Explore feelings of horror and tension are created in Macbeth and I'm the King of the Castle
Explore the ways in which feelings of horror and tension are created in ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare and ‘I’m the King of the Castle’ by Susan Hill
By examining Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, we see he uses horror and tension to describe the dramatic downfall of a once noble man. Macbeth’s pursuit of ambition is shown by the murder of his king and his best friend. Whereas Hill’s ‘I’m the King of the Castle’ is about Kingshaw and Hooper who are two ten year old boys, who have very different personalities and the novel ends with the tragic suicide of Kingshaw due to the bullying he experiences. Both writers use various writing techniques to create the feeling of horror and a build-up of tension in their texts.
Firstly, Hill describes Warings as a horrifying place. She describes it as being ‘entirely graceless, rather tall and badly angled, built of dark red brick.’ This description builds up the horror in the first chapter. The word ‘graceless’ effectively describes the house in its entirety as frightening and purposely so. It also builds up a sense of unease and a terrifying sense of foreboding as it gives the reader a sense of anticipation of what will happen to Kingshaw. It is also described as a place where ‘the summer air was close and still’. The word ‘still’ really builds up the tension as you can imagine the sense of stillness and maybe silence that makes the build-up of the horror in the novel really believable. This is also shown with the isolation of the house, as it is ‘some distance from any other house’. Not only does this evoke as sense of horror and the isolation of the house, but is also symbolic to the isolation of Kingshaw as well. The Red Room is also used very effectively to build up the feeling of horror. It is described as ‘very dark inside the Red Room’, which is a key image in building up the horror for the reader. She may have included it for the only purpose of horror, as a popular ghost story at the time which is a very ironic way of
By examining Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, we see he uses horror and tension to describe the dramatic downfall of a once noble man. Macbeth’s pursuit of ambition is shown by the murder of his king and his best friend. Whereas Hill’s ‘I’m the King of the Castle’ is about Kingshaw and Hooper who are two ten year old boys, who have very different personalities and the novel ends with the tragic suicide of Kingshaw due to the bullying he experiences. Both writers use various writing techniques to create the feeling of horror and a build-up of tension in their texts.
Firstly, Hill describes Warings as a horrifying place. She describes it as being ‘entirely graceless, rather tall and badly angled, built of dark red brick.’ This description builds up the horror in the first chapter. The word ‘graceless’ effectively describes the house in its entirety as frightening and purposely so. It also builds up a sense of unease and a terrifying sense of foreboding as it gives the reader a sense of anticipation of what will happen to Kingshaw. It is also described as a place where ‘the summer air was close and still’. The word ‘still’ really builds up the tension as you can imagine the sense of stillness and maybe silence that makes the build-up of the horror in the novel really believable. This is also shown with the isolation of the house, as it is ‘some distance from any other house’. Not only does this evoke as sense of horror and the isolation of the house, but is also symbolic to the isolation of Kingshaw as well. The Red Room is also used very effectively to build up the feeling of horror. It is described as ‘very dark inside the Red Room’, which is a key image in building up the horror for the reader. She may have included it for the only purpose of horror, as a popular ghost story at the time which is a very ironic way of