Looking Closely At The Nineteenth Century Short Stories: The Adventure Of The Speckled Band, The Signalman And The Red Room, Compare How Suspense And Tension Is Built Up In Each Story.
Looking Closely At The Nineteenth Century Short Stories: The Adventure Of The Speckled Band, The Signalman And The Red Room, Compare How Suspense And Tension Is Built Up In Each Story. The three stories I am comparing are The Red Room by H. G Wells, The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and The Signalman by Charles Dickens. I will be comparing how the tension is created by the writer in each story, as they are all based on the mystery/horror genre. In these types of stories it should have suspense, horror, and ambiguity to keep the readers interest. The Red Room, by H.G Wells was a nineteenth century story. During this time supernatural powers were believable, so someone reading it at the time would feel tenser. It is about a man (narrator) who seeks spirits in a castle. He has heard about “The Red Room” and wants to find out, however, the three old people try to warn him but still he goes ahead in search for the room, completely oblivious to what awaits him. The Signalman was also nineteenth century story. This is about a man who sees ghosts. He also has a premonition of his own death. The Adventure of the Speckled Band was written in the pre-20th century. It was based on a murder mystery where Dr Roylott (main character) aimed to kill his two daughters to gain their property. When he kills the eldest, the younger sibling gets suspicious and turns to Sherlock Holmes to determine whether her sister’s death was a
murder. The Red Room was set in a castle. It was an unoriginal setting for a ghost story, but is good for the tension and suspense. The Red Room sounds mysterious, as straight away we can associate red with blood, fear and danger, so we know that this will be a horror story. Most of the time the writer describes the darkness, “vivid black shadow,” and this creates the sense of fear, of not knowing your surroundings. The language in this story is well developed, and so makes you want to read on because of the interesting words. “It will ...
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murder. The Red Room was set in a castle. It was an unoriginal setting for a ghost story, but is good for the tension and suspense. The Red Room sounds mysterious, as straight away we can associate red with blood, fear and danger, so we know that this will be a horror story. Most of the time the writer describes the darkness, “vivid black shadow,” and this creates the sense of fear, of not knowing your surroundings. The language in this story is well developed, and so makes you want to read on because of the interesting words. “It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.” This is the first line, so immediately you know that the story is about a ghost. Also from this line, the main character, or the narrator, is portrayed as being very sure of himself, as if he’s fearless. At the beginning we are introduced to four main characters; the narrator, two old men, and an old woman. We never actually know the names which makes the story that little bit more mysterious. One old man is described as “the man with the withered arm,” which makes him seem a bit odd as it seems mysterious, not knowing exactly who he is, and/ or why he has a “withered arm”. The way he speaks is also a big part of the mystery, as he repeatedly says “its is your own choosing” and makes you wonder about why he’s warning the man about the room. Throughout the story the tension is built up, and dropped again, to keep the reader interested. It gets incredibly tense when, just before he leaves in search of the room, the old woman says, “This night of all nights!” We never get to find out why this night was important, but it makes the reader more interested, and you ask yourself, “Why was this night important?” In the room itself, it is described, "The shadow in the alcove at the end in particular had that indefinable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of a lurking, living thing, that comes so easily in silence and solitude." As if to say there was a ghostly presence beyond the darkness. The tension mounts as, after he lights his candles, two go out, and there is uncertainty about how or why it went out. “Shadows seemed to take another step towards me,” he states as the candles blow out one by one, casting black shadows on the walls. This is creating constant tension, as the reader keeps interest wanting to know what will happen. Approaching the peak of tension, the sentences become shorter. Clumsily he knocks his thigh against the table and his downfall begins; from here he begins to lose control. He then runs into something and knocks himself out. After this, there is a gap in time, as he wakes up as the old people have saved him. This leaves a cliff-hanger ending and leaves the reader in suspense, wondering what exactly was in that room… The Signalman is set in a deep cutting opposite a tunnel with a railway running through. It is always dark, which again, creates the feeling of unawareness. The setting is described as, “Extremely deep and unusually precipitous” and “Solitary and dismal”. It seems like the place is very isolated and cut off from the real world, the perfect place for supernatural happenings. This is so that the reader gets a sense of what the environment is like, and by the word solitary, the reader immediately realises that there’s no one else around, and effectively being on your own in a dark, dismal place should be a quite daunting experience, which makes the reader aware of the surroundings. The story opens with the quote “Halloa! Below there” This short, but effective line becomes very decisive as the story unfolds. We don’t know who’s speaking so it creates the tension already. One of them, if any, is the ghost, but Dickens wrote it so you would ask yourself questions and think about it more, creating suspense. The signalman’s actions are very weird to start off with; he stands in the railway with his hand on his chin, not moving a muscle until they are face to face “Before he stirred I was near enough to have touched him”. Also when they do meet he makes no attempt to start the conversation, “Look towards the red light.” He seems very mysterious and unpredictable. As they begin to talk again the man becomes hostile and the narrator hints that he might be a ghost “This was a spirit”. This is a very tense point in the story because the ghosts identity may have already been revealed, but the signalman begins to show fear and asks if they have met before. It makes you think, why should the signalman show any fear? After their conversation the man leaves and the signalman tells him that on his return journey not to call out those words. “Halloa! Below there”. It builds tension over what these words really mean to the signalman and why he is scared of them. The Adventure of The Speckled Band is based on Sherlock Holmes and his classic “whodunit” mystery stories. The characters involved are, of course, Sherlock and Watson, and Dr. Roylott and his two step daughters. The environment is different for the genre, and the main part of the story takes place at night in the mansion, therefore making the typical “horror” story as the night and darkness make it somewhat eerie. The tension is built as Dr Roylott kills his eldest step daughter. Helen suspects and goes to Holmes. She describes her father as having a, “Violence of temper” and violence always leads to tension. Helen tells her story and Sherlock investigates. “Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle in the dead of the night?” These clues make you think, and throughout, and they create tension as to what will happen next. At the end we find Dr Roylott tries to kill Helen with an Indian snake, but it backfires and kills him instead. The other stories we have read are The Monkeys Paw and A Terribly Strange Bed. The Monkeys Paw builds up the tension by the different wishes, and the unpredictability of each one. A Terribly Strange Bed does the same by the mystery of this bed, and they mysteriousness of the characters. From looking at each story I have found that they present the tension in the same sort of way. I have found that they all use environment descriptions, and the way in which the characters are portrayed to create this tension. They also have a good play of words and make it intentionally unpredictable to make you ask yourself questions about the plot. Word use in stories is mandatory as this is one of the main factors that helps build up the tension. Also not too much description makes it seem more mysterious. For example the “man with the withered arm” in The Red Room makes it seem like he’s a very strange man, but the reader doesn’t ever actually find out why the writer described him as “the man with the withered arm.” Each one fulfils the typical elements of the mystery genre by using tension, mysteriousness, unpredictability, and clues.