The Whole Town's Sleeping and Terribly Strange Bed

The Whole Town's Sleeping and Terribly Strange Bed

In this essay I will be comparing two (2) short stories 'The Whole

Town's sleeping' by Ray Bradbury (1950) and 'A Terribly Strange Bed'

by Wilkie Collins (1856). Both stories are about fear and they make us

feel fear or are supposed to; they make the reader scared or

frightened. Both stories have the same purpose, which is so scare the

reader. I am going to compare the way Ray Bradbury and Wilkie Collins

create tension, suspense, mood and tone.

In the first few lines of 'The Whole Town's Sleeping', the author

describes the setting for the story, "the little town was deep far

away from everything, kept to itself by a river and a forest and a

ravine", but before that he mentions that it is nighttime. Both

stories are set at nighttime. This is because if it were set in the

daytime it simply wouldn't be scary. The whole town wouldn't be

sleeping and the narrator wouldn't need a terribly strange bed to

sleep in. Collins has a different approach for the beginning of 'A

Terribly Strange Bed', he describes the characters and what they were

doing, which gives a different impression of the story, it doesn't

seem like a scary story at first, because there's no obvious signs

like in 'The Whole Town's Sleeping'.

Ray Bradbury uses recreation to create interest to the story "In the

downtown drugstore, fans whispered in the high ceiling air" He also

use metaphors and similes such as "There were two moons: a clock moon

with four faces" while 'A Terribly Strange Bed' doesn't have any

recreation, metaphors or similes in its opening but still manages to

maintain interest.

Mood and tone are very important in both stories. Using certain

adjectives, like "warm summer n...

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...appens next. In Collins' story, you

are told what happens next, and you finish the story quite pleased,

like the narrator would be, instead of still scared like you are in

the other story.

Both stories are similar and different; the authors use different

methods to make the reader scared. The stories have some similarities

and others have differences. Ray Bradbury describes the scenery

whereas Wilkie Collins describes the characters. Setting seems to be

more important in 'The Whole Town's Sleeping' than it is in Collins'

story and tension and suspense is used very differently in the both

stories, Bradbury uses a sharp shock and then a steady buildup, then a

false relief before a final cliffhanger and Collins uses a strange

buildup to what seems like somewhat of an anti-climax and then re

establishes the tension, for a gentle relief and a settled ending.