While Doyle and Bronte use tension building techniques that would have frightened people for years and years before hand, (ghosts and foreign creatures,) Wells in T.S.B uses a theme that would have built suspense for a contemporary reader. Reading about the theft of the “bottled Cholera” must have been very scary for a Victorian person. This is because at this time science was developing fast but was an unknown subject for the majority of the population and the prospect of something very tiny causing immense damage must have been strange, new and terrifying. In this case T.S.B is quite similar to A.O.T.S.B as their themes both involve the unknown whereas N.A.T.S reveals its terror early on in the story. But, looking at it another way T.S.B contrasts both A.O.T.S.B and N.A.T.S as it involves modern fears rather than the traditional chillers like ghosts on murder.
Wells, Doyle and Bronte also use the settings of their stories to create tension and suspense but they do so in different ways. Wells does so simply by just mentioning that they were in a “laboratory.” This would have created tension as in literature, laboratories are often places where very dangerous chemicals are kept or where dark or even mad scientists carry out mysterious and potentially dangerous experiments. However, he doesn’t use any negative adjectives to describe the place which I think would have created more suspense. He just relies on the suggestiveness of the actual setting. This contrasts the technique that Bronte and Doyle use as in N.A.T.S and A.O.T.S.B it is the way the places are described rather than what they actually are which creates tension. For example in the N.A.T.S Bronte uses phrases like “deserted street” in which “deserted” creates the suspension about the “street.” In A.O.T.S.B Doyle says that the house is “old” and “ancestral” which creates tension as ancient things often have unknown and deep rooted pasts. Haunted houses and houses in horror literature are almost always old for this reason.
Wells, Doyle and Bronte all use the descriptions of their characters to create suspense. In A.O.T.S.B and T.S.B the characters physical appearance is described as mysterious and having an unknown quality. For example Doyle describes the baboon as “what seemed to be a hideous distorted child.” The phrase “what seemed” gives it an element of suspense as even the first person is unsure of his foe let alone the reader. This is similar to Wells’ technique in T.S.B as he questions the visitors’ ethnic background. He says that he doesn’t seem to fit into any category, (not “latin or “teutonic.”) This non-specific quality makes the reader suspicious about the character as it suggests that something is strange and different about him. However, Bronte uses vivid and ghastly adjectives that obviously suggest that the character is a spirit and does not leave much not revealed, unlike A.O.T.S.B and T.S.B. However it still creates tension as she uses horrific imagery when describing the spectre like; “eyes all glaced and bloodshot.”
When creating tension by describing a character’s appearance all the stories have something in common which is that they all describe eyes. A.O.T.S.B describes Dr Roylott’s eyes as “deep set,” and “bile shot,” T.S.B describes the Ancharist’s eyes as “deep” and “grey,” finally in N.A.T.S the spirit’s eyes are said to be “all glaced and bloodshot with a frightful prominence from their sockets.” The authors use eye descriptors as they form more tension and suspense than any other feature as they are sometimes said to be the window to a person’s soul or similar other worldly theories.
Not only do the authors use the characters’ physical appearances to create tension they also use the characters’ personalities. A.O.T.S.B does this in a similar way as T.S.B as they both give hints to the evil natures of a character’s personality at the beginning. This is called foreboding as it makes the reader think that something unfortunate is going to happen, it is also a good suspense building technique. Doyle uses it in A.O.T.S.B when he suggests that Dr Roylott is evil by showing that he has treated Miss Stoner cruelly; “marks of four fingers and a thumb were printed upon the white wrist.” This creates tension as it makes the reader suspect that he is the culprit and it also makes the reader learn that the victim (Miss Stoner) is in grave danger. In T.S.B, Wells gives hints to the visitors strange intentions and sadistic personality. He does this by mentioning the way his “eyes shone” while the Bacteriologist told him of the evil and dire possible effects of the “bottled Cholera.” Bronte with N.A.T.S uses this in a different way as she doesn’t use personality descriptors as a method of foreboding; she uses them whilst the unfortunate events are happening to create suspense, “replied his companion sternly.”
