Lesson 1 Homework
In the extract of Dracula by Bram Stoker, the author successfully created suspense for the readers through various aspects.
Dracula’s speech starts the whole passage, which it also created a strong sense of suspense. For example, at the very start of his speech, Dracula said, “Let me advise you, my dear young friend—nay, let me warn you with all seriousness”, Dracula deliberately changed the word from “advise” to “warn” , the tension within his words fabricates the suspense atmosphere and also hints the sense of horror of his following speech. Besides, the word “advise” usually intends to make things better, while “warn” was used when dreadful things happened (you won’t warn people for anything that’s good, you only warn people when there’s something terrible) these two words are actually on opposite sides, which the author intends to use the contrast between them to foreshadow the danger and horror of the upcoming events. The rest of Dracula’s speech continue a similar type of tone and keeps creating suspense atmosphere, for example, at the end of his speech, the author described it as “He finished his speech in a gruesome way”, which the sense of horror and suspense maintain throughout the whole speech. To sum up, the first paraph has played an excellent role as an introduction, successfully construct a solid foundation of the tone for this story, leading the reader to step into the suspense.
The next paragraph mainly focused on the main character’s inner emotions, and build up the suspense based on this aspect. The narrator described his feeling as “I felt that I was indeed in prison”and “It is destroying my nerve.”, indicating the oppression of this castle. The narrator also depicted his terror as “I start (to move suddenly with surprise or alarm) at my own shadow, and am full of all sorts of horrible imaginings.” Through these descriptions, the author created suspense through the intense fear of the main character that’s constantly growing, also foreshadows the upcoming plot. Then the author changed the perspective, started to depict the attractive and pleasing scenario outside the castle, which created a vast contrast with the fearful and troubled feeling of the main character, developing the suspense to a higher level.
The Third paragraph reached the “climax” of this extract. Where the narrator witnessed Dracula crawl down the castle, as he described, “But my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings.” This paragraph reached the summit of suspense within this extract, construct through a series of Dracula’s strange and uncanny actions that’s beyond human’s limits. Some act like “emerge from the window”, “crawl down the castle wall”, describing his cloak spreading like wings, these eerie and unnatural acts has pushed the suspense to a pinnacle. But the story ends unexpectedly, which further develops the suspense through the undetermined future of the main character.
Overall, Bram Stoker has successfully created suspense through diverse aspects and techniques within this extract.