Analysing 4 Short Horror Story Openings Essay Example

Analysing 4 Short Horror Story Openings Essay In this piece of coursework, I am going to analyse 4 Horror Story openings. The first is The Signalman by Charles Dickens. It tells the story of a man who comes across a seemingly normal railway cutting with a mysterious story to tell. The second is The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. The main character, who is seemingly mad, has a grudge against an old man because of his vulture eye and this drives him to take drastic action. For the third story, there is The Landlady by Roald Dahl in which the main character is taken victim by a seemingly harmless Landlady of a small guesthouse. Lastly, there is All But Empty by Graham Greene. In this story the writer finds a man in a cinema with a puzzling and inexplicable tale. The settings for all of the stories openings have something in common to link them together. The Signalman uses very atmospheric words to describe the cutting, its surroundings and the time of day. The actual cutting is described as extremely deep and unusually precipitate. These words give the reader the feeling that the cutting is forbidding and uninviting to the narrator/writer. The time of day that the opening is set is mid-evening, just as the sun is setting. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysing 4 Short Horror Story Openings specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Analysing 4 Short Horror Story Openings specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Analysing 4 Short Horror Story Openings specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer This also has its part to play in the mood of the opening. The writer describes the cutting steeped in the glow of an angry sunset. The word angry brings up the colour red which is associated with danger. When the writer is making his way down to the cutting he gives vivid descriptions like clammy stone, zigzag path and oozier and wetter. These words as well as adding to the feeling of unwelcomeness, paint a picture of wetness and cold. Upon reaching the cutting, he describes the tunnel. He uses word like gloomier and massive architecture. Its greatness is made to make the writer feel small and insignificant. He also describes the tunnel by saying, there was a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy deadly smell; so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world. Again the word forbidding shows the unwelcome feeling. The cutting is described as a Great Dungeon with a dripping wet wall of jagged stone excluding all view but a strip of sky. This shows that the cutting is secluded from all view. This adds to the effect that the cutting is a dark place, which has secrets to hide from the outside world. The first setting that is portrayed in The Tell-Tale Heart is when the writer is planning the murder of the old man and his vulture eye. The beginning is set at midnight, which is thought of as dark and quiet which makes it mysterious and secretive. The old mans room is described as being black as pitch with the thick darkness. It also says that the shutters were shut through fear of robbers. This shows that the old man is afraid. The darkness gives a feeling of seclusion. The Tell-Tale Heart links with The Signalman in this respect. After the old man hears the writer sneaking around the door of his room, he lets out a groan of mortal terror. The description of this moan adds to the scary atmosphere of the opening, which is building up to the murder. When he opens the lantern to look at the old mans eye, he does it ever so cautiously so a single dim ray, like the thread of a spider shot from out the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye. This shows with how much care he carried out all the deeds leading up to the murder. Then the writer says, Their came a low dull quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. This shows that the writers senses are more alert than usual and he is on edge about the whole venture. Roald Dahl first sets the scene in The landlady by describing the time and the weather. He says that it was about nine oclock in the evening and the moon was coming out of a clear starry sky. This indicates that it was dark and we associate darkness with eeriness and it gives the reader and unwelcome feeling. It also says that the air was deadly cold and it was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks. The word blade suggests sharp and hurtful. Cold gives a feeling of isolation to the reader and adds to the feeling of mysteriousness. The street is described as wide with only a tall line of houses on each side, all of them identical. The Landlady here links with The Signalman and the massive architecture of the tunnel. The tallness of the houses is included to make the character look and feel small. The houses are described as being once upon a time, very swanky residences. The houses are obviously now old and neglected. This is hinted at when it says but now, even in the darkness, he could see that the paint was peeling from the woodwork on their doors and windows, and that the handsome white facades were cracked and blotchy from neglect. It also says that all houses are identical. This means that nothing stands out or is appealing in anyway. This tells the reader that the area is dull and drab and makes it seem it has been neglected. When he first catches a glimpse of the bed and breakfast it says, Suddenly, in a downstairs window brilliantly illuminated by a street light not 6 yards away This means that the house appealed to him and stood out in one way or another and this add to the mystery of the opening. The inside of the house is described as being warm and welcoming. This contrasts with the other stories in which the place was unwelcoming and unfriendly. The writer of All But Empty portrays the cinema as an empty place. He says it had almost invariable, total emptiness. This links with The Signalman and The Landlady in this respect because it makes the reader think of the isolation the main character must be feeling. The