Analyse the techniques used tocreate mystery and suspense in stories of the 19th century?

Analyse the techniques used to create mystery and suspense in stories of the 19th century?

This essay is based on short story written by famous authors. The short stories I am going to analyse are The Signalman by Charles Dickens, The Red Room by H. G. Wells and the Monkeys Paw by W.W.Jacobs. The technique used to create mystery and suspense in these stories of the nineteenth century are the language and feelings of the characters for example in the signalman, the signalman thinks that his dream will come true. The authors use characters and settings to create mystery and suspense.

The theme of the signalman is isolation, gothic or mystery and includes premonitions and ghostly apparitions. The signalman is a short story, which brings up great suspense and tension throughout the story, mainly through the main characters the signalman and the narrator. At the beginning of the story the atmosphere is quite dull. This is because the signalman is a “dark shallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows.” The story takes place in just one place a railway cutting. At the beginning the narrator calls down to the signalman “halloa! Below there!” the signalman is confused because he doesn’t know where the sound is coming from. The storyteller goes to the signalman and asks him about his job. The signalman acts strangely and seems frightened. The storyteller arranges to come back the next day to hear why the signalman is troubled “it is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very difficult to speak of. If ever you make another visit, I will tell you.” The signalman seems very anxious to tell the narrator something but we are not told initially, this builds up suspense. The narrator agrees to meet him the following day at ten o’clock the next night. The next day the signalman tells the story of the ghost and the disasters. The story teller tries to persuade him that there are natural scientific explanations “as to an imaginary cry,” “do but listen for a moment to the wind harp it makes of the telegraph wires.” This tells me that the narrator does not believe in superstitions. He decides to persuade him to see a doctor. The next day the storyteller goes back to the cutting. He finds that a train has killed the signalman.

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The theme of the red room is isolation, gothic or mystery and includes premonitions. The characters in this story are the Narrator, A man with a withered arm, an old woman, a man who coughed and spluttered. This story is set in Lorraine Castle At the beginning of the story the narrator is telling the man with the withered arm that, “it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me”. This tells the audience that there will be a spook in this story. He is told about a, “haunted room,” (red room). He is told, that “if you go to the red room tonight-,” “you go alone.” The narrator replies, “very well,” Then he is directed to the red room. When he finally got to the red room, he entered the room, closed the door and locked the door with the key he found in it. Now he was in the very room that the young duke had died in. he had a candle in his hand, which failed to light up the other side of the room. The narrator examines the room and describes it to the audience; this creates tension in the readers mind because it seems so dark and the shadows cast scary shapes. The reader is eager to find out what is going to happen to the narrator. After describing the room to the audience the narrator gets a little bit nervous. He tells us that he spoke aloud and had a conversation with himself which proves that he was very nervous, “after a time, a conversation with myself upon the impossibility of ghosts and haunting.” He went out and got a few more candles, “walked out into the moonlight, carrying a candle and leaving the door open, and presently returned with as many as ten.” He then saw one candle was out as he went to relight it the others started to go out, “I walked across room in a leisurely manner to relight the corner again. My first match would not strike, and as I succeeded the second, something seemed to blink on the wall before me. I turned my head involuntarily, and saw that the two candles on the table by the fireplace were extinguished. I rose at once to my feet.” This tells me that the tension is building up. Now that all the candles had started to blow out the narrator is scared we know this because he says that, “my hands trembling so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox.” we begin to feel scared because of the situation the narrator finds himself in, this builds tension. As he was trying to light every candle he bruised his thigh against the table and fell. As he whisked the cloth from the table in his fall and the candle rolled out of his hand. As he watched all the candles blow out. He got up with a lot of effort and screamed three times and as he ran for where he thought the door was he hit the corner of the bed he fell to the floor then remember no more. As he greeted the old lady in the morning he told her that the room is haunted but it was not the old earl neither the ghost of the countess but ‘fear’ the worst thing of all.

The theme of the monkeys paw is superstition. This story is about a monkey's paw which has magical powers. Sergeant Major Morris includes a lot of foreshadowing before he gives them the paw as he thought it had caused enough damage and mischief, “It has caused enough mischief already.” Sergeant Major Morris was a, “burly man, beady of eye and rubicund of visage.” It gives three wishes to its owner. The monkey's paw is given to a family of three. They wish for some money, and the next day an employee of the son's company arrives at the family's home and tells the parents that their son has died in an accident and they will receive some money, the exact amount they wished for. About a week later, the mother wishes that their dead son would return home alive. When knocking is heard at the door, the father realizes what has happened, and before the mother can open the door, the father uses the last wish. The knocking stops and when the door is opened, no one is there.

The characters in all three of these stories are superstitious this can be seen in the signalman by when the signalman tells the narrator that he saw a someone waving and then something bad happens. This can also be seen in the red room by the narrator saying he does believe in ghosts after staying in the red room all night. This can also be seen in the monkeys paw when the father quickly makes a wish so that when the mother opens the door nobody’s there.

All three of the stories feature typical 19-century ghost story characteristics in how they are both set in dank eerie settings, seemingly cut off from the outside world. The Red Room’ is a story about a man who spends a night in a supposedly haunted castle, which is inhabited by disfigured OAPs. ‘The Signalman’ is a story of a signalman who works in an isolated railway cutting. ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is a story about superstition, which is about 3 wishes on a cursed monkey’s paw. All three of these stories have unexpected endings. The weather is very dark and cold to make the reader feel a little eerie and alert for what is going to happen in the story. The Monkey’s Paw starts of with a cold and wet day, everything in the house is normal nothing in the story is very weird. Until they have the monkeys paw and they make their first wish on it.

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