It is not always in the writer’s best interests to use the first person narrative mode in Gothic literature because if a story contains numerous characters, explaining the thoughts and feelings through a single person would be impractical. Thomas Hardy employs the first person in The Withered Arm because the story has an array of characters that are used to form the plot. The narrative mode means that you can understand the emotions and thoughts of each and every different character. You can sympathise with Gertrude’s “affliction” whilst understanding Rhoda’s dislike of Gertrude. Part of the reason that third person narrative is so effective is that is leaves the reader in a state of ignorance over the true feelings and relationships between the characters. This means that it becomes very difficult to predict what is going to happen next in the story. This elevates the sense of suspense that the reader feels.
To many, darkness is frightening; an irrational fear of not ‘something’, but a lack of ‘something’. In fact it is not the darkness that is frightening, rather the unknowing that comes from not being able to see. Mentally, in the dark humans start to imagine they are not alone, which is evident in The Red Room. In the red room the darkness isn’t caused by anything, it homogeneously nucleates, this is shown when the narrator describes the enemy as the “germinating darkness” It is also interesting that the narrator associates the darkness with evil as there is no reason to, this shows a lack in logic, which is also shown in some of the other stories. It is also interesting that before the darkness is described as ‘germinating’, he lights a series of candles. Although this isn’t specifically described as an attempt to form a boundary, we can assume this is what he is doing. This means that he has already thought of the darkness as the enemy, and knows that there is nothing else in the room that can do harm to him. It is within human nature “to fill the gap” in our knowledge. This is what is happening in the red room when he generates danger that isn’t there in his mind. In a sense he himself is the enemy. The narrator realises his failings at the end of the story, as he realises that the room is not haunted. In fact, it is just the “power of darkness” that is acting on the narrator. Although the narrator now realises what truly caused him the panic, he still personifies the fear as if “it fought against [him].” This in itself suggests that it is something that is in the nature of being a human and cannot be changed.
It is not only in The Red Room that darkness plays a key role in increasing tension and suspense. The narrator in The Signal-Man starts off by seeing a “shadowed” figure below. Shadowy figures are generally assumed to be quite suspicious and treated with a great deal of care. The reason for this is the ability to judge someone’s appearance and body language is lost, we merely see a figure or shape. We also associate the darkness with evil thus assuming automatically that the person means harm or is dangerous. The Signal-man is set around a “black tunnel”; the idea being that this tunnel creates a sense of mystery as we don’t really know what is in it. This mysterious entity holds secrets that haven’t been revealed and the need to understand the spectre’s meaning drives the story on,. This increases the suspense in such a way that the reader doesn’t really understand everything that is happening in the story.
Being alone or isolated heightens the belief that someone else is present and thus heightens fear. This is contradictory though, because if someone else was present the person wouldn’t be isolated or secluded. During the Victorian period there was a lack of instant communication that would enable one to contact someone far away. Thus physical isolation was far more frightening and would create nervous tension in both the reader and the character. In The Speckled Band there is an evident contrast between how the proximity of the house relative to the town is described during the day and at night. This contrast is because of the fear and emotions that the narrator, Watson, is feeling. In the light of day, the town is described as “some distance” ie not very far. However there is no danger present at this time and the desire to seek help is not there. From Watson’s perspective it is a short distance. Contrary to this, during “the dreadful vigil” the sounds of the parish clock are “far away”. This suggests to the reader that Watson and Holmes feel isolated, help is distant and they are on their own. The sense of someone being close is comforting for a person, especially someone who is in mortal danger. Removing this comfort creates suspense, emotional strain on the reader because it removes a way that the story could be resolved.
As well as physical isolation there can be psychological isolation, this is what Rhoda feels in The Withered Arm. She is secluded from the other people in the village, she lived in a “lonely spot”, and the other milkmaids didn’t talk to her. The isolation is clarified in the chapter title, “A Lorn Milkmaid”. This tells the reader that the narrator is forgotten and cast out of society. This isolation is what the reader assumes makes her appear mad, and increases suspense because we don’t know at the beginning of story why she has been cast out of society. There is a desire to understand that isn’t fulfilled. In Freudian psychology, isolation can be the ability to disconnect emotional responses to a situation; this plays a part in being logical and analytical about a situation. The narrator at the beginning of The Signal-man has no “feeling” that the words he spoke were conveyed by the supernatural. He suppresses the urge to feel intimidated by the suggestion that the words he spoke were put in the narrative’s mouth by a supernatural force. This is an example of the emotional detachment that is linked to Freudian isolation. This creates emotional strain, the reader starts to wonder whether the narrator is controlled by the supernatural or not.
