How does Charles Dickens create a sense of tension and suspense in this extract?
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens follows Scrooge and his journey to become a better person. The tension and suspense at the beginning of Stave 2 were created as a result of the descriptive imagery, well-placed adjectives and adverbs, and varied sentence structure. When Scrooge remembers his encounter with Marley's ghost, tension is created through the use of adjectives and adverbs. For example,
It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house.
Adjectives such as "strange" and "inexplicable" were used purposefully to allow the reader to feel afraid and confused. Suspense is another prevalent feeling as the adverbs "softly" and "loudly" also add a sense of fear for the reader. The imagery in the following excerpt was a primary source of suspense in this excerpt:
…some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains. The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight towards his door.
With the descriptive imagery, the reader is left constantly wondering what will happen next. In addition, the use of the onomatopoeia - "booming" - added to the imagery allowing the reader to have the opportunity to pretend they were there. Dickens' technique is key for the reader to feel a sense of suspense and tension. Moreover, the way Dickens varies the sentence structure throughout is clever when building suspense and tension. For instance,
The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head.
This quote starts with a shorter sentence for dramatic effect and then continues to elaborate. This adds a mystery component which is very useful when creating tension. Moreover, Dickens also uses personification. He states, "the dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, "I know him; Marley's Ghost!" and fell again." The use of personification here also added a dramatic effect as the flame is described as doing large actions such as leaping up and crying out. Dickens even made the flame scared of Marley's ghost, suggesting that the reader should be too. The idea of Scrooge being the one haunted by Marley's ghost relates to Dickens' intent. Scrooge was meant to represent the government in London who did not care for poor people having an awful life in the workhouses. Marley haunting Scrooge was meant to show how Dickens was against the New Poor Law and did not believe it was right. The feelings of fear, drama and mystery that Dickens cunningly invoked combine to make the underlying sense of tension and suspense clear.
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