Views on horror stories are created range from the amount of suspense a story contains. Therefore we harveys literary work is examined to evaluate how does he create suspense in “August Heat”. Horror stories are designed to make our pulse race or skin tingle. They often revolve around mayhem and nightmare with death evil and demonic subjects revolve around horror stories. The horror genre has its roots in folktales and traditional tales but it did not truly blossom until the 19 century. All good horror stories feature a great deal of suspense. Suspense is the uncertainty or anxiety feeling about what will happen next.
In august heat harvey uses different methods to create suspense. Such as foreshadowing he would withhold information from the reader and by making the character choose between a good or bad situation. Suspense is a unique factor in writing. In Harvey’s story he uses suspense to convey a consistent energy. The energy increases to the strength of the story and might urge the readers to keep reading. The effect of suspense keeps readers on the edge of their seats and wanting to find out what will happen next. Harvey initiates his story with a method of foreshadowing, hints that suggest events later in the plot creating suspense.
A forty year old artist named James Clarence Withencroft finds himself, after an afternoon devoted to sketching, drawing an image of an obese gentleman just after a court trial, with an expression “not so much one of horror as of utter, absolute collapse”. It’s plain to conjecture that this figure just suffered a loss in court, presumably to a serious charge. Upon going for a short walk, James finds himself outside a monumental mason’s shop, and lets himself in to investigate what brought his feet to this shop of their present.
Foreshadowing manifested early in the story on a hot day James decided to leave his room since it was oppressively hot and he had made up his mind to go to the coolest and most comfortable place in the neighborhood which was the deep end of the public swimming Bath, there he starts sketching. Harvey starts including foreshadowing when he mentions Line 30 “I began to draw so intent was I on my work”, going on “The final result for a hurried sketch was I felt sure the best thing I had done. ”
“James rolled up the sketch and without knowing why, placed it in his pocket and left the house. From the beginning, James only seemed to have the vaguest recollection of where he went. James goes on to say, “The one thing of which I was fully conscious was the awful heat, that came up from the dusty pavement as an almost palpable wave” Withencroft estimates that he “must have walked for five or six miles, when a small boy roused me from my reverie by asking the time. ” this experience of the unfamiliar, while place is warmth and familiarity is quite weary suggesting that he did not know the boy a coincidence that the boy brought him to that place.
During the six mile walk, Withencroft leaves the familiarity of “place” and enters a new sort of strangeness that Tuan would likely characterize as “space. ” He finds himself outside the house of a man named Charles Atkinson. Withencroft’s unusual event that he is about to encounter would occur mostly in an unfamiliar place. As such, now that Withencroft has entered space, strange occurrences begin to unfold.. When Withencroft meets Atkinson, he notes: “There was something unnatural, uncanny, in meeting this man.
This is the only line in the story except for the last paragraph that openly points out that something is odor unusual he usually let events throughout the story unfold on their own. “Who does the mason happen to be, but the spitting image of his sketch. , Atkinson, was just finishing up a headstone for a convention of gravestones. Foreshadowing instantly appears when suddenly James Clarence Withencroft name appeared and it appears that the date of death happens to not be there. It starts on the first lines of the story. “Penistone Road, Clapham, 20th August, 19-“.
The year being missing gives a clue to a major point later in the story. the narrator most likely did not include the year because he wanted the reader to figure out that it was not supposed to be a year, but another date. The missing date at the end helps the reader determine the end for himself. In the end it is suggested that the character dies. However if the character does die, he does it after the story ends. This piece of foreshadowing shows that the narrator most likely dies these events emphasize a sinister, twisted atmosphere hitting that or suggesting that might happen later in the story.
The narrator also uses the method of withholding information that manipulates the reader’s vision of what might occur later in the story to create suspense. Harvey manipulates sense of place so we feel that we, and Withencroft, are walking in a dream. Withencroft leaves for a walk, and describes the streets he walks on. However, his memory fails him and he notes. “From there onwards I have only the vaguest recollection of where I went. The one thing of which I was fully conscious was the awful heat, that came up from the dusty asphalt pavement as an almost palpable wave.
I longed for the thunder promised by the great banks of copper-cloud that hung low over the western sky. ” The oppressive heat and the thunderstorm are the only indicators that the protagonist is entering a potentially threatening situation, the only events that the story provides. Generally, his voice appear casual as he relates his experience. Furthermore, the story gives us enough capacity to imagine what will occur. James Clarence Whitecroft the artist and Mr. Atkinson the stone mason, whose pieces of work astounding indicates each other’s future, meet for the first time in a super hot day.
Havey explains, “The heat is enough to send a man dead. ” In the very first sentence, the narrator indicates that the day is “the most remarkable day in my his life”and attracts the reader’s interest. The writer chooses first point of view which makes the reader substitute into the main characters story. In contrast, the narrator’s sensible tone, the readers get extra nervous as the narrator is experiencing the amazing and coincidence incident. They may feel a little scared, but curiosity motivates them to keep reading just like an adventure.
Since he talks about his artist job as “not a very successful one”, the readers will consider him as an usual person. The last element of suspense utilized in “August heat” was a combination of the characters sudden reversal in their situation from good to badwe and the character we care about must chose between two dangerous course of action and may change our perception about Atkinson which leaves the reader to ask did Atkinson murder James With Croft? Or was it all just a weird coincidence and everything turned out fine?
In The plot of the story encircles the notion that both Withencroft and Atkinson had premonitions that day about what the immediate future may hold, and as the plot unfolds, readers speculate about the truth of their premonitions. That night they planned for James to spend the night, to prevent any kind of accident occurring on the way back to his house that would cut his life short. Leading james who we find as an innocent character going towards a dangerous situation. Later that night, the man who drew his grave, Atkinson, was sharpening his tools therefor now that the narrator mentioned that, it even adds additional foreshadowing.
It seems like a random thing that the narrator would include. that Furthermore, the narrator goes on the last line, “It is after eleven now. I shall be gone in less than an hour but the heat is stifling. Is it enough to send a madman. ” Nevertheless, the heat is stifling, and there is no way of telling through the text what it might do to the rationale and intellect of a sane man. It is not a single crime with criminal and victim. It is rather a coincidence in which both two guys are victims. And it is then where arkistons haracter flips he is no longer the “bad one” or James the “the innocent one” they are both victims of fate and the only criminal is death.
This also makes us think deeply about decision, death, and destiny. If there has to be a criminal, it would be Destiny. They cannot really avoid their fates which are decided by God, but they can try to control themselves and fight against the unfortunate destiny. It has been that the story creates a strong sense of adverse destiny accompanied with horror. Readers will start getting more eager while they read through the story. The accident is the basis of the story.
Two strangers unconsciously know the other’s correct information, neither the appearance, or the name and birthday. The coincidence is a part of their supernatural but dread fate. The author makes suspense throughout all the story. He utilizes various methods of creating suspense such as foreshadowing which played in tremendous role in the story withholding information and the sudden change in the characters situation. The suspense that was created throughout the story adds strength to the story and compels readers to keep reading. The effect of suspense keeps readers on the edge of their seats and wanting to find out what will happen next.
