Diction In The Landlady

In Roald Dahl’s short story “The Landlady” and in Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Tale Tell Heart” suspense is depicted by diction and the development of characters. In “The Tale Tell Heart” the narrator is a mad man who is obsessed with an old man’s eye. He went into his room several nights at midnight and when the eye was finally open he took his chance and killed the man. Eventually he becomes paranoid at the sound of the beating heart and he confesses his crime. In “The Landlady,” the main character, Billy Weaver, stops at a bed in breakfast and he meets an old lady who comes across as sweet and sympathetic. It turns out that you can’t judge a book by its cover because the old lady isn’t what she seems to be.… Therefore, in Edgar Allen Poe's

short story "The Tell Tale Heart" and in Roald Dahl's story "The Landlady”, suspense is depicted by diction and the development of characters.
Suspense is illustrated in Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Tell Tale Heart” by development of characters and by diction. The way the narrator’s character is developed is by his confidence that eventually turns into guilt and paranoia. “I love the old man” he states in the beginning of the story, but eventually he overcomes the love for the old man because of his insane obsession with his vulture eye. He is super confident with his plans to kill him, but that changes. Just when he is ready to end the man’s life, his heartbeat gets faster and louder, and he is now worried the sound would be heard by a neighbor. As a result of this, the heartbeat influences him later on in the story as well. Eventually he murders the old man and the police show up. The narrator then calms himself because he knows that he was clever enough with hiding the body, still confident, and he knows he will never get caught. Eventually after impressing the police with his comforting hospitality skills, the feeling of guilt has arrived. However, even though the man is dead he thinks he can still hear the heart beating underneath the floor and he becomes paranoid at the sound and confesses his crime. In the beginning of the short story he is so secure, and even after he kills him he is still just as secure and confident, but when the guilt takes over it changes him and that’s when suspense is created. Diction is also used to create suspense in “The Tale Tell Heart”. The author creates suspense with diction by using repetition. In the story during important parts repetition will be featured, such as “I moved it slowly--very, very slowly… And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously--oh, so cautiously—cautiously”. Repetition creates suspense because it lets the reader feel the anxiety and the obsession the narrator was feeling. By him constantly repeating the same thing, it gives the reader a sense of how cautious he actually is because he is out of his own control. The slowing down of the action gives the reader a feeling of confusion and emptiness which signals something big is about to happen. It’s the calm before the storm. The energy that is being slowed down when the narrator uses repetition creates curiosity and immediately the reader knows the suspense will lead to an action, and the confidence that is taken over by guilt and paranoia also creates suspense.
In “The Landlady” the old woman creates suspense by the development of her character and by diction.

In the beginning of the story the main character Billy enters the Bed and Breakfast and the lady sits down and greets him very kindly. She puts on a facade and comes across super sweet. However, she isn't so sweet. Throughout the story she drops some hints on what she is planning on doing to Billy and it can also be inferred by the reader. She’s planning on murdering him! She has her dead pets in her bed and breakfast with her, which Billy points out and she tells him that they’re dead and she stuffs them. “I stuff all my little pets when they pass away,” she tells Billy. That creates suspense because it gets the reader thinking… if she does this to her little pets then what is she going to do to Billy? Billy’s character’s development also creates suspense. Throughout the story Billy starts to get suspicious with the old lady and he is starting to realize how creepy she is He starts questioning her and asks her questions like “Gregory Temple. Excuse my asking, but haven’t there been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?” He is also figuring out what happened to Mr. Mulholland and Temple. “…He was positive now that he had seen them in the newspapers—in the headlines”. This quote illustrates the fact that Billy Weaver is starting to come to his senses and become suspicious. The old lady also uses diction to create suspense in the story. She says things to him like “If I ever forgot what you were called…” therefore creating suspense because she is using past tense. Past tense can confirm what the ready was inferring to happen after the story ends. The reader feels suspense throughout the majority of the story because just from the beginning the reader can infer something is not right and the character’s development and diction confirms

this.
Therefore, in Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Tell Tale Heart" and in Roald Dahl's story "The Landlady”, suspense is depicted by diction and the development of characters. In “The Tale Tell Heart” the narrators character changes from being completely secure and confident with his plan to feeling guilty and he becomes paranoid. Diction also create suspense by Edgar Allen Poe using repetition because it lets the reader feel the anxiety and obsession that the narrator is feeling at those moments. In “The Landlady” diction and the development of characters is used to create suspense. Billy Weaver’s character is developed by his feelings of suspicion. The old lady bat the bed and breakfast seems sweet, but her character develops into someone that Billy would not expect. Billy’s character becomes suspicious and he starts to come to his senses and realize what’s actually happening. In “The Landlady” diction is also used to create suspense.