How Does Lucy Westernra Build Suspense

Suspense is the most important constituent of horror fiction. It is what keeps the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats, anxious to find out what happens next. Both film writers and authors, in this genre, use several components to create the amount of suspense necessary for audience enjoyment. However, of the long list of them, some components stand out above the rest and truly build the foundations of tension and anticipation. In horror fiction, suspense is fashioned mainly through the use of dramatic irony, imagery, and antagonist ambiguity. Dramatic irony is a literal technique used religiously in the horror genre, in which the audience is aware of something that the character(s) are not. The audience witnesses something happen,

Dr. Seward also has a particularly odd account when his patient, Reinfield, stops to look at one. He recalls in his journal, “...I caught the patient’s eye and followed it, but could trace nothing...except a big bat...Bats usually wheel and flit about, but this one seemed to go straight on, as if it knew where it was bound for or had some intention of its own” (Stoker 117). In addition, on the day of Count Dracula’s arrival, there is a large storm with strange fog accompanied by the arrival of a ship. Mina Harker writes about the arrival in her journal, saying, “...the coastguard came along...he stopped to talk with me, as he always does, but all the time he kept looking at a strange ship... ‘She’s a Russian, by the look of her; but she’s knocking about in the queerest way’” (Stoker 80). Later it is posted in the DailyGraph that the captain of this Russian ship, the Demeter, is dead, tied to the wheel (Stoker 85). Since in the earlier chapters it is known that Dracula leaves Transylvania to go to England, the reader is completely aware when he arrives, making them not only worry about the well-being of the characters in the presence of this powerful, malevolent creature, but also about how the characters will react, and if they will be able to put the pieces together. Another great horror novel that really utilizes dramatic irony to create the desired amount

Early this morning a large dog...was found dead in the roadway opposite to its master’s yard... [It] had a savage opponent, for its throat was torn away, and its belly was slit open as if with a savage claw” (Stoker 87). It is known by the reader that the Count was on that ship, but the fact that a ferocious black dog comes off instead creates uncertainty of his presence, and the fear that Dracula could take another form. Furthermore, when Mina goes to find Lucy who sleep-walks to the churchyard, she sees some dark figure standing over her. When she calls out Lucy’s name she says, “...something raised a head, and from where I was I could see a white face and red, gleaming eyes” (Stoker 98). Then when Mina comes closer, the figure is gone. This causes tension because the main antagonist is right in front of one of the main characters one minute, but gone the next, making the reader anxious as to when the Count will show up next. “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, as well, uses the ambiguity of its main antagonist to create a great deal of suspense. This is most prominent in chapter two, when Mr. Utterson notices that Mr. Edward Hyde has been added to Dr. Henry Jekyll’s will. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Utterson are good friends, but Utterson had never met this Edward Hyde. As it is discovered that Hyde is very unlikeable and violent, and even murderous,