in the short stories you have read, how are mystery and suspense created?
...tan, this indicates the presence of an immense evil force and the mystery and suspense begins to build on the reader from this point on. In The Mortal Immortal, another religious incident occurred, one of Cornelius Agrippa’s students unawares to him had raised the devil himself and was killed by him, this institutes the feeling of suspense and mystery and arouses the question, will the devil have a part to play in the apparent immortality of Winzy. After this, the feelings of suspense and mystery temporarily wear off, and the story becomes a love story. From the moment he drinks the potion, which he was told would cure love, the suspense and mystery return and catch a grip of the reader, it is obvious that this mixture will have some part to play in the immortality of Winzy, the fact that this part is unclear is the very thing that keeps the suspense with the reader because how could a potion that is designed to cure love, cure someone of the burden of death, and render them immortal? Later on, when we find out that the potion did not cure him of his love for Bertha and that the alchemist, on his deathbed, with his last breaths, revealed that the potion was actually the elixir of life, many of the reader’s earlier questions are answered, the fact that he only drank half of the elixir means that it is unknown weather he is completely immortal, or if he will simply live for a very long time, hence the title, The Mortal Immortal. As revealed at the start of the story he then lived for a further three hundred years and by the end of the story he is so frustrated with his ability to cheat death and has decided to go on an exciting adventure across continents, encountering great dangers, and putting his immortality to the test. With the line “and by scattering and annihilating the atoms that compose my frame, set at liberty the life imprisoned within, and so cruelly prevented from soaring from this dim earth to a sphere more congenial to its immortal essence.” the story ends, and leaves the reader wanting more, hanging in suspense and forced to think deeply about the mystery of the story. In Dracula’s Guest, which was wrote in a completely different way than The Mortal Immortal, the original suspense and mystery experienced by the reader continuously build through the first page of the story with many question appearing and remaining unanswered for example, in the line: I remembered the old custom of burying suicides at cross-roads: “Ah! I see, a suicide how interesting!” But for the life of me I could not make out why the horses were frightened. This answers why Johann was uncomfortable when at the crossroads but the gravity of his fear was not justified by a simple suicide’s grave, and the horses’ behaviour was not explained. The only way to explain the behaviour of Johann is if someone of significant importance in the local area killed themselves in weird circumstances, this imposes yet another question; Who was it that killed himself? and also why did he do it? At this point the meaning of the word Wulpurgisnacht is still unclear to the reader. Then the mystery village came into play, a village where no one has lived for hundreds of years, apparently due to some strange phenomenon that took place there, something that is unholy, Johann’s story about the people from the village, when buried, sounds were heard from their graves, and they were found ‘rosy with life and their mouths red with blood’ At this point it becomes clear to the reader, that this is a village that Dracula had slain hundreds of years ago, and the reader now has an idea what the word Wulpurgisnacht means, perhaps this is the night when it happened, hundreds of years ago, this is the anniversary of that night. Dracula was a vampire and according to myth, vampires are potentially immortal, surviving on the blood of mortals, with the strength of twenty men, and finally he can turn his victims into vampires! Does this mean that down in that village lives a horde of vampires, thirsty for the taste of blood. This is the main reason for the great increase in the feeling of suspense experienced by the reader at the point when a tall, thin man appeared over the crest of a hill and scared the horses into frenzy. This imagery used by Bram Stoker is very effective at instating an air of suspense over the whole situation. The silhouette of a tall, thin, eerie man emerging from over the crest of a hill, at a moment when these thoughts of vampires and Dracula are flowing through the reader’s mind really works at its job, which is, to enwrap the reader in a cloud of fear, suspense, and mystery. He commenced this walk down the road, which lead to the village and the absence of anything, the sheer tranquillity and desolation of this walk allowed these feelings to grow and multiply, until they’re almost overwhelming for the reader. The storm ripped overhead and the deafening howl of the wind, and the blinding blizzard in front of his eyes meant that he could only partially make out a ‘square mass of some kind of building’ which he tried to get to in darkness as a cloud had then obscured the moon and cast him into darkness. The momentary death of the storm is the scariest part of the walk, the immediate, unexpected plunge into uncompromising suspense, is enough to make the reader’s heart stop beating in order to cooperate with the unnatural silence of the situation. In reading the engraving on the door the reader receiver confirmation that Walpurgisnacht is Walpurgess Night which is, according to ‘the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad – when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When evil things of earth and air and water held revel. This very place was the...