1. Suspense in The House of the Seven Gables
... what should give readers confidence in their knowledge to ultimately disarm them into a state of complete uncertainty and suspense. By the time we have reached Chapter 18, Hawthorne has already planted enough trigger words to cause the reader to at least suspect that Judge Jaffrey is dead; yet the narrator skates around directly stating this point for several chapters, then casts a grave shadow of doubt over these ... slumber, doubtless!" We want to believe that this positivity is merely dramatic irony, in that the narrator is simply ignorant to what we have already pieced together-yet ...
- Word Count: 1547
- Approx Pages: 6
- Has Bibliography
- Grade Level: Graduate