How suspense and tension is created in stories from the Victorian era

Mr.Tan How suspense and tension is created in stories from the Victorian era In this essay I will explore and explain how the atmosphere of tension and suspense is built up in short stories in the Victorian period. I will show how various techniques build the overall effect. I will do this by comparing and contrasting three short stories, â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† by Edgar Allan Poe, â€Å"The Adventure of The Speckled Band† by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and â€Å"The Red Room† by H. G. Wells. These stories are similar in many ways and all consist of mysterious irrational plots. The Victorians were concerned with the idea of rationality, science over religion, and this is reflected in these stories To begin with I will look at the characters in the stories. Characters can help reflect the atmosphere of a story, an example of this is the old people in â€Å"The Red Room†. They are very strange, say very little and are nameless. They represent the irrational. There are examples of irrational characters in the other stories. In â€Å"The Adventure of The Speckled Band† the irrational character is called Dr. Roylott, a mysterious person who you know little of. After coming back from India he allows animals he has brought back with him roam freely around his house. This is particularly relevant to the Victorian era as India was part of the English empire and was seen as a wild, uncivilised place, to reflect Dr, Roylott's character. The irrational character in â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† is actually the narrator, who once again has no name. This character becomes insane and is obsessed with his guest's â€Å"vulture eye†. In the end he murders his guest and places him under the floor boards. The character is haunted by the beat of his victim's heart and he is forced to confess his crime. The way the text has been written also reflects the character as he repeats words and puts some in capital. In these stories there seems to always be a character that represents the rational and logical, in contrast to the irrational. An example of this is the narrator in â€Å"The Red Room†. He enters the mysterious house with a logical and scientific approach. He completely denies the possibilities of the super natural and heads to the haunted room completely calm expecting nothing out of the ordinary. However, he falls victim to the super natural spirits of the Red Room and fear overwhelms him. He is forced to believe that there is something unnatural in this room. This style of character is also portrayed in â€Å"The Adventure of The Speckled Band† as Inspector Holmes. He enters the crime scene with a rational approach. He uses logical methods to surveys his surroundings and solves the mystery. This would appeal to the Victorians attitude towards rationality Unlike â€Å"The Red Room† Sherlock Holmes solves the crime with rationality and does not fall victim to the irrational and super natural ideas, and logic triumphs. â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† does not involve a main rational character, but the very presence of an officer causes the mad narrator to confess his crime. I will now look at the language the authors use. All three stories have a lot of dark adjectives that evoke an eerie atmosphere that really helps describe the mood of a scene. For instance in â€Å"The Red Room†, words like â€Å"pale† and â€Å"monstrous† are used. These really help create a sense of suspense by setting the scene. Colours are used frequently also. The use of varied sentence length is another technique used. In â€Å"The Adventure of The Speckled Band†, the author uses long detailed sentences to really describe the situation well and set a good picture of the story. This reflects Sherlock Holmes' character that looks at everything in detail. In â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† and â€Å"The Red Room† the use of short sentences is used to build great tension and suspense. E.g. â€Å"I felt that I must scream or die! And now –again! –hark! Louder! Louder! Louder! Louder!† Another technique is the use of repetition. In â€Å"The Red Room†, the word â€Å"dark† is repeated a lot and so is the warning â€Å"This night of all nights†. This helps get the idea across by constantly hitting the reader with this information. This is also used in â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† as a way of expressing the narrator's madness. In â€Å"The Adventure of The Speckled Band† the idea of murder is repeated. There is a wide use of similes and metaphors of darkness and fear in the stories. These can help describe the mood of the story. An example of this is in â€Å"like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stars† in â€Å"The Red Room†. Personification is also used as a good technique of description. â€Å"Little tongue of light† References to senses help describe the situation as well by giving a sensation that we can relate to like smell and touch. Now I will look at the setting. The setting of a story can help reflect the overall mood. A dark, old, gloomy house can create a feeling of dread and fear. Victorians were concerned with appearances and a derelict house was considered awful. In the description of a setting, pathetic fallacies can be used. A Pathetic fallacy is when the weather of a scene reflects the mood of man. For instance it says â€Å"the wind was howling outside and the rain was beating and splashing† in â€Å"The Adventure of The Speckled Band† , this creates a turbulent atmosphere that can suggest menace and murder. The structures of the stories are fairly similar also. They usually start with a description of characters and setting and an introduction to the plot to engage interest. The plot then unfolds and a dramatic event happens, the killing of the guest in â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† or the events inside the haunted room in â€Å"The Red Room†. The plot unfolds or resolves and there is a period looking back. In â€Å"The Adventure of The Speckled Band† the crime is solved and in â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† the mad-man confesses his crime. I find that there are various techniques used to create tension and suspense in these stories. Characters help reflect the atmosphere and mood of a story or scene and we can see a situation more clearly based on how a character reacts. The language is very important as it is how we read the story. Techniques such as personification and repetition can effectively create suspense and tension. The setting can also help reflect the mood of the story. And there is also the contrast between irrationality and rationality that appears throughout the stories. All these techniques create a powerful overall effect that appeals to the reader.