ENGLISH COURSEWORK: Victorian Short Stories

Authors Avatar

Alex Jones 10BW

ENGLISH COURSEWORK: Victorian Short Stories

All the stories in the collection are adventure stories. Explore what the stories by Wilkie Collins, H.G. Wells, R.L. Stevenson and Thomas Hardy have in common and how they differ. How do the authors build tension and suspense in their stories? You must refer briefly to at least five stories but may concentrate in detail on just two or three.

The various adventure stories in this collection have a lot of similar features an in a way follow the same sort of pattern. The major thing that separates them is the fact that each author has his own distinctive style in his structure and the usage of the language. The main stories that I am going to concentrate on in this essay are the Black Cottage by Wilkie Collins and The Treasure in the Forest by H.G. Wells. Both use formal and proper English. The Story By Wilkie Collins differs from the one by H.G. Wells as he for a start has a heroine instead of a hero, she I put in a situation and has to deal with it, this happens in different turns of events and there is a very happy ending. The story by H.G. Wells is were the hero’s of the play place themselves in the situation and have to deal with it, there is however a twist of fait and a not so happy ending.

In the majority of adventure stories the author takes an often likeable character and puts the character in a very abnormal situation, it is usually a dangerous and daunting task that they have to carry out. More than often this draws the reader in as it is usually an exiting situation that isn’t experienced every day.

In a short story typical of this time there is usually a hero or heroine, he or she is usually noble, brave and courageous, this is usually the person who ‘saves the day’. In most adventure stories the hero or heroine comes out of the situation unscathed, or doesn’t die and everyone else does.

In most cases there is usually a very simple plot that deals with just one issue, as we aren’t with the characters or situation for long it would be confusing with more than one plot. This helps the reader focus his attention to the situation in hand and won’t be side tracked by other goings on.

Join now!

There are usually just a small number of characters; this again is to focus our attention to what is happening. Also having many characters would make the story confusing and hard to follow, as you can’t read much into the characters as with most stories, as it is just a short story.

There is a conflict or problem, for example in The Black Cottage by Wilkie Collins were a young girl has a problem when two men try to break into her house. This provides an element of excitement in the short story and usually the main character solving the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay