Suspense In "The Last Night"

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How does Stevenson create suspense in “THE LAST NIGHT”? Stevenson creates suspense in “The Last Night” by withholding information from the reader and by creating a gothic setting which reflects contemporary fears in London in the19th century. He also uses the character of Mr Hyde to create suspense by referring to the ideas of Darwin. Stevenson had already created suspense before the chapter had begun through the knowledge we have of Mr Hyde. His character we know of links in to the ideas of Darwin. “And this was more of a dwarf”, Hyde is described as a dwarfish and primitive person, this Links in to the ideas of Darwin of how cave men evolved from apes and how we evolved from cave men. The fear of the Victorians is that since man had evolved from animals he has the same lack of control over emotions as animals. He also creates suspense through the character of Poole. The question raised on Poole’s appearance in the night is why has he come at this time of the night? Poole had come on his own initiative, which a butler under no circumstances would do without his master’s permission. When Utterson questioned him he answered “There’s something wrong.” Stevenson uses withholding information as a technique to create suspense; he does not tell us what is wrong straight away. The sort of questions that arise in the readers mind is: why has he come, what’s wrong, why has Poole come and not Dr Jekyll, what could be possibly wrong that Poole can’t handle alone. “I am afraid” Poole is afraid which makes the reader think that something terrible has happened. Poole says to Utterson that “there’s been foul play” this confirms the readers doubt that something bad has happened. It also raises the question has murder taken place? ... ... middle of paper ... ... chapter to find out what is says in the letter which creates tension. Utterson does not call the police straight away to cover up for Dr Jekyll so he doesn’t get accused of Hyde’s murder. He is trying to sort it out without implicating Jekyll. The ending of the chapter also confounds our expectations: we expected an answer, but we don’t get one. The most powerful way Stevenson had used to create suspense was by withholding information which keeps the reader reading on. Also he used his scene setting as a way to build tension and suspense. Like in Dracula it was Dracula’s castle, in this novel it is the dark, lonely, dangerous streets of London. The name of the chapter also creates suspense to keep reading because it is called “The Last Night”. This makes the reader think is it the last night in the book, the last night for someone or the ending of the book?

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