The story creates clues throughout which lead to truth and this adds suspense to the novel. Also cliffhangers at the end of chapters, Watson’s reports and strange happenings add to the suspense. This all leads to a dramatic ending. The end of chapters create suspense and lots of dramatic tension by leaving the chapter on a cliff-hanger ” I swear that another day shall not have passed before I have done all that man can do to reach the heart of the mystery. ” This example is taken from an extract of Watson’s diary at the end of the chapter and leaves an exciting pause, when anything could happen.
We see all of this through Watson’s eyes and he is the one who describes everything in detail. The evidence for this lies in his characterized and detailed reports that he has sent to his dear Holmes. These reports create suspense and keep the reader hooked throughout the novel by finishing a chapter and having to read on to find out what happens next. The first mention of the legend of the hound started when Dr. Mortimer reports, “there stood a foul thing, a great black beast shaped like a hound yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon.
” This helps us understand everything about the legend and how it started. Sherlock Holmes seems extremely intrigued with the whole situation and we expect him to go to Baskerville hall himself but instead he sends Watson and quotes “… it is impossible for me to be absent from London for an indefinite time”. Sherlock is a clever man as we can just tell by his detective skills, he knows what he’s doing but I didn’t think he would leave Watson on the case on his own because he would most probably fear for his safety and also Watson needed Holmes to help in the end anyway.
So my point overall is that Holmes had the knowledge to solve this case and he’s always in the right place at the right time. When Sir Henry, Dr. Mortimer and Watson first arrive at Baskerville hall we get our first glimpse of the moor “Over the green squares of fields the low curve of wood there rose in a distance a grey, melancholy hill, with a strange jagged summit, dim and vague in the distance, like some fantastic landscape in a dream.
” This description sounds extremely dismal as the colours are so depressing but as the sentence finishes you get a visual image of a beautiful “dream”. This all contrasts with the next look we get at it “… and I walked far upon the soddon moor, full of dark imaginings, the rain beating upon my face and the wind whistling about my ears” this quote certainly doesn’t sound as correct as the first one as its not as pleasant, this adds suspense because if the weather was sunny and perfect it wouldn’t be a place for a killing.
