Tension In Eel Marsh House

Tension is when the writer makes a description that it might turn the story one way or maybe a different way; so you don’t know what’s going on. It makes you feel edgy, as well as making you have chills going through your body. Chapter 9 creates tension by going up and down in emotions.

The tension rises in chapter 9 when Arthur goes outside. He and spider stood on the grass, ‘We saw no one. No shadow fell across the grass.’ (quote book). ‘’We saw no one’ is a short sentence that makes you feel like something’s going to happen; Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is when you give hints that something is going to happen before it actually happens. For example, it was a gloomy night, suggests that something bad might happen. This creates tension as …show more content…
In Eel Marsh ‘Down below me on the ground floor of the house, silence, a seething, blanketing, almost tangible silence, and a musty darkness thick as felt.’ (quote book). ‘Blanketing’ suggests that there is a lot of mist building up layers around the ground floor. The descriptions of Eel Marsh House gives it a range of different moods, but mainly a ghastly touch. The house is described as a ‘musty darkness’ hints that it is sort of a fog/mist. However it could be that it smell as that's what ‘musty’ means. ‘, silence,’ has commas either side of it making it create pace. Susan Hill uses ‘seething’ making it seem like the air is crowding Arthur. Susan has used a list to create pace also. Tension is sustained in this part of the chapter as it seems that Arthur is walking into a thick foggy …show more content…
Spider isn’t asleep as ‘Every hair on her body was on end, her ears were pricked, her tail erect, the whole of her tense, as if ready to spring.’ (quote book). In this quote ‘on end’ means that all of the hair on her body is stuck in an upright position . Although ‘on end’ can also mean for a long amount of time but it doesn’t necessarily mean this in this context. ‘Pricked’ indicates that when on alert Spiders’ ears are stood upright. This could show she is scared/frightened of something. ‘Erect’ means stood up straight. So Spiders’ tail is is stood up along with her ears and ‘every hair on her body’. ‘The whole of her tense’ is another part of this chapter that shows that Susan Hill sustains tension throughout this chapter. It says, in this quote, that Spider is ‘ready to spring’ this means she will pounce on whoever and whatever is outside of the bedroom door. This quote is very tense as it makes you worry what’s going to happen to