TWIB Themes

TWIB Themes

1. Revenge

   • Moreover, that the intensity of her grief and distress together with her pent-up hatred and desire for revenge permeated the air all around. (11.72)
   • It was one of what I can only describe… as a desperate, yearning malevolence… (5.24)
   • But to harm who? Was not everyone connected with that sad story now dead? (11.73)
   • Can never be good or bad
     • twib continues to seek out revenge as she has never let go of the fact that she lost her child. As she could not move on in life, she would not do so in the afterlife
     • Christianity states it is wrong to seek revenge
       • Kipps sympathetic toward Jennets action.
         • 'Understandable but not forgivable
           • Revenge in death is exerted on children

2. Childhood

   • Juxtaposition between children lined up on school railing & appearance of the ghost
     • Because Children symbolise innocence, In particular when the child does not smile back
       • Reading the first time the reader doesn't know that children are aware of twib so the dramatic irony is lost unless studied carefully
         • Ironic that Arthur discovers nursery thus the safety of childhood

3. Justice

   • Related to vengeance & revenge
     • Christianity states injustice will always happen
       • But justice will be given on judgement day
         • Reader is left to question what will happen to Jennet
           • Is she condemned to walk the earth/ will evil ultimately triumph

4. Fear

   • I stood absolutely helpless in the mist that clouded me and everything from my sight, almost weeping in an agony of fear and frustration, and I knew that I was hearing… appalling last noises of a pony and trap, carrying a child in it… (6.6)
   • Mr. Jerome looked frozen, pale, his throat moving as if he were unable to utter. (4.54)
   • Doubtless, in such a place as this, with its eerie marshes, sudden fogs, moaning winds… any poor old woman might be looked at askance; once upon a time, after all, she would have been branded as a witch… (4.19)
   • By making everyone afraid of her, she had a power she did not have when she was alive
     • Kipps Maturity can be questioned
       • He learns to fear from evidence But does not run away
       • Hill uses pathetic fallacy & first-person to devolve fear upon the reader

5. Nature & the Supernatural

   • Relies on natural world to create an atmosphere of normality
     • Humans see world through 5 senses, but Hill introduces SIXTH SENSE
       • sight, hearing, touch, taste & smell
       • An awareness that doesn't come through the 5 senses, To create the world of the supernatural
   • Supernatural events cannot be explained by reason or science
     • E.g the feeling that monk's piece was bond to him. (in chapter 1) Convinced by forces beyond nature
     • Second sighting of twib is a volta as sixth sense acknowledges that she is evil
   • In nature nothing is good/bad
     • Hill describes humans as spiritual beings governed by conscience & predisposed to an awareness of the supernatural. This happens to Kipps on his last night
   • At first, Arthur thinks the residents of Crythin Gifford are backwards and ignorant, but it turns out that he's the ignorant one

6. Sleep

   • Arthur has best night sleep before eel marsh
     • There he is disturbed mentally & physically by twib
       • Sleep is considered completely natural & explored in many texts
         • Explored in macbeth Eel marsh house is a supernatural place
         • Sleep is mentioned in every chapter
           • Distorted by dreams which twib invades & haunts him
             • Blurs Kipps' sense of reality
               • Believed the sleep deprivation can drive humans mad
               • Sleep is metaphorically linked with death

7. Isolation

   • Minutes later, they were receding across the causeway, smaller and smaller figures in the immensity and wideness of marsh and sky… (5.15)
   • But for today I had had enough. Enough of solitude and no sound save the water and the moaning wind and the melancholy calls of the birds, enough of monotonous grayness, enough of this gloomy old house. (5.39)
   • Behind me, out on the marshes, all was still and silent; save for that movement of the water, the pony and trap might never have existed. (6.9)
   • Majority of the events take place in isolation
     • Kipps' finds himself separated from society in Crythin & Eel Marsh House
       • When he is cut of from mainland when the tide rises 
       • When he gets back to London & normal life, he becomes even more isolated
         • Feels like an 'outsider' to his own family since he can never share his experience them

8. Religious Faith

   • Story can be seen as a journey from innocence to experience
     • Before events he was 'formal & dutiful' Christian
       • He asked unanswerable questions
         • Afterwards he realises that forces of good & evil are doing battle & everyone must actively choose good

9. Madness

   • Jennet Humfrye's madness keeps her trapped at Eel Marsh House. She went so crazy following Nathaniel's death that she could not rest even in death.
     • As Arthur stays at Eel Marsh House, he starts to lose his grip on reality, mirroring Jennet Humfrye's deterioration.