Scary Story Response Essay Roald Dahl presents creepy moments in his story creepy things or have strange details that made you question if its normal or not. He will make the statement creepy in your head. He has someone talk about a normal subject, but in context its weird. For example in the story the “landlady” she says “ i like to stuff all my little pets” If at first you hear her say it I mean shes just talking about taxidermy but the hidden message is that she is going to stuff her costomers and thats what makes it weird because taxidermy isnt always a weird thing but in context it was madeout to sound scary Roald dahl picks out small details in the stories to contribute to the overall scary theme. In the story “ lamb to the slaughter”
he has the wife kill her husband with a frozen leg of lamb which is a very unusual object to kill someone with and another small detail in that story was how their relationship seemed happy but they never really talked to eachother and he drank a lot so you know that the underlying truth was that the relationship was not so healthy and you had to pay attention to catch on to that. He makes calm situations turn bad fast. For example how the landlady was very nice and her house was all made for him and it was a good price but then the things sher would say and do were weird and she out of no where said that she likes to stuff her pets. Also how the wife was very happy and all excited for her husband to come home and she wanted to cater to him at all times and she seemed like she loved him but them she bashed him over the head killing him while cooking dinner and for me thats not what I expected to happen so the way Roald dahl made the story escilate so fast like that made it creepy for me. So in conclusion Roald Dahl makes things seem happy and all good but then makes them creppy, he picks normal subjects with creepy undertones and he picks creepy details to put in his stories to make them scary stories.
How W.W. Jacobs, H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens Create Suspense in their Gothic Horror Stories
In the first two lines, an aural image is employed to indicate a never-ending anger in the girl's father. Dawe uses onomatopoeia to create a disturbing and upsetting description of his enraged "buzz-saw whine." An annoying, upsetting sound, it gives the impression of lasting ceaselessly. His anger "rose /murderously in his throat." Because "murderously" begins on a new line, a greater emphasis is placed on it and its evil and destructive connotations. An image of a growling lion stalking its prey is evoked in the reader, as it threateningly snarls from its throat. The girl is terrified as it preys on her persistently "throughout the night." Furthermore, because there is no punctuation, these few lines are without a rest, and when reading out aloud, they cause breathlessness. This suggests that the father's "righteous" fury is ceaseless and suffocating the girl.
The house is dark and eerily quiet. This shows how not only tone but description of the setting is used to create suspense in that sentence. In the “Landlady,” by Roald Dahl introduction to Bill Waver, who is intrigued by this nice place called the “Bed and Breakfast”, and never got to leave. In the “The Monkey’s Paw,” W.W Jacob introduction is Herbert and Mr. White who receive a monkey paw that has three wishes but something went bad on the second wish. Therefore, suspense is depicted in both Roald Dahl's short story, "The Landlady" and W.W Jacob short story, "The Monkey's Paw" through the use of tone and description of the setting.
Most authors use 4 utilities to make a story entertaining. They use the setting, mood, tone, and the archetypes to keep the author entertained. Cinderella by Jacob and WilHelm Grimm and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Marsha Hatfield were both scary because they showed how the tone and mood affected the story, themselves, and the readers at the same time. The horror genre is spooky and unlike other genres, because they are written to scare audiences. In order to do that authors and directors have to change settings, establish tones and moods, and use archetypes that are darker than all other genres. Multiple authors make similar decisions to create archetypes, setting, mood, and tones that uphold the horror genre.
Transforming a story through the use of sensory details enriches the content and creates a realm in which the plot line corresponds with the visual, auditory, and olfactory elements from the text. Both Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Gogol make use of language that is richly descriptive of the story’s surroundings. This type of language is used to describe characters, landscapes, as well as structures and places. As a result of this, another level of complexity is added to the plot and the author has the ability to reveal certain aspects of the plot. An example of this is found in The Knocking when Turgenev describes a part of the rising in action, where the clatter of the cart is synonymous with the uncertainty of the situation and fear that they
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.
Perhaps the most striking details of the setting to evoke horror are the author's description of sounds.
Due to King’s strange and frightening style of writing, the reader is left on the edge since they don't know what to expect when reading the literature of this unusual character. For example, in the text of, “Strawberry Spring”, the story begins in a normal and mellow tone until suddenly a fog hits. The next day the newspapers were drowned with the news that a woman, “had been murdered by her boyfriend”(King, “Strawberry Spring” 2). Accordingly, these actions are very frightening not only because they were unsuspected, but because they were performed by one lover to another. Also, the result of this horrifying incident is what we all dread, and that is death. As a result, this traumatising incident is “daring our nightmares”(King, “Why We Crave Horror, 1). Moreover, this story by King abides by his claim that we all view horror as a way to face our fears, and to show that we are not
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.
In the first paragraph, Stephen King begins the story with the main character as an old man describing the horrific event that occurred to him at the age of nine. With this it shows that even at his old age, this horrific event that occurred to him many years ago, it still haunts him. As the story continues, he mentions that he has a book marked “Diary.” Using that shows that he must write
Dahl, Roald. "Lamb to the Slaughter." Lamb to the Slaughter and Other Stories. London: Penguin, 1995. N. pag. Print.
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.
"“The 3 Types of Terror: The Gross-out: The Sight of a Severed Head Tumbling down a Flight of Stairs, It's When the Lights Go out and Something Green and Slimy Splatters against Your Arm. The Horror: The Unnatural, Spiders the Size of Bears, the Dead Waking up and Walking Around, It's When the Lights Go out and Something with Claws Grabs You by the Arm. And the Last and Worse One: Terror, When You Come Home and Notice Everything You Own Had Been Taken Away and Replaced by an Exact Substitute. It's When the Lights Go out and You Feel Something behind You, You Hear It, You Feel Its Breath against Your Ear, but When You Turn Around, There's Nothing There...”." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
Foreshadowing allows authors to orchestrate their work such that the reader is compelled to read on. The effective use of foreshadowing makes the reader continue not only for pleasure, but also to further investigate the unknown. Angela Carter uses multiple literary devices in “The Bloody Chamber” to foreshadow the narrator’s grim future with the husband. She achieves this through her effective use of imagery, allusion, and symbolism.
Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales on 13 September 1916 as the only son of a second marriage. His parents were Norwegian. The young Roald Dahl really loved stories and books. His mother would tell him stories about mythical Norwegian creatures which grow his interest in short stories. Roald really admired his mother’s ability to tell stories. “She was a great teller of tales,” Roald said, “Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten.” (Penguin Group). At the age of eight, he tied his secret diary to the top branch of a tall tree. He would climb up the tree and write his diary entries there. His father was also a writer; he would write observations about the World War 1 and put them into his diary. His father kept on writing in his diary for 5 years (1914-18). His unhappy years at school seemingly became an inspiration to his writings. He despised his teacher who hated small boys, named Miss Trunchbull, which later became one of the characters in his book, titled Matilda. He used to write letters to his mother and he began to ...