Compare The Ostler and The Darkness Out There In this essay I will compare two stories - The Ostler, written in the 19th century by a man called Wilkie Coliins, and The Darkness Out There, by Penelope Lively, written in the 20th century. They are both horror stories, a genre which has been popular throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. This is perhaps because, since we are no longer scared on a daily basis, as would have been the case in medieval times, we need to find an artificial way of creating the thrill. I will look at the similarities and differences between the way each story is structured, the build up of tension, the settings and the characters. First I will summarise each story and look at their 19th and 20th century features. The Ostler is about an unlucky, not very bright man who has a very vivid dream on his birthday that a woman is trying to kill him. Years later, also on his birthday, he meets this woman again and gets engaged to her before he realises who she is. By the time his mother realises, it is to late and he feels he has to marry her. She turns out to be an alcoholic and one day, after she is particularly cruel to him, Isaac hits her. She runs away, and comes back seven days later, on the night of his birthday, to try and attack him, in exactly the same way as the dream-woman did. He manages to stop her and she runs away again, this time never to be seen again, but Isaac continues to be terrified that she will return and kill him, especially on his birthday. The Darkness Out There is about two teenagers who are part of a group which helps out old people with things like cleaning and gardening. They go to help one old lady and she tells them a how, in the war, she l... ... middle of paper ... ...an people's mind's. The stories are similar in that nothing too horrific actually happens in either of them. They are more about the character's fears. Personally, I liked The Ostler less than The Darkness Out There, as it deals with a more supernatural horror which only affects the character in the story, and so did not have such an impact on me. I liked The Darkness Out There as it makes you think, and it applies to everyone, which makes it truly chilling. At the end Sandra is changed forever. The wood is emptied of the fictional witches, wolves, tigers and prowling blokes, but this does not make her feel better. The old fears were in a way comforting - "It was cosy to think of Packer's End, where you weren't", but the new fear cannot be shut out or escaped from because it is a part of her, a part of every human that is capable of unspeakable horror.
beat back the soldiers from his wife, she is captured as they flee in separate directions. The
Bingley, he realises he has not got much of a chance with her, so then
...th stories you can see that the supernatural events and people played a big role in helping show the characters courage and desire to assist their people.
At this point, the readers create their own movie in a way. They will determine important aspects of how the character speaks, looks like, and reacts. Whereas, in the movie, the reader has no choice but to follow the plot laid out in front of them. No longer can they picture the characters in their own way or come up with their different portrayals. The fate of the story, while still unpredictable, was highly influenced by the way the characters looked, spoke, and presented themselves on screen.
with that of the rest of the story. It gives us a taste of what the
makes up his mind of killing himself too by her dead body. At the tomb
as he has never seen her in broad daylight. He then tears the paper lantern off
Elizabeth does not listen. She does not realize it fully until he asks to marry her and
The setting in both of these stories greatly contributed to the understanding the characters better and in general the whole story.
Darcy begins to reexamine his corrupt tone, motives, and the consequential end result of his proposal. In reviewing this, he has a change of heart and proceeds to assist in the reunion of Jane and Mr. Bingley and in the locating of Lydia from Wickham. Through these generous actions, Mr. Darcy proves he does care deeply about Elizabeth and his feelings for Elizabeth are true. Proposing a second time, Mr. Darcy completely changes his approach and therefore hopes for a different outcome. This second proposal catches Elizabeth off guard, yet she does have a more docile reaction than she did to the first proposal. Mr. Darcy’s true love for Elizabeth shines through in the sincere and loving tone of his proposal. Also, he apologizes to Elizabeth for his former arrogance, extreme pride, and rudeness in his prior proposal. Not only does his tone shift, he now has a new set of motives to support his proposal. Mr. Darcy explains to Elizabeth how fervently he loves her and how he does not care about money or social status as much as his love for her. Unlike the last proposal, he is not sure of what her answer will be, but this only causes the proposal to be more sincere. Mr. Darcy also does not want to pressure Elizabeth into marriage, so he tells her, “‘If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.’” (314). She then informs
stories as Mark, then why would it changed the details of it, since the meaning of the story is going to be the exact
A Comparison of The Darkness Out There, Shredni Vashtar and The Signalman In "The darkness out there", "Shredni vashtar" and "The signalman", authors create an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. How do the authors achieve this and which do you think is the most successful? "The Signalman" takes place in and around a deep railway cutting during the 19th century. The genre is ghost story? The language used like 'damp stains', frozen finger tracing my spine' and 'disagreeable shudder' shows it could be a ghost story.
...straight ahead of her and comments, “So that pretty little fool has had her fingers in a man’s destiny.”
...g by the fire, and thinks about him and their past together, and how she didn’t accept him.
at first she shows total innocence of his meaning. He has only been playing with