How do the authors create a feeling of fear and terror, suspense and the extraordinary?

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How do the authors create a feeling of fear and terror, suspense and the extraordinary?

    In order to answer this question I read the relevant stories, i.e. ‘The Ostler’ by Wilkie Collins, ‘The Red Room’ by H.G. Wells and ‘The Superstitious Man’s Story’ by Thomas Hardy in great detail.  I will now attempt to compare the methods the authors have utilised to create the impact mentioned above. In order to see which one has been more effective in conveying fear and terror, suspense and the extraordinary, in my opinion. Furthermore, I will endeavour to point out the similarities and differences in tense, style and prose between the stories, using quotations where appropriate.  Moreover, I will discuss the roles the various characters play.  These people are important, as the reader needs to identify to some extent with the narrator and his description and interpretation of his ‘human props’ as well as the setting they are placed in.

    The opening to any story is crucial, since the reader may not decide to continue with his intention to ‘read all’ if he/she is not sufficiently interested in the first few sentences.  In ‘The Superstitious Man’s Story’ the reader is struck immediately by an air of mystery, and somehow feels privy to a secret.  This is a story steeped in ‘hearsay’. The narrator (the seedman’s father) painstakingly talks us through every minute detail ‘putting away the irons and things, and preparing the table for his breakfast in the morning.’  By placing so much emphasis on mundane issues the impact of the extraordinary is in stark contrast.  It is almost as if the reader is lulled into a sense of security, albeit with a hidden agenda, before being jolted out of it.  The characters are all ‘down to earth’ types – hardworking honest folk, which to some extent lends them more credence.  This story is about one ‘known’ person, who already had earned a reputation for being rather creepy.  However, it is linked to ‘sir’ who, by all accounts, was an existing legend.  It was believed that, on Midsummer’s Eve, ‘the faint shapes of all the folk in the parish who are going to be at death’s door within the year can be seen entering the church…..those who are doomed to die do not return.’ The mentioning of the miller moth flying away from William’s mouth implies his soul was released when he died, and he then went in search of his dead son, his only son, who ‘had been drowned in that spring while at play there.’  In this story there are three separate accounts by three different people merged together to culminate in an ending corroborating the existing legend in Longpuddle.

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   The narrator of ‘The Red Room’ commences by saying ‘I can assure you that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ At the end of the story he has not changed his mind, in spite of his unpleasant experiences in the so called ‘haunted room’.  It is quite obvious, from the outset, that he is an educated man.  He is a sceptical person, although he professes to have an open mind.  Again, legend and a particular night have some great significance.  The scene is set at the beginning when the narrator almost distances himself from the ...

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