This essay will consider four of this type of story, by short story writers of the period; Dickens' 'The Signal Man', 'The Monkey's Paw' by W W Jacobs, H G Wells' 'The Red Room' and 'The Dream Woman' by Wilkie Collins.

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Ben Lewis                                             10T                                                  Miss Pettit

LOOKING AT THE ATTUTUDES OF THE PERIOD, EXAMINE HOW A RANGE OF 19TH CENTURY WRITERS CREATE MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE IN THEIR SHORT SHORIES

The rise in popularity of magazines in Victorian times and the era’s fascination in the unknown and supernatural led to immense interest in the short story genre.  The key to the success of short stories is holding the reader’s attention by the use of interesting and meaningful subject matter, by using a condensed style of writing in order to maintain suspense and intrigue.

The Victorian era saw great development in science which led to conflicts in belief between faith and science, and rationalism and the supernatural.  Many of the 19th century short stories concerned the supernatural.  This essay will consider four of this type of story, by short story writers of the period; Dickens’ ‘The Signal Man’, ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ by W W Jacobs, H G Wells’ ‘The Red Room’ and ‘The Dream Woman’ by Wilkie Collins.

These authors create mystery and suspense in a variety of ways; in the location of the story, the technique of narrative blurring where the readers’ imagination is allowed to conjure up its worst fears, inconclusive endings leaving some vital questions unanswered, unseen terror, mysterious characters and the type of language used.  I will explore all of these aspects of their writing.

The location of all these short stories plays a very important role in setting the scene.  They were written at the beginning of the Romantic Period which gave rise to a taste for settings removed from the everyday, as a backdrop to out of the ordinary events.  Wells’ gothic setting of  ‘The Red Room’ within a small castle is typical.  A further technique was to contrast a mundane or particularly modern setting with extraordinary and supernatural events.  Collins sets ‘The Dream Woman’ in a village, whereas Dickens’ location for ‘The Signal Man’ is an, at the time, noticeably technologically advanced area, due to the railway track.  With industrialisation, most people were living in large cities, so remote rural areas had become romanticised and Jacob’s ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is such a locale.  

Mystery and suspense is created by drawing on elements of the location and using pathetic fallacy, the use of the weather to describe the atmosphere, as in Jacob’s ‘The Monkey’s Paw’.  When describing the surroundings Jacobs writes, ‘Without, the night was cold and wet’.  This use of pathetic fallacy evokes a feeling of impending danger and creates a classic horror atmosphere suggesting darkness and evil.  One more quote from ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is ‘That’s the worst of living so far out’, informing the reader that the location of the story is away from civilisation and isolated.  Using a deserted and out of the way setting is a typical way of creating suspense.

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The location of the signalman’s hut in ‘Dickens’ ‘The Signalman’ was secluded and unwelcoming, Dickens writes ‘his post was in a solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw’.  This arouses feelings of loneliness, and isolation which helps to create a tense atmosphere, we could also assume by the use of the word ‘dismal’ that the location of the signalman’s hut was one steeped in gloom and depression.  Another quote from ‘The Signalman’ is ‘and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing and foreboding air’.  This quote arouses ...

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