After this, comes the most exciting and fast part of the story- the chase. The bacteriologist has
realised that his ‘visitor’ has stolen the bacillus, so he pulls up a horse-drawn cab and begins the
chase. A lot of tension and suspense is built up in this scene; firstly the pace of the story picks up because of the use of Shorter words/sentences, Wells uses this technique to increase the overall excitement of the
chase scene. Words that create this are: ‘gesticulating wildly, mad, hastily and swished’.
The other cockney cab men are commentating on the chase, making it seem like a
horse race on the radio or television, which adds to the excitement. Harry Hicks (the visitor’s cab driver) was using his whip, which was very surprising as it states that cab drivers never normally used their whips. This also adds to this exciting, tense atmosphere. Minnie then picks up a cab and starts to chase the others. The behaviour of the other cab drivers then begin to change – they become really excited and start shouting remarks out. It is at this point in the story in which Wells now refers to the visitor as the Anarchist, earlier on in the story, he was calling anarchists Rascals.
Towards the end of the chase, the anarchist reveals what his motives for stealing the bacillus were. This is the result of a lot of tension, as this is the first time we know why he has stolen from the bacteriologist. At the end of the chase, when the Phial breaks, the feeling of the story becomes very sorrowful, as the anarchist believes he is going to die, and more importantly, so does the reader. But the actions of the casualty become quite sinister once again, as he starts to laugh and states, ‘anyhow, I shall be a martyr’. There is a lot of suspense at this point of the story, coming from the fact that he is laughing when he shouldn’t be. Throughout the chase scene, the bacteriologist had been extremely worried, but at the end we find out that the so called cholera is actually a substance that turns animals blue, and the reader sees the bacteriologist laugh it off, and the only factor he worries about is the fact that he’ll have to make some more. The reason why Wells did so well creating the Suspense and Tension in his story, is the fact that he left it until the very end to let the reader know what the bacillus really was.
The second Short story I read was ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’, which is based around Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson trying to solve the murder of a young lady. What I believe made this story really worth reading, is the fact that Conan Doyle wrote it from Watson’s point of view. Where as ‘The Stolen Bacillus’ was written in third person’s point of view, which in my opinion isn’t as effective as Conan Doyle’s first person view. My reason for this, is the story can be made a lot more descriptive, and that it draws the reader into the story as it makes them feel as though they are in the story as a lot more personal words are used: we, you, they etc...
Again the title of this story helped to create suspense and tension, as we do not have the faintest idea of what a speckled band is, all we know is that it is going to be an important part of the story. This is another factor that is similar to Well’s story, as they are both based around an object.
Helen Stoner, the lady whose sister was murdered, turns to Holmes and Watson for an investigation into the murder. The way in which Doyle describes Helen produces a vast amount of suspense. A great example of this: ‘a lady dressed in black and heavily veiled’ … ‘her face all drawn and grey, with restless, frightened eyes.’ She is also shivering, not because of the cold, but because of fear, and what makes this part of the story tense, is that we do not know what she is fearful of. Her wearing a black veil proves that she is mourning, plus we do not know what her face looks like, adding to this build up of tension and suspense.
She tells Holmes exactly what happened on the night of her sister’s death, including how she was just about to tell her something about this ‘speckled band’, but suddenly she dies. This is just like a typical horror film, where someone is about to tell all of the answers, but then dies. In my opinion this method is still very effective.
Stoner also tells Holmes that she is about to marry, just like her sister before she died. What we find out later on in the story though, if Dr. Roylott’s daughters marry (Helen’s Father), he loses his income. Lots of clues are thrown at the reader when reading through this story, and what makes it so interesting to read, is the fact that we are almost turned into detectives trying to solve the murder. But what is more important, is we do not know which clues are red hearings and which are important to the outcome of the story.
The physical description of Dr. Roylott is very important, because it really helps to add tension to the story. For example, the first thing that Wells tells us is that he is so big he fills the doorway. This man sounds as though he is definitely something to be feared of, plus we are told that he has killed a man and is feared by the village. Wells also states that he has a hunting crop in his hand. Wells helps to create tension here, as they are in the middle of the city, allowing the reader to imagine why Roylott would need a hunting crop. We are also told that Roylott loves animals from India, and later on in the story you realise that this is very important. Other physical factors that the author gives us is that he has a ‘large face seared with a thousand wrinkles which is burned yellow by the sun.’
Both authors Wells and Doyle use a lot of description for their characters, so the reader can really get a vision in their mind for what the people look like. This gives the reader the urge to read on, instead of getting bored.
The doctor is ‘marked with every evil passion’ again a simple word can trigger off the reader’s imagination to what his face actually looks like. Wells also tells us that he has deep set bile shot eyes, and a high, thin fleshless nose. These two pieces of information also help to develop the amount of tension in the story.
Holmes discovers six items that are of particular interest in Stoner’s room: Bed clamped to the floor Dressing table, Two Wicker chairs, Chest of Drawers, Bell rope, Ventilation system. (That isn’t in order) The reader doesn’t know which of these are going to be ‘red herrings’, so they then have the task of working out which ones are important to the final outcome of the story, again making the reader feel like he/she is working alongside Holmes and Watson.
Another factor that is quite frightening, is the fact that Roylott is extremely clever and is capable of tracing people. As the reader, we have as much information as Holmes does, but we are not Holmes, so we have to rely on him to make the right decision once we have put all of the pieces together.
A very important part of the story, which really does build up suspense, is when Holmes and Watson are making their way across the lawn in complete darkness. At this point, Sherlock Holmes changes from his usual calm self to a scared, agitated man. We know there is a cheetah in the grounds, but they do not know exactly where it is, and being in the dark must be quite worrying. They then sit and wait in ‘Stokemoran House’. As the two wait in the room of Helen Stoner, Doyle builds up a great deal of tension once again. Firstly Holmes and Watson both have a weapon next to them, showing that they are prepared for violence. There is a ‘cry of a nightbird’, which normally represents something to be feared of. There is also a cat-like whine from outside the window, and they could hear the ‘deep tones of the parish clock that boomed out every quarter of an hour’. Watson states that they heard the clock many times, proving that they were waiting in the dark for a long, agitating time.
When the story explodes, Holmes turns on his lantern resulting in Watson being temporarily blinded; you can imagine the excitement and tension all being released into the next paragraph or so of the story. We are now asking ourselves, who the killer is. Is it Dr Roylott, the cheetah or even Helen Stoner? But looking back at the beginning of the story, we are actually told that Roylott was going to die.
At the very end, Watson describes Roylott, but we thinks he’s still alive – ‘beside the table sat Roylott, in a long grey dressing gown…’ But we are then told that he is dead, and how he died – a swamp adder had bitten him. At this point in the story, there is still a great deal of tension, as we still have questions we want to ask, for example how exactly did the snake get into the house?
Another similarity I found, was that this story had the same kind of ending as ‘the Stolen Bacillus’, as all of the suspense and tension was released at the very end of the story. This made both of the short stories a great read, as we never really knew what the final outcome of the story was going to be.
