates a really strong and plosive sound Especially the alliteration battered by and again what these plosive sounds do is really emphasise the force of this all Now this girl is roaring and so the weather is described in a very animalistic way Again what this does is it's all building a sense of tension, a sense of foreboding and suspense Moreover onomatopoeia is used rattling, moaning, whistling and all of this onomatopoeia is quite disconcerting for us as readers Furthermore we learn that at first the narrator, the protagonist was alarmed The simple sentence that first is what I was alarmed creates a sense of trepidation Furthermore a syndetine is used then as a lay still gathering my wits and what this does is it shows the abject fear that the narrator is feeling Moreover there's the mention of Eel Marsh House and the proper noun here focuses our attention on the location Furthermore we learn of this location being fairly steady, very strong, it's as steady as a lighthouse and the simile here emphasises just how isolated this location is But of course how long Eel Marsh House has been standing and this Eel Marsh House is quite alone and exposed And of course this is in line with Gothic genre, the house and the setting is vast but it's also quite isolated so we feel a strong sense of trepidation Furthermore there's a repetition of winter after winter and this of course further emphasises just how dark this place is, how isolated Eel Marsh House really is And again we start really worrying that this protagonist might be alone and of course very exposed to some form of attack Furthermore that he mentions driving rain and sleet and spray and the polysyndetine here as well as a pathetic fallacy further builds up a very vivid image of the setting of the really terrible weather Moreover there's a semantic field of nostalgia used, memories and nostalgically and what this does is it shows that because he's so afraid he's kind of thinking of something to really comfort him And of course he now reverts back to thinking of his childhood Moreover there's a mention of snug safety so the sibilance here is used to describe how the narrator really wishes for a better time when he was young and when he could be protected because this emphasises how vulnerable he feels Moreover the simile like lion shows how wild and how scary the weather sounds like outside Moreover the onomatopoeia howling this adds to the terrible sense of foreboding that we feel Moreover he wishes that the wind was powerless to reach him and of course this is showing his visual thinking, his thinking like a child and again he's reverted to this infantile state because he's so scared Furthermore he describes how he laid back and slipped into that pleasant translike state somewhere between sleeping and walking Recalling the personalist's emotions and impressions vividly until I felt I was a small boy again and the complex sentence here shows the narrator reverting to this infantile state He's kind of scared and he almost goes into a ball like a fetus Moreover there's a constant use that Susan Hill makes of onomatopoeia to really create this horrible fearful atmosphere so of course here you've got howling and cry Moreover there's a violent verb used catapulting because he's then shocked back into the present he tries to go back into his childhood memories but then the weather forces him back into the present So let's carry on I listened hard, nothing The tumult of the wind like a banshee and the banging and rattling of the window in its old ill-fitting frame And yes again a cry, that familiar cry of desperation and anguish a cry for help from a child somewhere out on the marsh 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 After a few moments I got up I'll go down into the kitchen and make myself a drink, stir up the fire a little and sit beside it 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? As I went out onto the landing, spider the dog following me out once, two things happened all together I had the impression of someone who would just that very second before gone past me on the 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 and sure for a moment of my bearings Now this part of the passage really starts to amp up the pressure and the sense of doom that we feel as we're reading through this passage So he listened, I listened hard nothing Now the simple sentence I listened hard as well as the minor sentence nothing do you remember a minor sentence is essentially a sentence without a subject or a verb So these two sentences put together echo the narrator's own tentative movements Moreover the wind is described in more animalistic terms this time like a banshee like a savage creature Furthermore there's a repetition of cry again this is also animatic here and this repetition really creates this haunting atmosphere that he's surrounded with Furthermore there's a mention of desperation and anguish and this is really the vivid language of pain that the narrator can hear being let out by something However he doesn't quite know what it is and of course this is causing further fear within the narrator but of course also within us as readers Moreover he mentions there was no child so the cry sounds like it's coming from a child and he asks he uses a rhetorical question How could there be? How could I lie here and ignore even the crying of some long dead ghosts and the rhetorical questions here show his fear and uncertainty He doesn't know what to do Moreover the mention of a ghost the reference to the supernatural this is very much in line with gothic literature The supernatural which causes us to feel a strong sense of fear Now we learn after a few moments he got up and the proverbial phrase of time shows us his movement so he's initially stock still He's quite scared he doesn't know what to do but then he finally gathers the courage to get up Now he decides he's going to the kitchen and make myself and now the alliteration here it's quite forceful He decides to really steal himself and gather the courage to do something Furthermore the repetition of trying trying this shows his emphatic wish to try to be courageous to do something Now the ellipsis here echoes his worry and also his pausing for thought on how long this child might have been dead for Or how long this thing that's haunting this house might have been haunting and roaming through this place And he's trying to shut this all out but also this ellipsis focuses on his internal monologue He then asks a rhetorical question how many years and again this creates a strong sense of intrigue within us as readers Now we learn of another character spider the dog who provides him with comfort and also by extension we feel some comfort that at least a narrator is not suffering and struggling alone Now we learn that something passes him again this ties back to the supernatural element that was mentioned the ghost Someone who are just that very second gone past me now there seems to be almost like a poltergeist the house is haunted Furthermore this is coupled with a tremendous blast of wind and the pathetic fallacy here heightens a sense of danger that the narrator feels Furthermore this wind is quite forceful and the personification hit shows just how forceful it is and the lights finally go out He is encased in complete darkness which creates a really sinister atmosphere This darkness is further emphasised with the description of the pitch blackness and this dark atmosphere adds to our own sense of foreboding as readers So let's carry on and the person who had gone by and who was now in the house with me I had seen no one felt nothing, there had been no movement, no brush of a sleeve against mine, no disturbance of the air I had not even heard a footstep I had simply the absolutely certain sense of someone just having passed close to me and gone away down the corridor Down the short narrow corridor that led to the nursery whose door had been so firmly locked and then inexplicably opened For a moment I actually began to conjecture that there was indeed someone, another human being living here in this house A person who hid themselves away in that mysterious nursery and came out at night to fetch wood and drink and to take the air Perhaps it was a woman in black? Had Mrs. Drablow harboured some reclusive old sister retainer? Had she left behind her a mad friend that no one had known about? My brain span all manner of wild, incoherent fantasies as I tried desperately to provide a rational explanation for the presence I had been so aware of But then they seized There was no living occupant of Ill Marsh House other than myself and Samuel Dades So I'll stop there for a second before I continue So now essentially in this part of the passage the protagonist is trying to rationalise Why does he feel like something is there in the house with him or someone is there inside Ill Marsh House with him Even if he knows that there's nobody else but him within the house So the repetition of the conjunctions and what this does is it's showing his fear but also he's trying to rationalise all of this And wonder he's being investigative to a certain extent He then thinks that there's been no movement, no brush, no disturbance and the repetition of no shows his emphatic rational side Trying to take over and basically trying to reassure him that really there's nothing else there He'd not heard of anything However the sibilance sense of someone shows he really strongly believes he's being followed around the house Again this creates something really really scary he's being followed by a ghost We wonder whether this ghost is suddenly going to harm him Now the pre-modifier is the short narrow corridor This creates a more vivid description of the setting So of course this large vast Ill Marsh House has this short narrow corridor And we get the sense that there's something that might be at the end of this corridor Now this corridor has a nursery and the door inexplicably opens And now this adverb creates intrigue because we wonder is there somebody in there indeed with him And is this ghostly presence really trying to create a build up before they attack this protagonist Furthermore there are these parenthetical hyphens used So parenthesis means essentially hyphens or brackets And what this shows is the narrator's own internal monologue Furthermore the polycynidon is used here by Susan Hill So and came out at night to fetch wood and drink and take the air So this is the narrator's way of wondering what this other creature is doing Now he then wonders perhaps it was the woman in black And now this retoccal question refers to the title And of course as I mentioned contextually speaking The story relates to a woman in black that the narrator has heard from the local community So he's wondering actually this woman in black who might have passed away Is she the one who's now haunting this house Then there's a reference to the proper noun Mrs. Drablow And we wonder if this is somebody who really isn't a know about this But decided to keep this from the narrator because they didn't have the best interests Now his brain spins and this hyperbole shows his really fearful thoughts Coming in and really overtaking his rationality Furthermore the sense of rationality is emphasised when he talks about his incoherent fantasies Which contrast when he mentions rational explanation So this contrast is almost an oxymoron because it seems that there's an internal war between his rationality His rational thinking but also his fantastical thinking of believing that maybe there's a ghost And he's really struggling with this Now the simple sentence but then they see shows abruptly how his rationality comes back But also this suddenly slows down the pace of the text So let's carry on There was no living occupant of Elmarsh our house other than myself and Samuel Daley's dog Whatever it was about whoever I'd seen and heard rocking But who had passed me by just now Whoever had opened the locked door was not real, no But what was real? