The author successfully presents scary or creepy moments in his writing through the setting of the story, the characters he uses, and the background of the characters he uses. This details allow the author to create his suspense or eerie feeling that he uses to scare readers. One of the things he uses is the setting. In the setting he makes it so that the characters are not able to escape a situation that is happening to them. And in the Landlady the author puts Billy in a situation where he can’t escape from the Landlady's house. An example of this is in the Landlady where it said “ his eye was caught and held by the most peculiar manner by the small notice that was there. BED AND BREAKFAST, it said. BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST . Each word was like a large black eye staring at him through the glass, holding him, compelling him, forcing him to stay where he was and not to walk away from that house.” This is showing that the setting was basically forcing him to go to this house instead of him just going away to the place called The Bell and Dragon. …show more content…
Another thing that allows the author to present the scary story is the characters he chooses.
Like in the Landlady the author choose a vulnerable 17 year old man to go into the house of the Landlady, but if he would have chosen a wiser character that character may have been able to escape and get away before it was too late. An example of this is where the text says “ Billy was seventeen years old,” and then it goes on to say that he tried to walk briskly because “ Briskness he had decided, was a common characteristic of all successful businessmen.” I believe this shows he’s vulnerable because he tries to look like he’s a very successful businessman but in reality he is not a big shot at all so he tries to be someone he’s not. And the Landlady takes advantage of these vulnerable traits and is able to murder
him. Lastly the author also uses the background of the characters to create the creepy feeling in the stories he writes. And we see this in The Lamb to the Slaughter where the policeman’s wife shows that he loves him a lot but the policeman who seems to abuse her or not care about how much she does for him doesn’t care and instead says that he is leaving her. In the text it says “I think it’s a shame, that when someone’s been a policeman as long as you have, he still has to walk around all day long.” This shows that she cares about him a lot. Then he says “ This is going to be a shock to you, I’m afraid,” he said “ But I’ve thought about it a good deal and I’ve decided that the only thing to do is to tell you immediately.” This is where he says he’s leaving her. And the way he says it, I feel as though he came home drunk. Then she walked up behind him and hit him on the head with the lamb's leg she was going to cook for him which killed him. In this article the author was successfully able to present these creepy and or scary events through the things I just listed. Including how he uses the setting, the characters he chooses, and the background of the characters. This was what allowed him to create the great writing that he was able to present me and other readers with.
First, a key method used to create suspense is the usage of the setting. When a character is in an unwelcoming or uninviting location, uneasy or tense feelings can be formed. When there is a sense of not knowing what is around the corner or lurking in the shadows, suspense is created. Also, ominous weather, such as threatening thunderstorms, can lead the reader to anticipate an unfortunate event occurring. An example of an uncomfortable setting is the secret passageway, which is dark, dirty, and most often only occupied by a single individual. Under these conditions many people become anxious, and because of these uneasy feelings that one may encounter, when a character is subjected to these conditions, the reader may become apprehensive, which leads to the formation of suspense. When Dan Needham shuts John Wheelwright in the secret passageway while both are in a drunken stupor, a high level of suspense is created. The description of the secret passageway adds to the suspense of the scene, "The passageway was dark; yet I could discern the scurrying of spiders.
Everyone at one point has been captivated and intrigued by the plot of a movie or a book. This captivation is generated by the one tool that authors and directors love the most, suspense. Authors want their audience and readers of their writing to be enthralled by creating tension and thrill in their plot. The usage of style, characterization, point of view, and foreshadowing allows authors and directors to create suspense in their work. Suspense is a very difficult approach to master but with the correct tools it can be as simple as a walk through the park.
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally
He later allows the reader to visualise his town through a description of his street. "Each deadbeat no-hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house in Longlands Road, Nowheresville." This repetition of colloquial negative adjectives expresses Billy's depressing feelings about his home. Billy's undesirable view of his town along with other factors such as being abused by his father aid his decision to leave and discover what else life has to offer. Because of his adverse position Billy decides to leave his town to seek a better life. To do this he becomes a homeless runaway which is his first transition in the
As Mccarthy once said “The suspense of a novel is not only in the reader but in the novelist, who is intensely curious about what will happen to the hero. (Mary McCarthy)” In this quote, McCarthy means the main characters in the story are suspenseful to draw the reader to be anxious. Above all, the author incorporates the use of literary terms in his or her’s story to create the feeling of suspense. To be specific, in the story “The Hitchhiker” by Lucille Fletcher, the author includes the elements foreshadowing and supernatural to leave the reader anticipated and anxious what is going on in the story. Also, in “The Monkey's Paw” by W.W Jacobs, the author develops suspense by adding literary devices such as situational irony and cliffhanger
Although The Landlady and The Inn of Lost Time are both different mystery stories with different plots, they still have some similarities. The Landlady is about the young inexperienced Billy Weaver staying at a very strange boarding house owned by a very mysterious landlady. The Inn of Lost Time is about Zenta the bodyguard and Tokubei the merchant staying at an inn and waking up to find that fifty years had passed. These two stories show similarities in their character’s inexperience, trickery, and strange hosts. One of the first similarities that these two stories show are their main character’s inexperience.
