The haunted past and the Gothic tradition
The Woman in Black is a modern novel that reaches back to the nineteenth-century Gothic. Knowing the tradition explains why every detail — the veil, the child, the curse — feels familiar and still works.
Part of your national curriculum
- Reading: Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs
Key learning points
- • A Victorian haunting in modern dress
- • The tradition she joins
- • The veil and the figure
- • Why the past haunts
This lesson at a glance
- 24 minutes
- 19 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 19
Watch first
The haunted past and the Gothic tradition
Read the Gothic tradition: the veiled figure, the returning past, the house as a sealed secret.
In a nutshell
Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 19
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · A Victorian haunting in modern dress
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 19
Learn
A Victorian haunting in modern dress
Hill sets her story in the early twentieth century but writes it in the voice and atmosphere of the Victorian Gothic novel. The deliberate old-fashionedness is a choice: it lets a 1983 reader feel the dread of a tradition they already half-remember from ghost stories.
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Part 4 of 19
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 19
Learn
The tradition she joins
Gothic fiction, from the late eighteenth century on, trades in the uncanny: the familiar turned strange, the past refusing to stay dead, the family secret that poisons the present. The Woman in Black belongs to this line — the ghost is a wronged mother, the house a sealed secret, the curse inherited across generations.
Quick check
Part 6 of 19
Quick check
Why does Hill set the story in a Victorian Gothic atmosphere despite writing in 1983?
Quick check
Part 7 of 19
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Part 8 of 19
Pause
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 9 of 19
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · The veil and the figure
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
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Part 10 of 19
Learn
The veil and the figure
The ghost's wasted face and black veil are inherited symbols — the veiled woman, the revenant child. Hill does not invent them; she selects the most powerful from the tradition and arranges them precisely. Recognising the convention is analysis: you can say 'this is Gothic' and then explain what Hill does with the inherited piece.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 19
Learn
Why the past haunts
In Gothic, the past is never just over. Jennet Humfrye's grief becomes a curse that kills other children for generations. The tradition's fear is that unresolved wrong keeps returning until it is heard. The setting (a decaying house full of sealed papers) is the physical form of that idea: a secret waiting to be read.
Reset break
Part 12 of 19
Pause
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 13 of 19
Quick check
Why is recognising a convention (the veiled woman) analysis and not just labelling?
Quick check
Part 14 of 19
Challenge round
Part 15 of 19
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Reset break
Part 16 of 19
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 17 of 19
Game · Recall cards
Why does dialogue often describe the time of day?
Card 1 of 4
Mastery quiz
Part 18 of 19
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: The haunted past and the Gothic tradition
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Why does dialogue often describe the time of day?
2. Which is a genuine contextual comment rather than decoration?
3. Why do modern productions of the same play differ in meaning?
4. ‘Literary tradition’ means:
Lesson round-up
Part 19 of 19
Lesson round-up
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Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs