Roald Dahl successfully presents scary or creepy moments and ideas in his writing by having the characters that are presented make scary/creepy actions or do something unexpected. One way Roald Dahl successfully presents a scary or creepy moment in his writing is the unexpected things that happen. An unexpected thing happened in one of his stories that he wrote called “The Landlady”. That unexpected thing was that one of the characters in the story named Billy went to go ring a doorbell and before he could take his finger off the doorbell the landlady opened as if she was waiting for Billy and knew Billy was going to ring the doorbell.”It must have been at once because he hadn’t even had time to take his finger off the bell-button- The door
Gary’s House, Debra Oswald, features the story of an Aussie couple facing the reality of adversity. Oswald has represented common beliefs and representations through the four protagonists mainly focusing on Gary and Dave. Many beliefs and values in the book symbolize the dominant stereotypes of an average Australian. Oswald explores the concept of an Aussie battler and how it perpetuates and challenges the common stereotype of Australians.
In Dahl’s short story and in Jacob’s short story, both depict suspense through tone and description. For example, in the “The Landlady”, the narrator stated, “I stuff all my little pets.” This example reveals suspense by providing the landlady killed and stuffed her pets. Furthermore,
Was Eleanor mentally healthy or unhealthy? In the book The Haunting of Hill House, written by Shirley Jackson, the main character was Eleanor Vance. She was a 32-year-old woman that showed signs that she was mentally unhealthy. After receiving an invitation to stay at Hill House from Dr. Montague, a stranger to Eleanor and the rest of the invited guests, she made the carefree decision to accept the invitation to the comfortable country home (2). She felt as though Hill House was her calling, even though she had never laid eyes on the property and had no knowledge of what to expect. There was no way to know if the doctor could have been a psychopath that wanted Eleanor for some crazed morbid “experiment,” yet she had
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.
There are several examples of foreshadowing in the short story “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl. For instance, when Billy arrived at the Bed and Breakfast, the landlady told him that she was “choosy and particular” (Dahl 2) about her guests. Typically, a landlady does not select which guests to take in, just as long as they have enough money to pay for their stay. She also said to Billy that she had been waiting for someone like him to come around. This implies that the landlady has other intentions for Billy, besides giving him a room and food. Additionally, upon signing the landlady’s guestbook, Billy realized that he recognized the names in the two previous entries. He told the landlady that he believed he had seen the two guests, Christopher
Fear brings forth a certain atmosphere which compels us to act upon it. The era in which the book was published allows us to see how common these fears were. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is an excellent portrayal of how fear controls the human mind by using the characters as examples. In the book Eleanor, Theodora, Luke, and Dr. Montague have all been influenced by fear in the story, whether it be the fear of love, the unknown, family, rejection, expression, or loneliness. These different types of fear plagued their minds causing their actions to reflect upon them. Jackson explores the theme of fear in The Haunting of Hill House by creating a cast of characters that in turn are manipulated by the inner workings of their minds and the
This relates to a very significant element in stories meant to scare us: transformation. The most compelling part of this element is transformation in people or characters. There are incredible examples of this in the stories Frankenstein, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Raven and even in a personal experience of mine involving the popular movie, The Goonies. There are marvelous examples of transforming characters in the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. One of these is the book’s namesake himself.
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.
In her essay on the genre of horror, Gina Wisker explores the employment of psychological dread throughout horror fiction and its pertinence to the horrors of human existence. According to Wisker, “…horror exposes and enacts dread and apprehension.” (8) This psychological dread is in opposition to fear, which has a definitive cause. It is simple to name what one is afraid of and for what reasons, but much more complex to list the root of internal dread. Dread is a complex animal, indeterminable, unnamable, and often insurmountable. “It concentrates on making the homely frightening and revealing what is concealed and unexpected: alternative versions of self […] What results is a projection of something repressed, embodied in a demon spirit,
In the short story ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ by Roald Dahl, the author is able to build up a heavy amount of suspense throughout the story. For example in this sentence “ she [hears] the ice cubes clinking against the side of the glass” (pg. 2) he illustrates the suspense through“ the ice cubes clinking” because the clinking of ice cubes is a weak auditory, this suggests the silence in the room that is required to hear the clinking of the ice cubes.
This story, although somewhat unique in its exact plot, contains many elements that make it a typical and traditional ghost story. These elements suggest common fears in today’s society of people in general, and children specifically.
The author selects techniques of diction such as connotation, repetition, and onomatopoeia, to establish the fear is the overall excerpt. He manipulates connotation to enhance the mood. As the character is driven about the midnight landscape by the mysterious coachman, he notices the “frowning rocks” hanging over the road, a “ghostly flicker” of blue light which he cannot explain and off in the distance the “long agonized wailing” of dogs. The word “frowning” allows us to see that this is no happy setting, even the rock that cannot feel is frowning and not smiling. The author uses the word ghostly to describe the flicker of light. Light usually portrays a saving or some sign of hope. By using ghostly as a descriptive word, he makes it seem supernatural or like it’s faintly there. If he wanted this to be a sign of hope he could have worded it a flickering light, but he did not causing the character to feel fright and no hope. The utilization of repetition by Stoker applies reinforcement to the atmosphere. Throughout the excerpt the narrator continues intensifying the effects by also repeating phrases such as “another and another.” By repeating these words the reader is being reminded of the alien emotions and surroundings of such a strange place. The use of intensifying repetition strengthens the negative connotation words following directly before or afte...
The repetition Roald Dahl uses helps the scare factor in “The Landlady” and “Lamb of Slaughter”. In “Lamb of Slaughter”, Roald Dahl repeats the words “Sit down” and “eat something” in the story. For example, in the text it says, “Anyways, she went on. I’ll get you some bread and cheese.” and “ Sit down, he said. Just for a minute, sit down.”. These words being repeated makes you wonder why he doesn’t want to eat, especially after a long hard day at work. Also, it makes you wonder what he wants to tell her, but it never tells you so it kinda makes you think of what he tells her. In “The Landlady”, Roald Dahl repeats the words “Bed and Breakfast” and how nice it looked. For example, in the text it says, “BED AND BREAKFAST, it said, BED AND
The short story, “The Landlady” By Roald Dahl, uses specific diction cleverly which significantly affects the suspenseful tone throughout the story. Roald Dahl writes with a positive flow, but incorporates suspenseful and negative twists to keep that tone.The story flows with an emphasis to details of a negative tone and foreshadows clues which forboded a tragic ending .
Sometimes it's difficult to find the connections between the patterns in an artist's life and his work. But with Roald Dahl, the connections are quite clear. It is known that there were many tragedies in Roald Dahl's life and he had to overcome these somehow, whether he gave up and moved on, or fought against them and found victory. All of Dahl's works reflect at least one aspect of his personal life, whether it be his childhood, his marriage, his children, his experiences, or himself. It is quite apparent that after all the hardships he survived, he managed to turn such experiences into creative stories for children. He wrote about small aspects of his life and magnified them, and made them amusing for children, and even adults. One theme that is apparent in almost all of Dahl's works the use of violence and cruelty by authority figures on the weak, and once again, he seems to turn this around to be more of a positive, amusing aspect, rather than a negative, traumatizing one.