HOW ARE TENSION AND SUSPENSE BUILT UP AND MAINTAINED IN AT LEAST TWO

HOW ARE TENSION AND SUSPENSE BUILT UP AND MAINTAINED IN AT LEAST TWO

GOTHIC HORROR STORIES?

The original use of the term `Gothic Horror' was applied to a group of

novels, including Mary Shelley's `Frankenstein', written before 1914.

These novels usually included some or all of the following

characteristics, which seem demonstrative of the original use of the

term `Gothic': An emphasis on portraying the terrifying, a common

insistence on archaic settings, a prominent use of the supernatural,

the presence of highly stereotyped characters, barbarism as opposed to

elegance, and the attempt to set up and perfect techniques of literary

suspense. Bram Stoker's `Dracula' would be another example as the

novel includes most of the characteristics above.

The setting would generally have a sense of eeriness and darkness and

there is usually a lack of an escape route. This can make a character

experience a dramatic loss of self-control and overwhelming emotions.

A sense of helplessness or vulnerability heightens the dramatic

climaxes of these stories. As well as vulnerable characters appearing

in these stories there would also be a rational, scientifically

thinking character. He, or she, would represent the newly literate

middle class and would have lent credibility to the tale.

‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is an example of a pre 1914 Gothic Horror story. It

is about a man who receives a paw which can allow people to make a

wish but can also cause evil things to happen. Mr White wished for two

hundred pounds, which he was given, but as compensation for the

coincidental death of his son. Mrs White came up with the idea to wish

for their son to come back. Mr White, knowing that his son would be

mutilated after being buried for nine days, wished for everything to

be back to normal after they received a strange knock on their door in

the early hours of the morning.

‘The Red Room’ is about a protagonist who visits ‘Lorraine Castle’, in

a deserted place, to see whether the stories of a haunted room were

true. After a long walk through the castle he gets to the room. On his

way there he encounters ordinary objects which look menacing due to

the contrast of the moonlight. Once in the red room strange things

started happening. What made the room feel haunted was fear.

In the Victorian era, pre 1914, people were very rational. People in

the 19th Century had just come out of the Industrial Revolution, they

were more educated than before and by then they had became less

superstitious ‘of the myths about earls, countesses or the timid

wife’, mockingly alluded to in 'The Red Room'.