How successful are the authors of short-stories you have studied in creating tension and suspense?

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English mid-term work

How successful are the authors of short-stories you have studied in creating tension and suspense?

Murder and mystery were a large part of the pre 19th century, as they did not have any of the technology that we have today. So if a murder was committed and they was just a splash of blood there would not be an arrest as the murderer could not have been found, as easily as he would of been today with the DNA scanners and the huge amount of money invested in forensic science. In the pre 19th century there were many unsolved murders and even more unknown murders, the largest and most notorious would be the elusive “Jack the Ripper”. Though he is a large corner stone on which to analyse the area of murder and mystery, I shall instead focus on the works of authors who have dedicated time and effort into the making of short-stories focused on the ominous and supernatural world that was the pre 19th century.

The first of my stories shall be from the works of a seventeen year old woman who wrote the short story of “Napoleon and the Spectre”.

I have chosen this story first, because of biased reasons as it is, of the short stories we have read, my overall favourite. It is not because of the tone or atmosphere that has me captivated, but rather the way we, as readers, are placed ‘In Media Res’ that has stood out to me. We are placed in the scene of Napoleons’, or rather the ‘Emperors’’ bedroom and we are launched straight into a mysterious setting of someone who defies the ‘Emperor’ and who dares laugh at him. We slowly have to watch as an Emperor, a general, and a French national hero is stripped down to his former self who means as little as those who serve him. In response to this revelation of who he truly is napoleon is speechless and worried as he fears nothing yet here he trembles. Napoleons bold nature does burst through though but again this ‘presence’ makes him uneasy and again he is stripped of title and importance and reduced ever lower into a man who is afraid of the voice that has no mouth and the man who has no body.

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Through the limited omniscient narrator we soon get the suspense and the anxiety of the supernatural. The setting is one of a purely dark and sinister gothic imagery focused solely on the dark figure that Napoleon is intimidated of. Amongst this world of the supernatural we have the reinforcement of the French scene when Napoleon exclaims in French even though the story is written by a young English girl and the story itself is mainly spoken and narrated in English, with the exception of the French words to reinforce the setting.

The setting has a huge impact on how ...

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