Pre 1914 Prose Fiction - Stories of Mystery

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Compare the ways in which the authors of 'The Tell Tale Heart, 'The Sea Raiders', 'The Goblins who Stole a Sexton' and 'The Yellow Face' create an atmosphere of tension and mystery to involve the reader, and discuss how these stories are characteristic of the period in which they were written (19th Century).

Each writer creates a unique feeling of mystery and tension in each of their respective stories, and the authors accomplish this in many different, varied ways.

In 'The Tell Tale Heart', Edgar Allan Poe uses emotive vocabulary to build up a feeling of tension and excitement. His clever use of repetition builds up the feeling of madness and obsession that is experienced by the story's central character; phrases such as 'steadily, steadily' 1 and 'stealthily, stealthily' 2. The distinct lack of direct speech in the story paves the way for description, and Poe uses this to great effect. This use of strong emotive vocabulary expresses the nature of the narrator extremely well; his description of the old man's 'vulture eye' 3 clearly demonstrates that the narrator is not entirely sane. For some reason unbeknownst to the reader, the narrator develops a hate of