The author uses short, simple sentences that manage to say a lot in a few words. The author also uses imagery. He also puts in his book references to historical events. These references increase the understanding and appreciation of Billy's story by suggesting historical and literary parallels to the personal events in his life. The novel does not have smooth transitions from one event to the next.
When writing a story that is meant to scare the reader, authors use a variety of different literary elements to intensify fear. This is apparent in the stories “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “beware: do not read this poem,” and “House Taken Over”. It is shown through transformation in the character, setting, and sometimes even the story or poem itself, adding to the scariness that the reader feels when reading it. While there are some examples of transformation not being scary or not playing a role in stories meant to scare us, transformation plays a crucial role in making the reader of these stories scared.
Through the use of suspense, authors can truly draw the reader into the story. Suspense in the case of gives the reader the sense of apprehension about was is going to happen next and anticipation. Two stories where suspense is depicted is Roald Dahl’s short story, “The Landlady” and Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Tell Tale Heart”. Roald Dahl’s short story, “The Landlady,” is about a young man, Billy Weaver who wants to find somewhere to stay for a night for cheap, since he is traveling for business. However, when he comes across a cheap bed and breakfast, the Landlady there, ends up acting very strange and Billy only uncovers some of her secrets, before it is too late for him to escape. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Tell Tale Heart,” is about someone, the narrator, who finds an old man’s eye immensely disturbing. After of seven nights of attempting murderer, on the eighth night, not only does the
The atmosphere of each novel plays a significant role in setting the scene for the ensuing horror to evolve. The atmosphere in each novel is different; the horror in each novel is different
b. Thesis Statement: Stephen King uses many different elements in order to scare his readers. The elements include supernatural elements, real life scenarios, and fear of the unknown.
The blending of terror and romance in Gothic Literature was used in a unique combination to attract and entice the reader into the story. The terror in the literature helps the reader explore their imagination and form their own picture setting of what is happening. Using romance in the story also keeps the reader's attention because of the unknown and the curiosity of what happens next. The Gothic writing became popular after the Romantic period because readers were still a...
It is clear that the author, Roald Dahl, utilizes a variety of literary devices in order to create an element of suspense in the text, “The Landlady.” An example of this would be Dahl’s use of foreshadowing in the text. The Landlady states in the text, “But my dear boy, he never left. He’s still here. Mr. Temple is also here. They’re on the fourth floor, both of them together” (Dahl 5). It is evident how this would contribute to the component of suspense for the reader. The use of foreshadowing throughout “The Landlady” is meant to hint towards Billy’s impending doom, and thus would compel readers to anticipate Billy’s fate, creating suspense. Foreshadowing contributes a great deal to the dark humor/mysterious aspect of Dahl’s style of writing.
For a very long time, authors have been writing bone chilling stories, most of which share similarities. Some of these similarities include crime, mystery, obsession, suspense and a “mad man” character. According to Merriam Webster, the full definition of the noun “horror” is “a very strong feeling of fear, dread, and shock”. An example of story that possesses such a characteristic is “The Tell Tale Heart” written by the father of horror himself, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe resided in Boston and Baltimore during the spooky 1800s and his work reveals the mood of the era. He lived a life of depression and death, which in effect, is reflected through most all of his work.
Throughout most of the story, vivid word choice is used to describe the setting of the story. Particularly during both the exposition and resolution of the short story. During the exposition, the author James Joyce describes the setting of North Richmond Street, the location of the boys house. He begins to explain the appearance of the house by saying, “[...] we ran through the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from ash pits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness,” (Joyce 1). By describing the setting the short story already starts off by starting to reveal how the boy feels about his surroundings. Through somber word choice and the detailed explanation of how his neighbor hood where he roamed looked, it is clear that the attitude of the boy is not cheerful. Much later, during the resolution of the novel, the unnamed boy has already arrived at the bazaar, however, it's almost closed. He is asked to purchase something and he replies “no” after observing her behavior toward him. The boy notices, “The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two young men. They began to talk of one of the same subject. Once