Language is probably the most important tool that the authors use to create suspense and tension. All the short stories use negative vivid language which creates imagery that stimulates the reader’s imagination and creates suspense. The imagery created in N.A.T.S with the language is different to that created in the other two stories. This is because Bronte uses hideous crude obvious language to scare and shock them rather than cloud them with suspicion and mystery. This is shown most evidently when she describes the spectre as having “eyes all glaced and bloodshot.” Also, she describes the settings very traditionally and straightforwardly like “long vaulted passage,” with “damp walls” and “deserted streets”, with “lofty houses.” These descriptions basically spell out to the reader that the surrounding are spooky and exactly why they are so. Whereas, in the A.O.T.S.B and T.S.B the authors use language that will gradually make the reader feel eerie without them really knowing why they are. Doyle does this when the Inspector and Dr Watson are on the train and he says that there was a “strange contrast” between the nice weather and what evil they were travelling to. Although the word “strange” does give an eerie tense feel to the atmosphere, looking at it from a different way it could be doing the complete opposite and putting the reader’s mind at ease. This is because Doyle is using a technique called pathetic fallacy where he uses the weather to forebode what is going to happen in the novel. However, this would mean that Doyle is trying to tell the reader it is all going to be okay by saying that there is a “promising spring” around. This in affect is the opposite to creating tension. Wells, in T.S.B is less confusing with his tension creating techniques as his language consistently tries to build suspense rather than some of it randomly trying to do the opposite. Wells uses adverbs mainly to create tension, particularly “creeping” as he uses this several times. Although this word doesn’t obviously suggest something evil it does imply that the person doing the “creeping” has bad intentions as otherwise they would just be walking normally.
The style that each of the authors use are also good techniques when building and creating tension. The style of N.A.T.S and T.S.B are quite similar because they are both written in the third person. However neither of the third person’s in those two short stories seems to know too much. The reader never feels like they know more than the character which is good for tension building. This is because tension I always linked with uncertainty as an unknown foe is far more deadly than a known and understood one. For example the reader doesn’t know the purpose of the spectre any sooner than Napoleon does and in T.S.B the reader realises that the “bottled cholera” is stolen only when the Bacteriologist does. Both Wells and Bronte use this style as it gives them opportunities to dip into their character’s thoughts and describe their fears to create tension but they can also hold back and make things unclear, eerie and suspicious for the reader by retaining information to build even more suspense. Doyle in A.O.T.S.B however uses the second person (Dr Watson,) to tell the story; “studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes.” I think Doyle uses this to build suspense especially in the beginning as Dr Watson talks up the case by saying that “of all” the other numerous exciting “varied cases,” they investigated none “presented more singular features,” that the case the story involves. Immediately the reader feels as if this case is going to be an investigation with a difference and the wondering of how it will be different creates tension and suspense.
Wells in T.S.B creates tension with his pace and rhythm of the story. In the slow conversational beginning builds suspense with his hints (using language, character appearance etc,) that something isn’t quite right. Then, as the tension reaches maximum point there is a sudden climax when the Ancharist and the Bacteriologist chase around London. Doyle in A.O.T.S.B does something quite similar as the beginning is slow and full of talk that slowly reveals past and personality but gradually builds up tension. Then, for a massively long build up, the end (although dramatic) seems quite short and fact. Bronte, in N.A.T.S however does something quite different. This is because she does not have a slow beginning, to create tension she simply shocks and surprises from the start with the Spectre appearing in the third paragraph. I don’t think this works as well as the other two short stories as there is no slow introduction to the world of the story so the reader has less time to really get involved.
In conclusion I think that all the stories and authors use different and similar techniques of building tension and creating suspense. They are all typical to the mystery genre and the time they were written and are all successful however I feel the story with the most tension and suspense in it is A.O.T.S.B by Doyle.
