Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Landlady

Short stories have influenced our society and opinions just as much and as powerfully as novels have. They have made us think, brought issues to our attention that we have may never have even considered and made us ponder deep, philosophical questions. Often, they are beautifully crafted to make us think these things. Often, that is a result of three main literary techniques. Suspense, Foreshadowing, Mood, and Tone. Suspense is what keeps the reader on edge and what makes the keep reading, while foreshadowing is often not recognized until the final plot twist at the end when all of the subtle hints in the story click together.The mood is the emotions and feelings brought upon the readers due to the story, while tone is the emotional atmosphere

the author intended their words to have. The four literary techniques helped to contribute to the wonderfully intense plot and subplot of three of the most celebrated short stories of all times, “The Landlady” By Roald Dahl, “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” By Ambrose Bierce, and “The Ransom of Red Chief” By O. Henry.
In the short story, “The Landlady”, suspense and foreshadowing play a large role in the plot, the mood, and the tone.

They work together, hand in hand, each contributing to each other. The foreshadowing causes there to be rising suspense and in the suspense there is more foreshadowing and so on and so forth. Suspense is the main factor in adding to the overall mood of the story. There is much suspense in “The Landlady” because from the beginning you can tell something is off. From Billy Weaver’s reactions to the Landlady’s behavior you know something is wrong. Except you cannot tell what is wrong and what is going to happen. This gives an air of excitement as well as dread because you know something is going to happen to Billy Weaver at the end, but what is it? This quote is an especially well written example of suspense and foreshadowing bringing an intense mood to the story, “‘I suppose he left fairly recently,’ Billy said. He was still puzzling his head about the two names. He was positive now that he had seen them in the newspapers – in the headlines. ‘Left?’ she said, arching her brows. ‘But my dear boy, he never left. He’s still here.’” (Dahl 4) Dahl was clearly going for a dark tone in the book, meant to scare and chill the readers. This is present in the quote stated before, the foreshadowing and hidden references to something gruesome in the past and something horrible to

come.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, is another wonderfully written story, chock full of suspense, foreshadowing and emotion. Throughout the story, there are subtle foreshadowing references, contributing to the the rising suspense as the story gets more and more intense. This story has a stoic and tense mood, with lots twists and turns that cause different emotions in the readers, from suspense to anticipation to dread. Bierce wrote this story with enough emotion in it, to where you truly believe that this story has a happy ending. Until the final suspense filled part reveals that he has been misleading you the whole time. Because Bierce used the suspense in the earlier parts, contributing to his intense and exciting tone, the reader had no idea that what they thought was real, was only a hallucination. “ At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity. Ah, how beautiful she is! He springs forward with extended arms. As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon--then all is darkness and silence!
Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.” (Bierce 3) This quote is a perfect example of suspense creating a mood. It seems right at the end that all is well and that nothing can go wrong, so the readers feel happy. When suddenly the entire mood of the story changes to horror and dread as the reader realises that all of the subtle foreshadowings in the story, such as “superhuman strength” and miraculously being able to dodge bullets, were all just a condemned man's final dream.
O. Henry, who wrote “The Ransom of Red Chief”, chose a rather different route regarding the emotions evoked by his story. His short story has a mood of irony and humor, rather than dark and chilling. The way Henry uses dramatic, situational and verbal irony all throughout the story really make the book humorous and funny. The author has a light tone, intending for the story to be uplifting and laugh evoking. Especially in the beginning, when it seems to good to be true that the kidnappers could just walk away with the kid. The readers could tell from the foreshadowing that clearly, this red haired devil child was going to be a mischief making demon. The readers now knowing that this kid was going to make fools out of these men, could wait in suspense until one of them finally snapped and send the naughty child back home, triumphant. “'Red Chief,' says I to the kid, 'would you like to go home?'
'Aw, what for?' says he. 'I don't have any fun at home. I hate to go to school. I like to camp out. You won't take me back home again, Snake-eye, will you?'
'Not right away,' says I. 'We'll stay here in the cave a while.'
'All right!' says he. 'That'll be fine. I never had such fun in all my life.'” (Henry 1) This excerpt from the story shows how foreshadowing is leaving the readers amused. knowing all the trouble this boy is going to cause.
As portrayed in the stories, suspense and foreshadowing play major roles in the mood and tone of the story. They cause for there to be intense and exciting mood that keeps the readers in the edge of their seat, while the author’s tone is stoic and stony, not revealing a thing until the end. Or they opt to use the foreshadowing and suspense to let the reader know what is coming so they are amused and wanting to know what is going to happen next that will make them laugh. So, overall, these literary techniques are not only crucial in beautifully crafted stories like these, they are vital in portraying and evoking the emotions the story was intended to do.