Suspense In 'The Veiled Lady'
Faris Itum
Mrs. Horner
ENG 4U-04
March 21, 2014
Prompt #3
Suspense in 'The Veiled Lady'
'The Veiled Lady' is a short story written by Agatha Christie, a short story with a great deal of
suspense. Suspense requires many literary elements to be effective. Suspense builds up throughout 'The
Veiled Lady' through the author's use of elements of fiction such as a red herring, foreshadowing, and
melodrama. The precise use of these three elements of fiction effectively creates an atmosphere of
suspense, leaving the reader at the edge of their seat.
A red herring is something which diverts attention from the real problem, or matter at hand; a
misleading clue. Red herrings were used very effectively in the story, …show more content…
Foreshadowing is a fictional element used by authors to give hints, or indicate to the reader that
something, usually unpleasant is going to happen. When used correctly, foreshadowing creates a
considerable amount of suspense. The reader constantly waits for what is expected to happen next, to
happen. Poirot reveals that there is something suspicious about the box, when he and Lady Millicent
argue about who gets to keep it, as a 'souvenir'. “She stretched out her hand, but Poirot was before her.
His hand closed over it.” We become aware at this point that there is more to the box, than we know.
Similarly, another example of foreshadowing is when Poirot and Hastings are speaking about an article
in the news paper. “There's an Englishman mysteriously done to death in Holland” (page 61), says
Hastings. “They always say that- and later they find that he ate the tinned fish and that his death is
perfectly natural.” (page 61), replies Poirot. The narrator tells us that an Englishman dies in Holland, an
irrelevant piece of evidence we would think, but the author would not have bothered mentioning …show more content…
The significance is later realized when Poirot tells us that
“Lavington himself, alias Croker, alias Reed, I wonder which of the gang it was who stuck a knife into
him the other day in Holland?”. It turns out that the small comment about the article in the newspaper
earlier was a way of the author giving us notice that Mr. Lavington was murdered by members of his
gang in Holland, and that the current Lavington is an imposter. Foreshadowing was very effectively
used by Agatha Christie. Her writing style revolves around her foreshadowing, always giving the reader
all the information they needs to put the ending together, rather than having feeling as if they've been
fooled by the ending. Her great use of foreshadowing creates more suspense because readers do their
best to figure out what is going to happen as the story goes on.
Melodrama is another fictional element Agatha Christie uses to create suspense. An example of
this occurs when the narrator describes how heavily veiled the lady was: “She was indeed heavily
veiled. It was impossible to distinguish her features until she raised her veil of black Spanish
Mrs. Horner
ENG 4U-04
March 21, 2014
Prompt #3
Suspense in 'The Veiled Lady'
'The Veiled Lady' is a short story written by Agatha Christie, a short story with a great deal of
suspense. Suspense requires many literary elements to be effective. Suspense builds up throughout 'The
Veiled Lady' through the author's use of elements of fiction such as a red herring, foreshadowing, and
melodrama. The precise use of these three elements of fiction effectively creates an atmosphere of
suspense, leaving the reader at the edge of their seat.
A red herring is something which diverts attention from the real problem, or matter at hand; a
misleading clue. Red herrings were used very effectively in the story, …show more content…
Foreshadowing is a fictional element used by authors to give hints, or indicate to the reader that
something, usually unpleasant is going to happen. When used correctly, foreshadowing creates a
considerable amount of suspense. The reader constantly waits for what is expected to happen next, to
happen. Poirot reveals that there is something suspicious about the box, when he and Lady Millicent
argue about who gets to keep it, as a 'souvenir'. “She stretched out her hand, but Poirot was before her.
His hand closed over it.” We become aware at this point that there is more to the box, than we know.
Similarly, another example of foreshadowing is when Poirot and Hastings are speaking about an article
in the news paper. “There's an Englishman mysteriously done to death in Holland” (page 61), says
Hastings. “They always say that- and later they find that he ate the tinned fish and that his death is
perfectly natural.” (page 61), replies Poirot. The narrator tells us that an Englishman dies in Holland, an
irrelevant piece of evidence we would think, but the author would not have bothered mentioning …show more content…
The significance is later realized when Poirot tells us that
“Lavington himself, alias Croker, alias Reed, I wonder which of the gang it was who stuck a knife into
him the other day in Holland?”. It turns out that the small comment about the article in the newspaper
earlier was a way of the author giving us notice that Mr. Lavington was murdered by members of his
gang in Holland, and that the current Lavington is an imposter. Foreshadowing was very effectively
used by Agatha Christie. Her writing style revolves around her foreshadowing, always giving the reader
all the information they needs to put the ending together, rather than having feeling as if they've been
fooled by the ending. Her great use of foreshadowing creates more suspense because readers do their
best to figure out what is going to happen as the story goes on.
Melodrama is another fictional element Agatha Christie uses to create suspense. An example of
this occurs when the narrator describes how heavily veiled the lady was: “She was indeed heavily
veiled. It was impossible to distinguish her features until she raised her veil of black Spanish