Adventure of the Speckled Band Essay Example for Free

Adventure of the Speckled Band Essay Compare how James Watson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Create Fear and Tension in Talking in Whispers and The Adventure of the Speckled Band  In the novel Talking in Whispers and the short story The Adventure of the Speckled Band both Watson and Doyle use fear and tension within their stories to get the attention of the reader. Both authors create fear and tension but they create it in different ways and they use different writing techniques to create fear and tension one reason for this could be that the stories were written at different periods of time. The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was written towards the end of the 19th century and is set in Victorian England, whereas Talking in Whispers by James Watson was written towards the end of the 20th century and is set in Chile. Both Stories however contain elements of fear and tension. In the course of my essay I shall examine the different ways that both authors use fear and tension to their advantage. James Watson creates fear and tension in the novel Talking in Whispers by using many different writing techniques. These techniques are very effective in creating fear and tension. Watson uses techniques such as juxtapositioning, identifying the reader with the characters, chapter endings, direct speech and inter-chapters. These all, when used correctly create fear and tension.  The fear and tension created by James Watson when he uses juxtapositioning is very effective as it gives you one scene and in the next paragraph you get a total contrast of it. This surprises the reader, which builds up suspense and a feel of uncertainty. An example of juxtapositioning from Watsons novel would be. The crowd thundered its joy.  From tomorrow all will be different.  Andres knew for certain his friend Horacio was dead  From this example you can see that the crowd thunders with joy is a scene of hope, promise and joy but then immediately afterwards you get a scene of violence, horror and despair Andres knew for certain his friend Horacio was dead. This all helps to build up tension and fear.  Watson makes you feel sorry and sad and angry for characters if anything happens to them. Watson does this by identifying the reader with Andres. What Watson does is he lets you into Andres mind he lets you see his feelings he lets you feel his pain he lets you know his sorrow. An example of this technique would be near to the end of page 12. Jordan Clement GCSE English Coursework 4/27/2007  I should have let myself be taken theres no honour in this, skulking in brambles with only a scratch to show for my bravery.  From this example you can see Watson lets you know what Andres is feeling and thinking. From the sentence I should have let myself be taken we know that Andres is not a coward and will not back down to the CNI (Chiles secret police) we also know from this that Andres is going to try to avenge his family and friends. This starts to build up the fear and tension within the novel. Another main way James Watson builds up a lot of tension and fear within Talking In Whispers is by using chapter endings. What James Watson does is he leaves you at a pinnacle at the end of most chapters which makes the reader want to read on and see what will happen to Andres or Isa and or Don Chailey this is a very effective way to build up tension within a novel a works very well in this particular novel. A good example of chapter endings would be the end of chapter three. All youll be needing is a cool head, lots of luck and he leaned forwards with exaggerated secrecy. And a porters uniform  This creates tension because you want to know what will happen next, you want to know what the importance of the porters uniform is, and you want to know will Andres get caught. This makes you want to read on and it makes you think what will happen to Andres. This technique builds up fear and tension throughout the novel.  In Talking in Whispers Watson uses other common techniques of writing which all helps in building up fear and tension, he uses techniques such as similes, imagery and metaphors. His mind stayed where it was, unmolested, a little black box inside something nothing could get at. Resting like a mouse in hole.  The simile like a mouse in a hole portrays Andres mind when he was being tortured. They could hurt his body but they couldnt touch his mind it was resting like a mouse in a hole. The sentence resting like a mouse in hole also uses imagery as well as using a simile the simile creates the image of his mind being a mouse resting in hole unaware of what is happening to Andres body. In the torture scene on pages 105 106 Andres calls his torturers not by their names but by names that reflect their personality he calls his torturers snake and the hog the names are metaphors, which lets you know the personality of the characters. Snake for example is a cunning and devious animal and extremely deadly. This again is another type of imagery it lets you see pictures from words. This way of writing is very effective when it comes to creating fear and tension. Jordan Clement GCSE English Coursework 4/27/2007  Another way fear and tension is created in Talking in Whispers is by telling you what is happening in Chile at the time. This does not move the story any further forward with Andres it just tells you the evilness of the Junta. This technique is called  Inter-chapters and is very effective in causing the reader to perhaps fear the Junta.