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality The first thing I must have was a light and I groped my way back across to my bed Reached over it and got my hand to the torch at last Took a step back stumbled over the dog who was at my heels and dropped a torch It went spinning away across the floor and fell somewhere by the window With a crash and the faint sound of breaking glass I cursed but managed by crawling about on my hands and knees to find it again And to press the switch, no light came on, the torch had broken For a moment I was as near to weeping tears of despair and fear Frustration and tension as I had ever been since my childhood But instead of crying I dropped my fists upon the floorboard In a burst of violent rage until they throbbed It was Spider who brought me to my senses by scratching a little at my arm And then by licking the hand I stretched out to her We sat on the floor together and I hugged her warm body to me Glad of her, thoroughly ashamed of myself Calmer and relieved while the wind boomed and roared without And again and again I heard that child's terrible cry born in the gust towards me Now here essentially we see the protagonist, he's trying to really rationalise this And then he starts doubting himself, he starts doubting his rationality And he goes, he oscillates from being really fearful, almost like a child Wishing to just be looked after, to being really really violent And angry at this whole situation Now here in this passage the mention of whoever which is repeated So this is a possessive pronoun, what this does is it adds more intrigue And we as readers wonder what's going on And we almost want to be the detectives here to figure out Where is this cry coming from? Who is this creature that's lurking within this house? Furthermore there's a reference of opening the locked door And this emphasises the power of this creature or this ghostly figure that's stalking this place Now the narrator, his internal monologue, he says no Now this minor sentence really changes the pace of the text This change is also further echoed when we learn that he states At that moment I began to doubt my own reality Because he essentially starts to lose trust in his rationality This ghost or this spirit really starts making him go off centre And he starts doubting whether he's really being rational Or even whether everything that he stood for really is real anymore Furthermore there's the constant and continuous reference to I The first person pronoun and this is Anaphora that's used to really reinforce the narrator And then he talks about how he really needs a light To obviously emphasise just how dark this place is And we can also see light as symbolic of truth Light uncovers everything that's hidden in the darkness and he needs this Now the torch that he's trying to hold it goes spinning away And this present continuous verb shows how this light is ever elusive He's finding it really really difficult to find any form of light Now this torch goes spinning away across and of course this is assonance And it falls to the floor So floor and felt is alliteration emphasising the violent movement of this torch And it goes out with a crash And of course onomatopoeia hair is used to show the dramatic destruction of this torch And the hope of light going Now of course this hope has faded And this is shown through these two simple sentences No light came on the torch had broken And these simple sentences heighten our sense of fear And our sense of trepidation that something terrible is now going to happen Now the narrator says he was weeping tears of despair and frustration and tension Now the semantic field of hopelessness is emphasised here Despair, fear, frustration, tension He starts losing hope this ghost is really playing with his mind And then he goes from losing hope and being almost like a child To having a burst of violent rage He himself becomes quite savage, animalistic Much like the wind outside Now it's the dog's spider And he brings him to his senses And there's the sibilance here Spider senses scratching And this slowly brings him back to himself Now the narrator and the dog sit on the floor And he says we sat on the floor together And I hugged her warm body to meet Glad of her And the narrator seeks comfort in spider Almost like the way a child seeks comfort in their parents So this narrator is just so fearful They've almost become childlike in their fear Now Pathetic Fallacies further emphasised When the wind boomed and roared without So of course this Pathetic Fallacy And also onomatopoeia boomed, roared And this shows that the threat of this ghost Is still ever present And the repetition again and again Shows just how torturous this narrator's experience is And then the pre-modifier Terrible to describe this cry of this ghost Shows just how horrifying this cry is So that's all If you found this video useful We do have a course covering all the IGC Scientology texts as well as model answers For past papers So do make sure you head over to our course And sign up for it But also make sure you check out our website Which is www.firstreadtutors.com For English worksheets, course and materials To help you in this and indeed other areas of English Thank you so much for listening