Experienced Intensity throughCharacter Description in Stephen King’s Cell

Abstract: This essay investigates experienced intensity through character description and development in Stephen King’s Cell. The thesis of the essay is that a deliberately produced narrative indeterminacy, used mainly on the level of character descriptions, is what produces intensity by holding the readers of Cell in suspense, i.e., in a state of uncertainty. While King might stretch the fundamentals of the classic horror genre, he does not abandon them, experimenting with a genre that makes the readers wonder what to expect next, thereby creating suspenseful questions. Since the focus of the essay is the readers’ reactions on character descriptions, I apply reader response theory and the works of Norman Holland, David Bleich and Yvonne Leffler. The result of the investigation shows that narrative techniques, such as placing brief descriptions of characters in the course of events in the narrative together with altered norms and normality allow the readers to experience heightened emotions and feelings. King alters norms and normality, and presents character descriptions in a fashion that is unexpected; thus the readers do not know exactly how to relate to these character descriptions.