In ‘The Adventures of the Speckled Band’, there are various places in which the story is set, but it is mainly focused on the mansion in Stoke Moron, the home of Dr. Grimesby Roylott. The setting of Stoke Moron creates tension in the story as it has a formation of a horror captivation. It is a large house with a number of empty rooms. The surroundings in which it is located creates tension as it is quite isolated and separated by trees and bushes. The building is described as:
“…two curving wings, like the claws of a crab.”
This has a sense of someone of something coming out to grab you.
In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates the sense if setting and atmosphere by varying the length of paragraphs and the tone in which they are. For example, the narrator’s tone changes from naïve and depressed:
“I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time to.”
To paranoid and excited:
“I declared I would finish it today”
And as she grows more unbalanced, her sentences reflect her state of mind. It can be shown when the sentences get confusing, combining one-line comments:
“I don’t know why I should write this.
I don’t want to
I don’t feel able.”
The build up of tension also appealed to me in both stories. In ‘The Adventures of the Speckled Band’, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle creates tension through the character of Dr Grimesby Roylott. He is first mentioned through Helen Stoner as nearly escaped a capital sentence for beating his native butler to death, having been married and had twins, practiced medicine in Calcutta and is fascinated by exotic, Indian animals, such as a cheetah and a baboon who he keeps as household pets. When Dr Roylott first appears, we find out that he is far worse than Helen described.
“I know you, you scoundrel! I have heard of you before. You are Holmes,
the meddler.”
From the quote, you can tell that Dr. Roylott is an impatient man who is also violent. He is a man who has immense strength. This can be shown when Dr Roylott bends the poker stick and also when he left a mark on Helen Stoner’s wrist. Dr Roylott has been described as a “huge man”.
The tension in ‘The Adventures of the Speckled Band’ keeps on building, especially when Holmes finds many clues in Helen’s room that could lead to the mystery, fro example, the dummy bell rope, a ventilator which does not air from outside but is connected to Dr Roylott’s room and a bed clamped to the floor. In Dr Roylott’s room, Holmes finds a metal safe and a lash. This creates tension as Sherlock Holmes investigates the murder and finds more clues, Watson is reporting so the reader feels as if they are part of the investigation, and that they don’t know what awaits them.
Tension is also created in the scene where Holmes and Watson are in Helen’s temporary bedroom and are waiting with anticipation for something to happen. When Holmes jumps up and pulls at the bell rope, the tension is both released and added as something has happened but there is a sense of suspense as the reader does not know what has happened.
Another way Sir Arthur Conan Doyle creates tension is when Watson counts the hours that have gone by when waiting in Helen’s bedroom.
“Twelve struck, and one and two and three, and still waited silently for
whatever might befall.”
The fact that Dr Roylott lets animals, like a cheetah and a baboon to gallop around the house creates tension as to why would he keep pets like that. He also allows gypsies to roam on the grounds. Both of these facts create tension for the reader, encouraging them to read more of the story and find out what their significances are.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also brings about tension by writing long, unraveling sentences. This gives the story pace and allows the reader to know what is going on in the story.
In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ tension is created when the narrator first reverses her inner feelings of being watched by the wallpaper and then starts to study and decode its meaning.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates tension even from the first time the woman enters the nursery as when she looks around she describes the wallpaper as “sprawling flamboyant patterns” and “committing suicide”. This gives the visual effect that the wallpaper might be a living thing.
As the narrator’s health declines, she considers jumping out of the window as an “admirable exercise”. This creates tension as to what she would actually do and might even commit suicide, simply like how she described the wallpaper doing.
Another aspect of tension creating is when the narrator actually sees a woman inside the wallpaper, who seems to be struggling to get out of the pattern. This image reflects on her and represents her behavior.
The narrator ends up tearing down the wallpaper to find her identity, which a somewhat confused one. The tension builds up at this point and when John enters he faints. The tension is not released but stays to its maximum point as Charlotte Perkins Gilman does not mention to the reader what John saw to actually make him faint, but leaves it as a cliff-hanger ending, making it an effective story.
In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, the narrator is giving a first-hand account of her mental deterioration. She is not allowed to read, write or even see her own baby, therefore, to carry out her treatment, her husband John takes her to a country house where she is kept in the nursery. She is not allowed to do anything, therefore she spends her time studying the wallpaper. She feels that she is suffocated and oppressed by John who is over-protecting her.
“And what can one do?”
She feels that with her not being able to do anything, she has lost her identity through her illness.
When studying the yellow wallpaper, she refers to the pattern as an “optic horror, like a lot of wallowing sea-weeds in full chase.” This also shows the confusion in her mind.
Eventually, her health declines to a state where she does not know what to do and ends up causing her husband to faint.
In contrast to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, Sherlock Holmes who is portrayed as the central character does not have a specific dilemma.