Explore the ways in which the two authors create feelings of suspense and tension in their stories. Say which you feel is the more successful ghost story and why?

Authors Avatar

                                                        Friday 5th March 2004

                                                

Explore the ways in which the two authors create feelings of suspense and tension in their stories. Say which you feel is the more successful ghost story and why?

        Charles Dickens and H.G.Wells have both written ghost stories in which they are able to create feelings of suspense and tension by using different techniques of writing. Setting the scene, imagery, characterisation and they also have decided to use a developed or undeveloped narrative voice. But beneath the original perception, they are very similar. Charles Dickens wrote ‘The Signalman’ which is based on a real life drama, even though we are not told so in the story. He relates back to a year before the story was published and so it isn’t a coincidence that he wrote a piece about a train crash. ‘The Signalman’ was published as part of a collection called Mugsby junction in 1866 (when Queen Victoria came to the throne). This story is different from ‘The Red Room’ written by H.G.Wells as ‘The Signalman’ is an overall ambiguous story where as the ‘The Red Room’ is not ambiguous as in this piece you know what is happening and when it is happening and in ‘The Signalman’ it is not always clear. These short stories contrast with each other in many different ways. They both use different techniques to set the scene…

“On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective

Join now!

one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon;                        the shorter perspective in the other direction

terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air.”

This quote is of a typical gothic ghost story and is taken from   ‘The Signalman’ and it gives an eerie feel to the story as it takes the tension to another level. The language that has been used from the start, includes some spine ...

This is a preview of the whole essay