Fear and Tension in The Landlady and A Terribly Strange Bed

Fear and Tension in The Landlady and A Terribly Strange Bed

The two short stories 'The Landlady' and 'A Terribly Strange Bed'

create fear and tension in two very separate ways. For example, A

Terribly Strange Bed is a detective story where a man wins money at a

gambling house, spends the night somewhere and when he lies in bed the

canopy lowers trying to suffocate him. But he gets away and wants to

find out why the people have made up such a machine when they could

just smother him themselves and throw him in the river with no

complications. Whereas The Landlady is more of a horror story because

this lady seems perfectly normal and then as more evidence builds

Billy Weaver then realises that the parrot, Daschund and possible

recent guests have been murdered and stuffed by this friendly

landlady.

There are also similarities between the two stories 'The Landlady' and

'A Terribly Strange Bed' because they are both about male narrators

staying away from home. Both stories have conclusions built up to that

both main characters in the stories could possibly be murdered and

stuffed or thrown in the river. Also both narrators in the two stories

got to the guesthouse or gambling house because it is cheap and they

wish to try something new. Both main characters in the stories should

be suspicious of what is happening because Billy Weaver is staying at

a bed and Breakfast at such a good price and seems to be the only

guest there. The character in A Terribly Strange Bed should be wary

because of the amount of money he has to look after from winning at

the game 'Rouge et Noir'. In the Landlady the things that should be

inanimate are now animate for example the bed lowers which creates

tension to the short story.

In The Landlady Billy has every right to be suspicious because who

wouldn't be with The Landlady saying how selective she is with her

guests as he is only her third, because she has also had the guests Mr

Temple and Mr Mulholland.

Another piece of evidence that should create tension to Billy Weaver

in The Landlady is that she said 'there wasn't a blemish on Mr

Temple's body' and how would she know? In my opinion this is an

unusual and a scary thing to say, as it doesn't seem to make sense and

sounds like she has had a relationship with Mr Temple. She also says

to Billy a lot, how perfect his teeth are and how good looking she

found him to be.

As the plot thickens more evidence suggests that she is in fact a