Consider the effects that each writer has created and how they contribute to the atmosphere.

The three stories were all written in a style that attempts to hold the reader in suspense.

Dickens creates suspense by allowing the story to develop at a well-controlled pace only gradually and by sharing his feelings, his inner thoughts an about the Signalman and his environment with the reader. He tells us that he finds the signalman in “as solitary and dismal a place as I ever saw”. This description immediately sets the scene as isolated, grim and especially spooky and also has the effect of making the reader feel sympathy for the signalman who has to remain there in a place of “so little sunlight” that also “had an earthy and deadly smell”. The end of this story is unexpected and the revelation at the end makes the reader realise how well-hidden were the clues to solving the mystery.

The writer of this story creates suspense by including a number of sub-plots to the main story. In this way the reader is led down a series of blind alle

The writer sets a strong contrast between the doctor’s home environment and the next location. Upper Swandam Lane is described as ‘a vile alley lurking behind the high wharves’ which gives the place a criminal-like character since only bad guys lurk in dark, dirty alleyways.

The naming of the streets provides a clear sense of location in the detective story and adds a quality of realism to the events. The signalman’s story takes place in a particular setting that is cut off from the real world. The reader gets a sense that strange things will happen there because it’s not quite part of the natural world and this increases the suspense. Similarly, the ‘Red Room’ terror takes place in a setting that is ideal for supernatural happenings. There is a feeling of isolation and being cut off from reality. Wells tries very hard to create an illusion of an ancient, derelict and decaying environment that is preserved within the Lorraine castle but for no good reason.

Some topics in this essay:
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