An Essay comparing three short stories, The Red Room", "The Club Footed Grocer" and "The Signalman"

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An Essay comparing three short stories,

"The Red Room", "The Club Footed Grocer" and "The Signalman"

I will be examining how tension and suspense are created in three short stories. I will analyze the use of language, setting, and characters and plot to see where tension has been created for the reader. We are studying three stories, 'The Signalman', which is a pre-1900 Charles Dickens story, 'The Red Room', by H. C. Wells and "The Club Footed Grocer" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Charles Dickens would have written 'The Signalman' for a Victorian audience who were very interested in science and mystical events. So Dickens wrote the story with a supernatural mood and with the upper most intent to create fear for the reader. He has also written the story in a railway setting, which was central to Victorian life. This small setting goes in the same basis for the other two stories as they date back to the same period and stories in pre-nineteenth century were written like this. What this means is that the stories were similar in the way they where presented, as they were built around a small story setting. In the "Red Room" the enclosed location is the big house, and we do not have any contact with the outside world. This does not let the story expand much at all. However in "The club footed Grocer", there was a relatively large setting in which the story I developed.

The meaning of tension is to be in a state of being tense, a strained state or condition. There is also mental or emotional strain; this is the type of tension I will be looking at. Suspense is a state of feeling excited or anxious uncertainly about what may happen. Also there is a hormone change when under this state, causing faster heart beats. But readers like to witness this thrill as it is keeps them on the edge of their seats, willing to find out about the rest of the story, which is a really good way of attracting readers.

All three authors, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H. C. Wells, wrote in the first person so that the reader can experience what the narrator was feeling, which allows tension to be created in various points in the short stories. Also the reader would experiences what the narrator is feeling; once again the tension within the stories was causing readers to be attracted, helping the stories to become popular.
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'The Signalman' is set in a strange and unknown location and we are not really told where it is, which adds to the tension. "Down in the deep trench". Even the sunset hints at tragedy. Dickens' use of vocabulary creates a sense of danger or violence. Dickens describes the place with many menacing phrases. "Great dungeon". "Barbarous, depressing and forbidding air". "Earthy deadly smell". "Solitary and dismal place". Dickens makes the setting come alive and turns it into a place where something terrible could happen. This creates tension for the reader as they can sense something cruel could ...

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