How does R. L. Stevenson create suspense in 'The Last Night' chapter of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
Robert Louis Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a gothic novel in many of its aspects, but one of the most important reasons is that there is constant building of suspense. There are many ways that this is done: through his characters, through his vocabulary, the setting and even through the origins of the character of Hyde.
Stevenson created the character of Utterson as a neutral base for the whole story; much like the table on which the dinner is served. But in the chapter of The Last Night, the table creates suspense too. Because the story is seen through the eyes of Utterson, the reader feel what he feels, so when he gets scared, the reader feels the same. When he is told not to go into the room that Jekyll is supposedly locked in, Mr. Uttersons nerves gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance. This quote builds suspense very well, because in the beginning of the book, Utterson is hardly ever scared of anything and if he is, he manages to tell himself everything is explainable. According to what we know about Utterson from the rest of novel, Utterson is calm under pressure and doesnt get scared often, so if he is then the situation really is dire. Utterson also uses his common sense to find explanations for things that arent explicable without accepting the out-of-the-ordinary possibilities. When trying to comfort Poole, he says, Your master, Poole is plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer There is my explanation it hangs together and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms. Utterson keeps trying to explain everything strange thats happening with logical and reasonable explanations for all the strange happenings in order to comfort himself and keep his thoughts away from all the unexplainable (but true) possibilities of what is really going on. This builds suspense because we know that he is just making excuses and that what is really going on is a lot stranger than he wants it to be.
An important
Stevenson created the character of Utterson as a neutral base for the whole story; much like the table on which the dinner is served. But in the chapter of The Last Night, the table creates suspense too. Because the story is seen through the eyes of Utterson, the reader feel what he feels, so when he gets scared, the reader feels the same. When he is told not to go into the room that Jekyll is supposedly locked in, Mr. Uttersons nerves gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance. This quote builds suspense very well, because in the beginning of the book, Utterson is hardly ever scared of anything and if he is, he manages to tell himself everything is explainable. According to what we know about Utterson from the rest of novel, Utterson is calm under pressure and doesnt get scared often, so if he is then the situation really is dire. Utterson also uses his common sense to find explanations for things that arent explicable without accepting the out-of-the-ordinary possibilities. When trying to comfort Poole, he says, Your master, Poole is plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer There is my explanation it hangs together and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms. Utterson keeps trying to explain everything strange thats happening with logical and reasonable explanations for all the strange happenings in order to comfort himself and keep his thoughts away from all the unexplainable (but true) possibilities of what is really going on. This builds suspense because we know that he is just making excuses and that what is really going on is a lot stranger than he wants it to be.
An important
Bibliography: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R. L. Stevenson.