The Black Cottage, Sikes And Nancy, And Treasure In The Forest

I have read ‘the Black Cottage’ written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, ‘Sikes and Nancy’ written by Charles Dickens in 1869 and ‘ the Treasure in the Forest’ written by H.G. Wells in 1895.

A feeling of suspense is created the black cottage when the two housebreakers attempt to break into the Black Cottage. The climax in the story is when Bessie finally escapes from the cottage just as Dick and Jerry break the door down.

HG Wells Treasure in the Forest creates suspense as the two explorers find the dead body of the Chinese man near the treasure. The climax of the story is when Hooker pricks his thumb on one of the thorns and realizes what Evans has done.

Suspense is created in Sikes and Nancy when Sikes kills Nancy the climax is when Sikes accidentally kills himself when he falls off the roof and the rope hangs him by the neck.

In Sikes and Nancy nearly all of the main characters are villains. Nancy is shown to be the good one as she does nothing bad, but she is not necessarily perfect. Sikes is clearly made out as the villain as he is the one who kills Nancy and he got what he deserved when he dies. Another villain could be seen as Fagin, he is the one who hires a spy to watch Nancy when she goes to see the people but he is also the one who tells Sikes that he may be being over the top about it. Morris bolter is not shown as anyone as he is just doing his job and not taking sides.

In the treasure in the forest there is not a hero or heroine. Hooker and Evans are shown as the villains as they killed the Chinese man and stole his map so they could steal his treasure. Although Chang-hi was shown as evil because he was a china man, which in the time of the story racism was a common thing. There were considered dirty and greedy but also the reference to the devil makes him seam like a very dark character.

In the black cottage the heroes and heroines and villains are very clear. Bessie is the heroine who saves her cat and Mr. and Mrs. Kniftons pocket book from Jerry and Shifty Dick. Shifty and Jerry are the Villiansas they try to break in to the black cottage , try to steal the pocket book and they make sexual remarks towards bessie (who is shown as quite a young girl).

In the Treasure in the Forest there is a lot of suspense. This is from the constant searching in the story. As the two explorers search the unknown landscape the reader is given a detailed description of the forest and what is happening. This lets them feel the same tension the explorers feel as they see the first glimps of the poisoned Chinese man.

In the scene in the treasure in the forest where hooker gets pricked by one of the thorns he creates a lot of tension by making hooker frantic once he has found out what has happened.

‘he started at the thorn with dilated eyes’ this shows that hooker was thinking and realising what evens had made him do. ‘his back was bending and straightening spasmodically’ this gives an impression of the kind of pain he was in.

H G wells shows the Chinese man , chang-hi (a villain), as a cocky, evil man. at the end of the scene , chang-hi grins nastily as if to say ‘i don’t care if you kill me’ making it seem that he know that his treasure is perfectly safe.

In the end I believe hooker because they killed a man so they could steal his map so they could find his buried treasure and then steal that. I think it was fair that they died after what they did.

In the black cottage suspense comes from the scenes where Jerry and Shifty are looking for a new entrance to the cottage. The reason there is so much suspense is because it is showe from Bessie’s point of view who is inside and doesn’t know what the house breakers are doing. The story goes on describing how bessie feels and what she thinks is happening and the readers mind is left to make up their own mind about what the two crooks are doing.

In that same scene there is also a lot of tension. It describes how bessie is in ‘suspense’ and ‘excited’ at the same time. She is also ‘dreadfully suspicious’ this shows she is scared and fearing the worst. She begins to think of all the possible ways of entering the cottage silently, this is when she starts being afraid of whats inside the cottage as well as what is outside.

The victorian reader would feel very sorry for the young trapped woman which would make them feel more hatred toward dick and jerry. When Bessie is being worried about criminals finding their way into the cottage the room is described in detail and how things are making her feel nervous. ‘ the clock annoyed me’ , ‘the crackling fire startled me’. this shows a picture of the situation she is in and increases the sense of fear. The last sentence shows how desperate bessie is , ‘oh what sum of money I would have given, only to know what they were doing in that interlude of silence!’. The way this is written explains how frightened she was feeling.

Wilkie Collins shows Bessie as a young innocent girl then first he makes it clear that bessie is a young inocent sweet girl. This makes the readers feel sorry for her making Jerry and Dick look like villains.

I think this story is the best of the three. I think all the characters got what they deserved.

In Sykes and Nancy there is a lot of suspense when Nancy is being followed by Noah, who is a spy. At that moment you don’t know what Nancy has done wrong but you think Fagin was right not to trust her. Noah is seen as a good person and you fear for his safety.

In the scene where Sykes is told what Nancy has done, Dickens creates a lot of tension by making Noah and Fagin draw the story out and how Sykes gets nasty.

In that scene Fagin keeps asking noah what happened on the night he followed nancy to get the whole story out of him, this makes his story very difficult to follow.

The reader feels very sorry for Nancy as she’s been misunderstood by Bill but also she went behind her friends backs which the Victorians would not have liked. Readers swap sides with Sykes and nancy as it is set out in bits and pieces of speech which makes each point Noah makes what he is saying seem more important.

Dickens sets Sykes as the main villain. A nasty man who breaks into houses The idea of Sykes killing such a nice girl makes readers feelings of anger towards him worse.

In all three stories suspense has been created by making the person reading it guessing what will happen next.

In these stories the authers have made clear judgements about about the charactors they are writing about. You have been made to feel sorry for bessie in the Black Bottage then happy because she gets away and gets married. In the Treasure in the Forest you feel Hooker and Evans gets what they deserve. In Sykes and Nancy you feel sorry for Nancy when she dies because just before she dies she is seen as a good and religious person. You think Sykes gets what he deserved but eventually he gets killed by memories.

The stories today are old fashioned in the way they are written and they things the characters say but it shows a strong sense of good and evil to keep you interested.