mystery and suspense

Question 1

pathetic fallacy to build suspense

Answer 1

• used throughout a very popular gothic trope that would be readily recogniseable to the reader, creates tension and emphasieses the prescence of the supernatural as it is as if they are dictating the entire surroudnings, also frequently used as foreshadowing
• at the violent climax of the novella in chapter four, the murder of carrew, stevenson uses pathetic fallacy multiple times to show the overturn of evil as hyde the freudian id unleases the extent of mans primal evil on someone so deeply unsuspecting. The maid, one of the few woman and so a symbol of purity, views the commenecing evening as peaceful and cloudless reflective of her innocence and the lack of curruption present. However upon hydes arrival it appears a ‘fog rolled over the city’ which is a very common gothic trope for the concealment of truth. Utterson struggles to visit hyde after the event as the fog is so thick and dark, this highlights the climax of the novel as the amount of secrecy and uncertainess from the narrator creates a clear sense of fear in the reader. The street lamp cannot show way through the fog symbolic of how hydes primal evil has enveloped london
• Pathetic fallacy is further used i the novella when he states how a ‘great chocolate covered pall lowered over heaven’ this is a particularly graphic use of pathetic fallacy that utilises the gothic convention, mentioned as utterson struggles to journey to hydes quarters post murder of carrew so continuing the fog motif. a pall can both mean a huge cloud but also a cover for a casket in a funeral, symbolic of how hydes primative evil has envoked the death of safetey in the city, a pall was known to victorians and so would be unsettling. The idea that it is chocolate is unnvering as the chocllate feels out of place as it draws connotations to sweetness and nostalgia, the fact that it is brown is confusing and symolises the opacity of the weather that makes it more adapt to conceal secrets. Heaven envokes biblical connotations but is also offputting as hes insinuating heaven has been blocked off reconing london as a place of intense immorality

Question 2

thesis on pathetic fallacy building suspense

Answer 2

Throughout his novella stevsnson uses the motif of pathetic fallacy in order to build tension and foreshadow the coming violent events to a gothic audience who wouldve been very receptible to the usage of the popular trope

Question 3

jekylls reputation thesis

Answer 3

Throughout his novella stevenson builds tension through the constnantly fragile reputation of henry jekyll and plays into fears of his inability to retain it for unbenownst reasons

Question 4

jekylls reputation paragraph

Answer 4

• throughout the text we feel a sense of intense suspense for the secret dealings of jekyll and the motivations behind his actions, upon first read deeming him a conformist hero and victim
• enfield worries that if his dealings were made public his name and character would ‘stink from one end of london to the other’ the sensory imagery accentuates how easily ones reputation can be tarnihed and its serverity indeed he likens it to an early death
• this is a typical mystery novel upon first read, and so we worry for hyde who is a ‘well made smooth faced man’- showing how he conforms to a physicogomy centered society. He is completely clean and smooth as if he is untarnished and well made can im[ply he is from a well off background
• like utterson, many readers would have contemparary fearsof blackmail alighted when reading jekylls case- for example oscar wilde at the time had been publicly tarnished and hence died from the blackmail of his sexuality- it wouldnt be a reach for th eaudience to worry that jekyll had engaged in a relationship with hyde hence his secrecy upon the matter
• When confroned by utterson jekylls vague aura continueally builds tension- he claims to want an end to the ‘hateful business’ which both dissociates him from the event and creates tension as he is deeply inspecific into the cause of his worry, as well as this we still grow a like for him as he discusses how he ‘asks for justice when im not here’ here it deems he is being chivarous and caring, but at the same time tense and vague as the when seems very definate
• stevenson uses the narrative voice of utterson to help us view this novella as a mystery novel as was cutum at the time, utterson discovers things at the pace that we do- whilst the ending switch of perspectives create shock and also a sense of fear and distrust.
  overall the novella largely conforms to the popular murder/mystery trope of the era whilst also being unique in its subvertion of a gothic villain, showing how scarily evil is from within