The feeling of tension and suspense is built up when Harker himself becomes uncomfortable and scared as, being the hero, he shouldn’t really get scared. Harker writes that he can not “repress a shudder” and has a “horrible feeling of nausea”. Harker thinks that this feeling has been brought about by the Count’s “rank” breath, but it could also be as a result of nerves and anticipation.
More tension is created when Dracula speaks about the howling of the wolves. He personifies them, calling them the “children of the night” and refers to “the hunter”, which could be himself. He speaks as if he is telling Harker about the feelings of the hunter first-hand, in an almost animalistic way. When he leaves Harker, Dracula again bows, but this time it seems a little more threatening. At no time in the extract is the word vampires used, but the reader still feels unsettled and anxious to read on as a lot of tension and suspense is created by the way Dracula has tried to lure Harker into a false sense of security.
The story One for the Road by Stephen King is set initially in a bar, which makes the scene familiar and relaxed. A narrator, Booth, tells the story. This makes the story seem like a personal conversation between Booth and the reader.
At the outset of the story, there is a false scare when a “stranger staggered in”. In the next paragraph, Booth says that he had “never seen a man who looked that scared”, which informs the reader that it is the stranger who has encountered something nasty outside.
Frequent references to the unpleasant weather outside suggest to the reader that it is the raging blizzard that is the real danger. When the stranger, Lumley, comes into the bar, it is said that “another fifteen minutes out there might have been enough to kill him”, which gives a menacing and foreboding note to the blizzard. Also, Booth says the wind “steals your heat”. This personification of the weather intensifies the feeling that the elements are the real danger. When Lumley tells Booth and Tookey that his wife and young daughter are out in the blizzard, the reader is almost completely convinced that the rest of the story is going to be about how Tookey and Booth brave the angry storm to rescue Lumley’s wife and daughter.
The first insinuation that something is wrong and that there is danger beyond the weather is when Tookey shows pure fear when Lumley tells him that his car is “six mile south” of the bar. Tookey is desperate to have misheard and asks Lumley if he is sure about the distance. The reader gets the impression that if the car had been five or seven miles from the bar, there would not be any panic and the two men would have gone to rescue the Lumley’s wife and daughter without hesitation. When Lumley mentions the turn-off, Tookey turns “pale and strained” and looks “older than his sixty-six years”. The reader now knows that the real hazard is much worse than the weather and has a more specific idea of where the danger is. This adds tension and suspense because although the reader knows where the danger is , they still have no idea of what the problem is. Lumley fails to pick up on this panic and dismisses the tension by asking Tookey and Booth if they have seen a ghost. Tookey reacts by saying very seriously “no ghosts in the Lot, mister” as if ghosts would be preferable to what really is in Jerusalem’s Lot. When Booth tries to use the telephone, he finds that it is dead. This adds to the tension and suspense as it means that the three people in the bar are completely cut-off and isolated from any help if something were to go devastatingly wrong.
Tookey and Booth are very reluctant to go and rescue Lumley’s wife and daughter, which Lumley can not understand. Tookey and Booth obviously know a lot more about Jerusalem’s Lot than they are letting on. They are very anxious and scared about the Lot, which adds to suspense as they are the heroes of the story and are not supposed to get frightened.
In the next few paragraphs, there are various and numerous references to Christianity and religion. Tookey and Booth mention crucifixes and Bibles. Booth says that “most folks who live around the Lot wear something – crucifix, St Christopher’s medal, rosary, something”, which makes it seem that religion and faith in God is the only weapon against whatever it is that is in Jerusalem’s Lot. The phrase “the Lot went bad” creates a lot of tension and suspense because it confirms that reader’s fears that there is something very unpleasant in the Lot.
Booth then tells the story of Jerusalem’s Lot to the reader, but even this tale does not prove that there is something unnatural in the Lot. This is when the word “vampire” is mentioned for the first time, but it is mentioned among the intoxicated ramblings of a drunken man called Richie. Suspense is created when Booth says that Richie never came back after saying he was going to Jerusalem’s Lot. Richie mocked the idea of vampires and was never seen again. This creates tension because the reader has probably been ridiculing the idea of vampires themselves.
Tookey and Booth decide that they have to at least try to rescue Lumley’s wife and daughter at which point Booth admits that he “never felt so old or so scared” in his life. This produces tension because it reiterates the vulnerability of the heroes of the story. Booth asks the reader questions about the Maine blizzard, which gives the impression that he is digressing from the real issue of what they are about to face in the Lot.
When the three men eventually get in the car and begin the six-mile journey to the Lot, Booth says that they “hadn’t met a single car”. This emphasises the isolation encountered by the three men. Ten minutes into the journey, they see a strange “slumped form”, with red eyes. This incident is never explained. When the rescuers reach the turn-off for Jerusalem’s Lot, Tookey says that they are only rescuing the wife and daughter if they are in the car. If they are not, then they will turn around and go home. There is no debate from Booth but Lumley is still very confused and getting rather frustrated at all the secrecy between Booth and Tookey surrounding the Lot. When they reach the car, the women are gone and all that is left is the little girl’s parka. This creates suspense because it is very cold outside and if the wife and daughter got out of the car voluntarily, the girl would have been wearing her parka. This means that they have been taken from the car in a hurry and against their will.
Lumley at this point gets very angry. He, along with the reader, wants to know what is going on. Lumley runs into the Lot looking for his family. Tookey, Booth and the reader know that he is running towards danger, but all Lumley cares about is his family. When Tookey finally tells Lumley that the Lot contains vampires, Lumley thinks that they are lunatics and doesn’t want to hear their stories. Booth says that even he thinks that Tookey “did look like a bit loony”. Maybe he doesn’t even believe himself. The pure fear shown by Booth when Lumley’s wife appears makes it obvious to the reader that maybe she is not all she seems. Under normal circumstances, Booth should be thrilled to see the lady, but he says that the sound of her voice turned his heart “cold as ice in a cistern”. The wife’s is odd because she is described as beautiful, but she should be cold and shivering and probably looking a right mess. Lumley is seduced by the evil wife and runs to her, to the horror of Tookey and Booth. Tookey and Booth “ran like rats”, which would usually be a simile used to describe cowardice, but here, the reader understands why they flee.
Lumley’s daughter has also been turned into a vampire and tension and suspense is created as the reader sees Booth being lulled by the girl’s innocence and apparent vulnerability. For a moment, Booth is so taken by the little girl’s evil seduction that he almost wants to become a part of the vampire world within Jerusalem’s Lot. Booth no longer has the will power to resist her. Tookey has to rescue Booth from the “little girl from hell” by throwing his Bible at her.
The epilogue of the story still manages to create suspense by ending by saying that the little girl is still out there, “waiting for her goodnight kiss”.
Both of the horror stories that we looked at use similar methods and techniques to build tension and suspense. They both avoid mentioning the real danger at first, but often hint at it, making the reader really think about what dangers could emerge. Dracula lulls Harker and the reader into a false sense of security by being very charming and courteous which is the main cause of tension and suspense in the extract of Dracula. In One for the Road, Booth convinces the reader that the real danger in Maine is the weather, and only hints at anything more. Both stories use a lot of description and require the reader to use their imagination. Because of this, the appearance of Dracula and the blizzard in Maine are probably exaggerated in the mind, which would create suspense and tension.