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GCSE English Literature · key term
A cloth placed over a coffin; the word can also describe a dark covering of cloud or smoke.
Used by AQA and Edexcel
Paper 1
Revise: Chapters 4 and 5In Chapter 4, the narrator describes “A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven”. A pall is a funeral cloth, so the image extends the atmosphere of death beyond Carew’s body and across London. The dirty brown colour also suggests pollution and corruption, while “heaven” seems obscured beneath this oppressive covering.
Paper 2
A cloth spread over a coffin. Used figuratively, the word can make something seem covered by death or mourning.
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On the morning journey to Soho, the narrator describes “A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven” in Chapter 4. A pall is a cloth covering a coffin, so the metaphor turns the fog into an image of death and mourning. Its brown colour makes the atmosphere seem stained rather than fresh or clear.
