Symbolism In The Warings

Symbolism can be seen everywhere throughout the novel. Susan Hill’s style of writing and her way of creating symbols is very descriptive and atmospheric -inspired by traditional English ghost story-. It is one of the key factors for us to create a deeper understanding of the story by ourselves and give us the chance to see the story in the perspective of the characters or just see it by ourselves.

One of the first significant symbols of the novel would be the large house near the village of Derne, Warings. The house was once a grand countryside mansion but through time it has decay and fallen into despair. The state of the house is link to the relationship of the house owners, the Hooper’s, as their relationship is also cold and lack compassion just in the same way as how the house was described to us.

However, primarily the main thing that Warings would be symbolizing is conflict, ‘war’ and Hooper’s power. The first syllable of Warings is ‘war’ this

It attacks him and later on circled and waited and watched for another chance to assault Kingshaw. The attack of the crow is a clear indication of Hooper as it was shown to be merciless, cruel and vindictive. The crow appearance differences to other crows also apply the same way to Hooper ‘Enormous wings, scarlet mouth, the biggest crow he had ever seen’ page 30. To both Kingshaw and Hooper, the crow was different and it was something they have never seen before. The scarlet mouth of the crow is a way of showing ‘blood-thirsty’ which also applies to Hooper vindictive, wicked nature. The size of the crow and its wings was enormous and by comparing the size to other crows is like comparing the evil nature of Hooper to Kingshaw’s past bullies, in the same way to it size, the bird behaviour was also differ to its kind as it behaves differently similar to ‘again’ Hooper and Kingshaw’s past