Rebecca Grenfell 9.6

How does the writer create an atmosphere of fear and horror in this passage?

1. The young man shows that he is nervous by saying “the carriage is racing”. By creating a sense of frantic desperation so quickly that the boy doesn’t know what is going on at the right time which would make people in the similar situation feel frightened and very nervous. By saying that he is “going over the same ground” the boy must feel worried that the driver doesn’t know where he is going and since the time is not far from midnight, the boy is probably having a strong feeling of fear. By the boy checking the time with a match shows that it is very dark and the boy is eager to get what he is nervous about over with. He is probably feeling very frustrated because they are going around in circles again and again. The boy feels “sick with worry”, it is not very hard to understand why because anyone in a carriage, pitch black, round in circles, wolves and wild dogs anyone would feel exactly the same way. The “sounds of howling” would make the boy nervous because of the frantic ways of the horses reactions.

2. The ways in which the horses react to the howling are straining, shivering, rearing and plunging madly, and getting ready to bolt. These create a scary atmosphere because the horses react so strangely it gives a sense of danger to the boy in the carriage. The reaction of the horses is like a warning, so the boy knows what to expect and to know what is coming at the end of the road so it would either make a scarier atmosphere.

3. After a while the boy calms down because the sound of the howling was getting more familiar so his ears were getting used to it. Then the horses quieten down too because they are getting used to the noise and they are also being controlled by the driver.

4. The negative atmosphere returns when the driver makes a new road turning by how suddenly the driver makes the turn, they were going the same way again and again but suddenly they turn down another road that is unfamiliar. It would also make a negative atmosphere by rocks on either side because they are surrounded by them and because of the rocks the wind whistles through them which creates “horrid noises”. Then the temperature drops and snow falls which makes everything freeze over so the carriage moves less smoothly. When the howling of the dogs continue and the sounds of the wolves get closer which makes the horses more frantic and scared. The atmosphere changes to a negative one because as soon as they turn onto the new, unfamiliar road, bad things start to happen again.

5. The wolves are shown to be quite terrifying creatures because when they are in the ring surrounded by the frightening wolves, they boys describes their appearance to bring across their horrible nature and sense of threat by saying that their “white teeth and lolling red tongues”. Their appearance is described as “long sinewy limbs and shaggy hair”. The danger is immediately obvious when the howls start again, the horses are terrified and there is sudden darkness.

6. Even though the wolves disappear, the sense of fear does not end because the boy is terrified as he was “afraid to speak or move”. They were almost in complete darkness because “they rolling clouds obscured the moon” when they got to the castle it has a worrying feeling because it is so ruined it looks like it’s unlived in.