The characters their self’s create suspense in ‘the darkness out there’ Mrs Rutter an old lady, who lives alone is describe as ‘she seemed composed of circles’, ’ cottage loaf woman, with a face below which chins collapsed one into another’ she seems to nice to be true, this makes you very suspicious. When the truth comes out about Mrs Rutter this shocks the reader, which causes great suspense.
Rhoda brook one off the protagonists in ‘the withered arm’ also creates a great suspense her witch like abnormal behaviour urges the reader to find out more about her mysterious past. In her place of work in the cowshed her aloneness adds to the suspense you want to know why no one will sit next to her when they are milking the cows she is like a loner. Rhoda’s jealous obsession with Gertrude enhances the suspense, when she sends her son to go find out what Gertrude looks like and if she looks nice than Rhoda.
The second protagonist in ‘the withered arm’ Gertrude also adds great amounts of suspense her kindly ways helping people in the village even buying Rhoda’s son a new pair off boots. She is also very pretty her rosy cheeks, blonde hair and very lady like. As the book goes on she has an obsession with her disfigurement she tries to find any remedy for it, which drives her and her husband apart.
In both stories the settings create suspense, in ‘the withered arm’ the gallows add suspense Gertrude can see them from Casterbrigde. In ‘the darkness out there’ packers end the woods adds suspense the way Sandra goes on about it ‘voices coming out of the trees, nasty, creepy’, ‘all whippy saplings and brambles and a gully with a dumped mattress and bedstead and a old fridge. And somewhere, presumably, the crumbling rusty scraps of metal and cloth and … bones?
Revenge and obsessions play a major part in adding suspense in both books, Mrs Rutter wants to get retribution on the Germans because they killed her husband ‘we saw one of the wings sticking up with the markings on and we knew it was one of theirs. We cheered, I can tell you’ when Mrs Rutter said this to Sandra and Kerry they are stunned they can’t believe a ‘nice’ old lady like Mrs Rutter could do such a thing, their reactions add towards the suspense.
Gertrude is also obsessed with some think but it is not some one it is her arm, her ‘withered arm’ she is obsessed with her arm she goes to conjuror Trendle an exorcist/witch doctor. He is the person who sends her to Casterbridge to have her blood turned or she would have to do is touch a neck of a man who has just been hanged, this adds to suspense.
In both books secrets and secrecy creates suspense in ‘the withered arm’ Rhoda kept the dream sequence a secret from Gertrude, which is how Gertrude gets ‘the withered arm’. Rhoda also keeps the secret about going to conjuror Tendle from farmer Lodge her husband and in ‘the darkness out there’ Mrs Rutter keeps the secret of the German airmen.
The fear of the unknown adds suspense, in ‘the withered arm’ Rhoda did not know what her rival looked like, in the end we find out it is Gertrude, but when Rhoda sends her son everywhere to find out what Gertrude looks like. Gertrude didn’t know what were causing her disfigurement, which sends her mad trying to find out a cure, and the cause
In ‘the darkness out there’ Sandra in her childhood has the fear of packers end all the tales of witches, wolves and the German airplane crashing into the woods makes Sandra scared of packers end right up until how old she is now. This adds to the suspense.
Superstition plays an immense element in adding to suspense, in ‘the withered arm’ the curse on Gertrude and the cure for it are both superstition. In ‘the darkness out there’ fairytales that Sandra had heard, as a child about the witches and wolves in packers end is all superstition.
