Roald Dahl's Use Of Suspense In The Surgeon

405 Words1 Page

Suspense is a mixture of many different feelings and emotions; this includes excitement, curiosity, anxiety, tension as well as several more. The majority of authors use suspense, it is a key to keep the reader interested in the story. They can do it as simple as complicating matters or having the character do something completely unpredictable. Roald Dahl employs various levels of suspense in one of his short stories named "The Surgeon." Some of the characteristics that authors tend to use when they write include dramatic irony. This is simply when the readers know information that one or more of the characters do not. Another characteristic is foreshadowing. Foreshadowing creates suspense because the author is basically giving hints and clues of what may happen …show more content…

'Come and look, sister!' The sister came over to look. 'It's a piece of costume jewelery,' she said. 'Probably part of a necklace. Now how on earth did he come to swallow that?'" (Dahl 122) […] "'Maye it's a rock crystal' William Haddock said, 'or topaz, one of those semi-precious stones.'" (Dahl 123) These two quotes represent a great example of dramatic irony. The surgeon and the sister are both arguing whether or not what they have found is a piece of jewelery, crystal or maybe even a part of a necklace, but the readers all know it is Dr. Sandy's diamond given to him by the king of Saudi Arabia. Another way that Dahl employed dramatic irony was the fact that the house had been broken into (page 114). It is extremely ironic that on the exact night they received a million dollar gift, their house had been completely trashed, and the diamond had gone missing. Many stories include this kind of ironic situations, this purposely creates a large level of anxiety and tension in the story, keeping the reader interested to read

Open Document