Tension in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and Susan Hills The Woman in Black :: English Literature

Tension in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and Susan Hill's "The Woman in Black" Tension is created in both Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and Susan hills "the woman in black" but in a different way. In Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" tension is created by the settings, most horror story's are. Both novels create tension in there settings by using the power of imagination and the unknown. Central to both the plots is the idea of dreams and nightmares. Both Frankenstein and the women in black were set at night and both in isolated areas. Frankenstein was set in an isolated building in Ingolstadt, Switzerland "on a dreamy night of November" "as the rain pattered dismally against the panes". This creates tension as she is using the horror of the unknown in the isolated building. "Candle was nearly burnt out." Mary Shelley also creates tension in her novel by using the description she does when the creature has just been created, "His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath his hair were of a lustrous black and flowing". The way he describes this creature clearly gives you the impression it is evil. In the novel Frankenstein after the creature is created the man takes pity and is disgusted with what he has created, "The beauty of the dream vanished" For creating a creature that will have to live his life knowing that he was a creation. This is where the tension starts to build and the creature decides to take revenge on the one who created him, "Evil will have its revenge". However in "the woman in black" her appearance is not described very much. Susan hill does however describe the look on her face as 'as a desperate, yearning malevolence; it was as though she was searching for something she wanted, needed- must have, more then life itself, and which had been taken from her. This helps prepares the reader in