In this essay I am going to compare and contrast the presentation of the super natural in the 19th centaury short stories witch are ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ by charlotte Bronte, ‘ an arrest’ by Ambrose Bierce & ‘ the adventure of the speckled band’ by author Conan Doyle all of these were written in the 19th centaury Victorian times they were fascinated by the supernatural, murder and anything that was unexplainable these were dark time witch is probably why they were obsessed by these things.
In ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ the writer builds up a very tense and scary atmosphere because it says things like “… a deep groan burst… ” and “ deep hollow voice… ” hollow make the voice sound quite cold and evil all of these thing give the story a lot of tension and in Victorian time they would have been reading this at night by candle light in almost the same setting this would have terrified them even more than usual because they would thing this could happen to me as they had a very strong belief in the supernatural.
The supernatural is built up by the negative and scary language like noises from no were but afterwards there is always a valid explanation to what has happened like the noises from the closet was the cloak falling down but when the mysterious figure came up to napoleon it doesn’t tell you right till the end that he was sleep walking and dreaming some of the negative language she uses also brings out the supernatural like it being cold “ he stood there shivering” and it also describes abnormal things happening like “ the solid wall of the apartment fell open”.
Napoleons reactions in ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ would scare a 19th centaury audience this a leader a strong man and he just doesn’t even put up a fight when the ghost asks him to go with him and this would make them think well if this could happen to someone that powerful then what could this ghost do to me also the setting in which they would have been reading it would scare them too as they would probably been reading it in the same setting as in the story.
The twist in napoleon and the spectre gives the reader the logical explanation that it was looking for it’s not the most imaginative ending I have ever read but it dose do what it meant to do and releases all the tension created by the story. In ‘ an arrest’ the setting is a little bit different from ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ but it still has the basics which seem to be in all stories involving the supernatural like the fact it is always dark and that everywhere is always very empty.
The atmosphere is almost the same as in ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ its cold and a little foggy witch is just the same as in ‘ an arrest’ the atmosphere is built up in many ways the writer use negative language like “ cold” and things like “ in to the gloom” to make it sound like no a nice place also in some of the first lines the writer say “ having murder” this gives the story and immediate dark feel to it. The dark figure in ‘ an arrest’ is very like the “ ghost” in ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ in the way that they have a submissive and unbreakable grip on ether the very strong or very heartless men they have in charge.
Just like in ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ you gat an incite in to how the victim feels this makes the stories a lot scarier as both of them involve very cool very calm men but in this situation they are both “ sweating with fear” and so if this would happen to an normal person then it would probably scare them to death it dose this by saying things like “ he was sweating with fear” and this was the person who just calmly killed a guard with a metal pipe.
Just like in ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ ‘ an arrest’ has a plot twist but its is a little different as it doesn’t explain everything that happened logically and sort of leaves you on an edge because you only fined out that the figure who is Burton duff the jailer is a ghost when it says right at the end ” in the corridor lay the dead body of Burton duff” and with it being right at the end it gives the reader something to think about and keeps the chance of it beading supernatural alive.
In ‘ the adventure of the speckled band’ miss stoner is very confused as to how her sister has died as the room seems to be tightly locked and that the only one could get in was her the way the writer sows this is very similar to ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ as she calls every thing strange and she felt “ horror stricken and was also very jumpy on the night her sister died that she felt a feeling of “ impending doom” just like napoleon was as to every noise he herd he would jump up and be very protective of himself just like miss stoner was protective of her sister also when miss stoner tells the story an atmosphere builds up and so dose the tension the atmosphere is on very good as the writer uses words like “ the dead of night” and other very negative fraises like that also the wind is howling and it is dark and raining so there is low visibility just like in the other two stories and it also mentions a “ whistle and a metallic sound that seems to have come from now were and this helps build up the mysterious atmosphere.
All the clues that miss stoner gave to Sherlock homes leaded to the supernatural as there seemed to be no way in or out and the only thing to explain it was dieing of shock or fear so all the things like the noises and the impenetrable room lead to a strong belief that it was the super natural involved.
All of the stories have something’s in common like the setting is always similar it s usually a very dark very empty mysterious place also the three stories have the same atmospheric build up in all of them as it always involves noises and dark strange figures and lots of abnormal things but no all of them are the same only ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ gives a logical explanation for everything that has happened but they all do present the supernatural in the same way by using mysterious I have Compared and contrasted the presentation of the supernatural in the three 19th centaury short stories: ‘ napoleon and the spectre’ by charlotte Bronte, ‘ an arrest’ by Ambrose Bierce & ‘ the adventure of the speckled band’ by author Conan Doyle they all have the same basic structure but are all a little bit different from each other.
