In the next paragraph the author uses a very successful way of producing tension, he uses dashes to break up he sentence so it appears that whatever is happening is happening very quickly. “He stops, and sighs again-moves one lean arm slowly, till it rests over his throat-shudders a little-…the arm leaves his throat-the hand stretches itself out…” The effect of using this technique here is that it proves that the man is talking and moving quickly as if his dream was so terrible he wanted to get it over with as fast as he could.
The last paragraph describes what this murderer looks like and other disturbing attributes. “…Flaxen hair with a gold-yellow streak in it-…Aha! You she-devil…mother-its too late now. I’ve promised to marry and marry I must.” This presents he fact that this murderer is a woman “…she-devil…” and that he is going to marry her even though his mother distresses against it.
Another episode later in the story where suspense and tension is also demonstrated is the first paragraph where Isaacs mother first meets Rebecca.
The author begins this paragraph by lulling the reader into a false sense of security, “It was a bright sunny morning and the little cottage parlour was full of light as Mrs Scatchard, happy and expectant; dressed for the occasion in her Sunday gown.” Here the author is acting as if everything is ordinary and it is a perfectly normal day. It’s almost too normal, like a fairy tale.
He starts to rebuild the suspense when he begins to break up the sentences with dashes, “His mother rose to receive her-advanced a few steps, smiling-looked Rebecca full in the eyes-and stopped.” Where he says, “…and stopped.” It builds up more tension. It makes you curious as to why she’s stopped. The way the author describes Isaacs mothers expression after she has first met Rebecca reveals that Isaacs mother has obviously realized something that has petrified her, “Her face, which had been flushed a moment before, turned white in an instant-…a blank look of terror-her outstretched arms fell to her sides…she staggered back…a low cry to her son.”
Earlier Mrs Scatchard had been ecstatic to meet Rebecca, but then the author described how she looked as though she’d seen a ghost. Her outstretched arms that dropped to her sides when she saw Rebecca, suggests that she is no longer welcoming Rebecca, and this causes the reader to become curious as to how Rebecca might react to this rejection.
A similar episode in this short story that presents a feeling of suspense are the four paragraphs where Isaac goes back to the house to look for Rebecca after she had tried to kill him and he had left her.
In the first paragraph the writer repeats his actions of trying to lull the reader into a false sense of security by suggesting that Isaac has escaped being murdered by his wife and that it is all over, but there is still the feeling that it is not all over, lurking about, “the fatal parallel was complete-it was his birthday! Had he escaped the mortal peril, which his dream foretold? Or had he only received a second warning” Isaac is questioning whether it is all over and this formulates the readers worry about whether or not she is going to come back after him and finish the murder, even though he had the knife, he was still worried.
In the second paragraph I chose, Isaac chooses to go against his word and return to the house so he may see what Rebecca doe next, “I must know where she goes…”this lulls the reader into thinking that something is about to happen because he is returning to the place where she attempted to murder him and where she may still be waiting for him to return.
The third paragraph describes how the house looks and how things have changed that may suggest she is lurking around. “He had left the candle burning the bedchamber…now, there was no light in it…the house door…he remembered to have closed it…he found it open…”
This frightens the reader into thinking that Rebecca could have turned out the light so that she can lurk in the dark waiting for him or she could have left the house in search of him.
In the final paragraph Wilkie Collins begins to use the dashes again to break up the sentences. “…looked in the kitchen…found nothing; went up at last to the bedroom-it was empty…a picklock lay on the floor.”
Where Wilkie Collins writes that Isaac goes up to the dreaded bedroom where everything was based, when he finds an empty room, the reader then realizes that Rebecca has left and could be anywhere. She could re-enter the house anytime, even if the doors and windows were locked, she could pick them, hence, “…a picklock lay on the floor…”
This story has a different impact on readers now than when it was first published because readers in 1855 were easier to scare than readers now. They believed in precognitive dreams. This story would have been very frightening as they did not have electricity and there would have been a lot more shadows, which would have created a scary atmosphere. Writers of horror stories now use a lot more description of things to make it seem real. An example of a modern writer could be Dean R. Koontz who builds up tension everywhere and hits you with blood and gore quite early on in the story.
I think the story was full of anticipation but it should have been more descriptive and it think that if a modern writer now changed and added to it, it would be a really horrific horror story. I think the second section I chose, was the most effective because it was the decision area where Isaac could choose whether to leave Rebecca and get away from her, stay with her and wait for her to try and murder him or kill her first.
