The Woman in Black

As a young man, Arthur Kipps is eager to advance his career and preparing to marry Stella. He jumps at the opportunity to take on more responsibility from Mr. Bentley, so his character at the beginning of his narrative illustrates innocence and optimism. He is eager and unapprehensive despite all the foreboding signs, from the fog to the avoidant villagers.

However, he remains incredibly observant of the environment around him. Even as a young man, Kipps pays close attention to the appearances of others, their place in the community, and he embodies a pragmatic, rational mindset, especially at the beginning of his narrative. Not only does Kipps’s internal self evolve over the course of the novel, but he also develops a better understanding of other people. When he first arrives to Crythin Gifford, he acknowledges his own pretentious attitude:

For I must confess I had the Londoner’s sense of superiority in those days, the half-formed belief that countrymen […] were more suspicious, more gullible, more slow-witted, unsophisticated and primitive, than we cosmopolitans (38).

He belittles the villagers for their beliefs in superstitions, which creates a disconnect between himself and most of the other characters in the novel.