Image of death
Arthur often meets the woman in black. Ingenuously, her image represents an evil spirit, which kills innocent lives: “The woman is wearing the same old-fashioned clothes. She looks pale and ill. Her eyes are dark in her pale face.” Her terrible appearance scares main personages, because she personifies death. She is a Devil incarnate, because everything dies with her emergence.
On the way to Eel March House
Because of the grey sky, silence and absence of people and houses, the country seems to be gloomy and dark: “The marshes are strange and beautiful. There is water everywhere.” When Arthur drives pass by marshes, his heart sinks: “The only sound is the noise made by the hooves of the pony and the wheels of the trap.” These marshes are fraught with danger and fearful mysteries, which Arthur will unravel.
Truthful letters
Arthur Kipps cannot unravel secrets of Eel Marsh House, because he does not have arguments and facts about this place. But there are "some papers and some letters, which are all in the same handwriting." They are signed "Jennet or J." There are dates on the letters, each of which begins with the words, "Dearest Alice." These letters hide all secrets and mysteries of all inhabitants of the house, and thanks to such information, Arthur gets to know everything about the woman in black and her terrible deeds.
