W.f. Harvey "August Heat": Analysis

Suspense is commonly used by writers in horror and mystery stories as a way to keep the reader glued to the book. One story that conveys this is August Heat by W.F. Harvey that keeps the reader mesmerized by the continuous feeling of suspense. The story revolves around a man named named James Clarence who appears to have a very coincidental day as he finds a man who looks exactly as the drawing he made and a gravestone made for him. Throughout the story, W.F. Harvey creates suspense using gothic literature such as the mysterious setting of a hot day in August, using the uncanny to have the reader question the story, and foreshadows that cause the reader to keep going.

The uncanny plays a big role during the story. James Clarence decided one day to sketch out a perfect image that is constantly shows in his head of a man ready to be sentenced to prison. He walks into a monumental mason’s workplace and feels a sudden silence and deja vu that appears as he notices that “it was the man [he] had been drawing”(63). The fact that the man greeted him “smiling, as if [they] were old friends” causes the reader to feel the suspense of the unusual meeting (67-68). The familiarity between the two characters is a mystery and even as they try to come up with ways they could’ve met each other, it still feels unusual for the main character. The suspense that the uncanny creates has a very unusual presence within the story.

Throughout the story, mystery is often used to create suspense as well. The setting itself is a mystery as the the main character is mysteriously drawing a image that came from his head. He describes the sketch as “the best thing [he] had done” and the fact that he meets up the same exact person he had drawn and the gravestone that portrays him is a mystery as well (1-24). The drawing creates a mysterious atmosphere because the reader questions why the man sketched a drawing of a man being sentenced to prison. This creates suspense because when he later meets the man, the reader knows what his true intentions are and wonder how he would do it.

W.F. Harvey constantly uses foreshadowing to successfully create the suspense in the story through the drawing and gravestone. Because of that first sketch the James drew, when he meets the man, the reader can foreshadow that the man is a criminal and that the main character should be careful. James describes the man in the drawing to “the feeling that his expression conveyed was not so much one of horror as of utter, absolute collapse (31-32).” This descriptions leaves the reader wondering whether the man he meets is a criminal and that he will eventually get him. The suspense is then clarified when gravestone is described to have an inscription that says “Sacred to the Memory of James Clarence Withencroft” which obviously conveys the fact that he will die that day (100-110). Foolishly, the James accepts the offer of staying at the man’s house for the day which leads to his death on the hot day of August.

The story of August Heat by W.F. Harvey creates suspense through mystery, foreshadowing, and uncanny feeling throughout the story experienced from the man in the drawing, the monumental mason, and the gravestone that convey his upcoming death. The use of this suspense keeps the reader reading until the end and in awe of the supernatural occurring on that unusual day.