Ruin and decay play a major part in gothic literature; they are the focus of the writer’s attention in the story because it augments the sense of mystery. Ruin and decay have to be caused by something, which is usually age. With age we associate unknowing and knowledge that has passed down generations and been lost. One of the main themes in gothic literature is large ruined buildings. They add to the atmosphere of the story, because it suggests than something inhuman has taken control of what was once controlled by humans. In the Speckled Band, Stoke Moran is “lichen blotched” which shows that nature has started reclaim the building, the walls are “broken” and the windows “blocked with wooden boards.” Once again humans have an irrational fear of decaying and rotten objects because we associate them with evil and wrong doing. This means that the reader habitually thinks that the story is to involve death and they deliberate over who is going to be the victim of death. It isn’t only buildings that are decayed in gothic literature, the old people in the Red Room are “withered” and ruined. This is similar to the idea of the buildings being old and decayed. It gives the impressions that the people have become part of the furniture and are becoming reclaimed by nature. The narrator says that “there is something inhuman in senility”, this inhumanity could be suggested by the “bent” and “wrinkled” nature of the custodian. There is a completely different use of ruin and decay that is employed particularly in The Withered Arm. This is the suggestion of ruin in the mind, corruption of thoughts and emotions that have been tainted with evil. The idea that Rhoda can “raise a mental image of the unconscious Mrs Lodge” is an unsettling image for someone to have. It raises questions in the readers’ mind, unanswered questions, which links to the idea of the unknown. In Rhoda’s “vision” the ruined Gertrude is an “incubus”, and a figure of her ruined and twisted mind. The ruin makes real and mundane things more exciting and this is what I think adds to tension and suspense.
Most of the aspects of the story that I have explored all connote the supernatural in a small way. So I think that this is the most significant contributing factor to tension and suspense for most people. Supernatural comes from the Latin for above nature, it is something that as humans we can’t rationalise or explain. This makes it ideal to increase suspense, because if rationalisation is impossible then it is difficult to predict what will happen in the story. In the Red Room the narrator couldn’t explain why the candles went out, although there was a logical explanation. He starts to invent supernatural forces in his mind. He says that an “invisible hand” swept out two candles. He couldn’t understand why the candles were going out so he has invented a supernatural being than possesses power that he cannot : invisibility. The reason that the supernatural increases tension in this story is, the narrator has to fight against the “invisible” force, “[he] feared and fought against returned”. The fact that he “fought” places emotional strain on the reader, the reader fears for the safety of the narrator. In this story the narrator also explains what the real force that he was fighting against was. He explains that real force he was fighting against was his own “fear”, but oddly he still personifies the fear and says it “followed [him].” This suggests that maybe he still isn’t entirely sure himself, because the percieved supernatural has had such detrimental effect on his mind. His mind is decaying and becoming ruined. The anti-climactic ending of this story is typical of gothic literature, because it counter-acts the tension and suspense created in the plot of the story. Whether rational or irrational, people associate supernatural with evil, possibly because their power extends beyond ours. In Rhoda’s vision in the Withered Arm, Rhoda automatically associates the decaying feature of Gertrude, with an evil “incubus”. This link to superstition is present in The Mortal Immortal as well, be it ancient occult, or more contemporary religious views. In the Mortal Immortal the narrator describes Cornelius Agrippa as “Satan.” This makes the reader know that Cornelius is evil and a force to be reckoned with. Similarly in The Withered arm the reader knows because of the reference to an “incubus” that the vision is going to involve conflict. The conflict makes the reader tenser, as the outcome of the conflict is not known.
Although the aspects explored already individually add to the tension and suspense created, the unknown seeps into every convention of the Gothic and builds suspense throughout the stories. The first piece of information that is omitted by the writer, in most of the stories is the name of the narrator. This is because, a named narrator would start to make the story realistic and make the reader link it more to reality. This would consequently remove a small amount of the suspense and tension created by the lack of a name. To an extent the lack of a name also stops the reader giving the narrator a personality.. This allows the reader to imagine him/her as the narrator, and involves the reader more in the story. This bonding enables a better transfer of emotions from the characters to the reader. The Mortal Immortal is unusual in the sense that the narrator is named. Similarly, the Withered Arm is written In the third person and so the characters have to be named. The Speckled Band is a slightly different genre to the other stories. It focuses on the solving of the mystery, so leaving the narrator unnamed wouldn’t add to tension or suspense. Like many of the other aspects, the unknown taps into the specific nature of human beings. The desire to learn and understand is the driving force of all of our achievements and so it is naïve to not exploit this when writing a story or novel. Asking questions in a story, creates a desire in the reader to know the answer. The more information that is provided the more the desire to know the answer is increased. This creates a very high level of tension and suspense. In The Mortal Immortal the “elixir” supposedly has the power to make a human immortal. This question isn’t answered straight away. A question subsequently followed by the answer doesn’t have the same level of impact as slowly providing the answer.
I have the ability to enjoy the five stories as much as anyone else, however I have a very logical mind that seeks out scientific and logical explanations to things. The stories that concentrate on supernatural do not appeal to me as much as the other stories. For example The Red Room could be explained by a draught emanating from the open windows that blew out the candles. For me the story which has the ability to create the most tension and suspense is The Speckled Band because, all the way through the reader knows that there is going to be a scientific explanation. It isn’t reliant on the fact that the reader believes there is an unknown supernatural force present. I understand that a story has to have excitement in it to make it interesting so I believe that, both darkness and isolation are effective at increasing tension and suspense. The darkness has the ability to do this without forcing the reader to revert to a supernatural explanation. Ruin and decay rely on the supernatural to create tension and suspense and so I don’t consider these an important aspect in the story. In conclusion I think that the most important aspect in the Gothic literature is the unknown, unanswered questions that compel the reader to read on and find the answer.
