Tension and Drama is created in this extract using various methods, form body language to the entire situation. To begin, the average sentence length of this has great effect on the tension and drama created in this passage. For example 'Mr. Tate uncrossed his legs and leaned forward.' This sentence is long and descriptive, this gives a relaxed and controlled image of the situation, whereas if the sentence had been short and sharp the pace of the extract would be much quicker, and after a few of this type of sentence the reader would begin to feel that the...
example 'God damn it, I'm not thinking of Jem!' This is extreme emotion because Heck-Tate is shouting at Jem, the only time somebody shouts in the book, because Atticus thinks that Jem killed Bob Ewell, when it is obvious to the reader that this is complete fallacy. It is tense because of the way that Heck-Tate is desperately trying to explain to Atticus that Jem is innocent and that Boo killed Bob, even though he can't say this.

My conclusion to this is that it is a combination of these factors, which create tension and drama in this passage.