Suspense in Jekyll and Hyde

How suspense is built up in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on the 13th November 1850. He wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886, with that 40,000 copies of the book were sold in the first six months. This was designed to mirror the Victorian secret and based on good and evil. Stevenson later died in 1894 in Samoa.

Stevenson used the contemporary setting of Victorian London to write his gothic horror novel. The streets with the gas lamps were the perfect setting following the true horrific stories of Jack the Ripper. He refers to Mr Hyde well as he wanders the streets of London not knowing who he’s going to meet. The elements in gothic horror include irony, movement, time, senses, horrific language and zoom lens. This shows how suspense is built up. I will show how these devices are used in separate paragraphs.

Suspense is an anxious uncertainty and apprehension that writers use to make the reader feel scared, wary and make tension happen. It could also be to attract the reader to the story in the first place and make them read it. Suspense usually happens at a climax; the story has been building up and building up and then something happens that relieves the reader.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde starts off with Jekyll. Although he isn’t mentioned in the book until the second chapter; ’Search for Mr Hyde’. Further on in the story, Mr Utterson (Jekyll’s Lawyer) investigates more into Jekyll’s will. He finds that Dr Jekyll has left all his possessions to the name of Mr Hyde in the event of his disappearance for more than six consecutive calendar months. Later on Poole (Jekyll’s Butler) sees an image of a very dark shadow at the window of Dr Jekyll’s Laboratory. He goes to investigate the m...

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...enson has used his image almost and put it onto Hyde.

In the book I think the Stevenson has created a unique book that finishes off all the little details needed to write a good book. I think that it has all the elements of gothic horror are included in the book to make a fantastic book that will make people not put the book down because of Stevenson’s great achievements. Personally I like the book and I think that people of today will still enjoy the book but not as much as the Victorian’s because they would’ve got the book in monthly instalments; that way they can have as much time as they want reading the book but still would wonder what would happen next. So, to conclude I think that Stevenson has written a great gothic horror novel using all the devices that should be used in gothic horror. Zoom lens, movement, time, horrific language, senses and irony.