ABSTRACT
In addition to such narrative suspense, effects of suspense can be produced on a more local and less melodramatic scale by aspects of syntax and versification, by the very language of the text. James, in fact, is famous for a peculiarly suspenseful sentence structure which complements the intensity of narrative suspense in stories such as The Turn of the Screw. The story opens in the form of a ‘frame narrative’: a group of people get together to tell stories, one of which is that of the governess. Here is the opening sentence of the story:
Not only is this sentence about suspense – the suspense of being ‘held’ by a story, the holding of breath and the withholding of comments – but it is also syntactically structured by suspense. The final word, ‘child’, is the kernel of the sentence, its centre, but the word is withheld until the end. Before that, the sentence develops through multiple subclauses and syntactical digressions. Henry James’s prose, then, the syntax of his sentences, is highly suspenseful.
