Dickens leaves the reader wondering if the Convict is religious or not because when he lets Pip go he makes pip say ‘ Lord strike me dead if I don’t’, which either means the Convict believes in a Lord or the convict believes that Pip might believe in a Lord so it would give Pip a better reason for coming back, if the fact a young man willing to tear out his heart and liver isn’t enough. When the Convict lets pip go home Pip runs away towards his home. He is obviously scared and occasionally looks back to see if the Convict is still there.
The end of chapter one explains how Pip sees in the distance a Pirates gibbet, which makes him think of the horrible young man. He looks around for the young man and then becomes frightened again and so runs all the way home without stopping. This technique at the end of the chapter is called a cliffhanger and it makes the reader want to read on leaving them in Suspense in what is going to happen next. Dickens also wrote The Signalman and I will briefly explain the first few paragraphs how Dickens creates Suspense In the Signalman: The Signalman has a very unusual beginning
‘ Halloa! Below there! ‘ Dickens creates suspense in the first few paragraphs of the signalman by once again luring the reader into an unknown atmosphere. He start off the story with someone shouting down at a signalman and this is the first piece of Suspense. The reader is left wondering what will happen next or what the signalman will say. The man shouting down is asking the signalman if there is any way, which he can come down and talk to him. The next large area of Suspense is when Dickens describes a train passing by
‘ Just then, there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush which caused me to startle back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapour rose to my height from this rapid train , had passed me and was skimming away over the landscape. ‘ Dickens builds up suspense by describing the train passing in so much detail and leaving us to wonder and imagine what will happen next. Dickens is very good at using imagery in his character and having a visual image of a character helps that person to understand the story more.
The way in which Dickens explains the surroundings and the characters is in so much detail we can almost picture them as if they were in the room with us. In the Signalman Dickens describes the descent in which the person has to make to travel down to the signalman. It is so detailed you can picture being there. Dickens also uses the senses to enhance the feeling of what he is describing. His favourite sense is sight as most of the things he describes are to do with seeing the object he is describing.
‘ There by a dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough descending zig-zag path notched out: which I followed. The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I went down. ‘ Dickens also uses complex words to portray his suspense ‘ For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with which he had pointed out the path. ‘ Dickens describes the thoughts and images that the man sees when he comes down to talk with the signalman.
‘ I resumed my downward way, and, stepping out on the level of the railroad and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark sallow man , with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post was in a as solitary and dismal place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way, only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction , terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a Barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air.
‘ This section is a perfect example of how Dickens creates suspense in the Signalman and great Expectations. He uses great detail to lure a reader into an unknown atmosphere. This makes the reader want to read on and desperate to find out what is going to happen next. A combination of interesting and thorough detail, careful choices of words and the five senses create an excellent base for building up Suspense in Dickens Stories. This is why he is such a brilliant Suspense writer.