music that is playing in the film he describes as blurred metallic music. This makes the film seem as if it is of no consequence and he is not really watching it. This shows that the mans mind is somewhere else. He also describes the air as being stale which adds to the old feeling that we get right from the beginning. We tend to think of old things as being mysterious and this adds to the opening. In The Signalman, a lot of questions are raised as to the secretive nature of the main character. One of the questions raised is why doesnt the signalman answer when the writer, stood on top of the cliff, talks to him? It is obvious for the reader that he is confused in some way but it still leaves the question as to why and what is confused or worried about? This is shown when the writer writes instead of looking up to where I stood on top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about and looked down the line. This makes the reader question what the signalman is unsure about. When the writer finally gets down into the cutting and he starts to talk to the signalman, the signalman just looks straight past him and looks at the mouth of the tunnel instead. It is clear that there is something about the man that is puzzling him in someway although it is unclear until further on in the story when he says I am troubled. This makes the reader want to read on to find out what he is troubled about. Throughout the time that the signalman and writer are talking, the signalman keeps looking at the warning bell as though expecting it to ring: -he twice broke off with a fallen colour, turned his face towards the little bell when it did not ring, opened the door of the hut, and looked out towards the red light near the mouth of the tunnel. This shows that he appears to be waiting for something to happen, but what? As the writer is about to leave, the signalman tells him that he is troubled but feels unable to talk about those troubles to him at that moment. He tells him to come back tomorrow night and he will tell him then. It is plain that he is feeling slightly pressured then and this gives the reader an insight into his thoughts at that time. In the story of The Tell-Tale Heart questions are asked about a lot of the aspects of the opening. Firstly, why does the writer deny being mad? This story depicts a man who is obviously mad because of the way he acts. What is so annoying about the old mans eye that drives him to kill him? He describes the eye as resembling that of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. He then goes on to say that whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold. The eye obviously made him uneasy in some way because the phrase my blood ran cold we usually associate with terror or horror. When he is preparing for the murder, why does it take him so long to enter the bedroom and open the lamp to see inside? Why does he carry out all the procedures with such care and for such a long time? He says he did this for eight nights before killing the old man. He also says it took me an hour to place my head within the opening. This makes the reader feel that he obviously feels very strongly about his cause otherwise he would not be so patient towards it and encourages them to wonder why the old mans eye could be driving him to eventually kill him. The landlady raises many questions in the opening. One of the first is why does the Bed and Breakfast sign appear three times to Billy as he looks in the window of the boarding house? Dahl includes this to show how attractive the bed and breakfast is against the coldness of the outside and the other apparently derelict houses. When Billy Weaver rings the bell on the front door of the house, it is said by Dahl that, This dame was like a jack-in-a-box. He pressed the bell and out she popped! This makes the reader wonder why she was so eager and make them immediately aware that there is something strange about the house. In the fourth story, All but empty, the writer, Graham Greene, raises lots of questions concerned with the old man and the cinema. The writer says he very often visits an old cinema but why? He describes the cinema as having almost invariable, almost total emptiness but why would someone want to visit a desolate old cinema? When the Old Man enters the cinema he chooses to sit next to the man but why as there were plenty of other seats available? The writer says, He tried to get past me, though he had the whole cinema to choose from. This encourages the reader to think that the old man has a secret that he would like to share with someone. Each of the stories shares some common aspect that makes a successful horror story opening. Every story uses night or darkness to show that they have a dark meaning. The Signalman is set around sunset that has an angry glow. This acts, as a warning as to what is about to happen to the unfortunate Signalman. The bedroom in The Tell-Tale Heart, while the writer is looking in on the old man as he sleeps, is described as being black as pitch with the thick darkness, and this shows the reader that the old man is completely innocent and unable to see what is about to happen to him. Another similarity between all of the stories is the way in which the writers have described the victims. They are portrayed as someone who is innocent and unaware of their fate. Billy Weaver in The Landlady is described as 17 and that it is his first time in Bath. This makes him sound innocent and vulnerable. Sounds also play a large part in the stories. The Signalman has a part where the train comes from out of the tunnel: Just then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation. This perhaps is a forewarning to the sudden death that the signalman is about to meet. The way in which the stories are written is perhaps the biggest impact on how the stories make the reader feel. Charles Dickens has written the story so that there is not much dialogue in the beginning maybe showing that the two characters find it hard to communicate with each other. Edgar Allen-Poe uses a dramatic amount of punctuation in The Tell-Tale Heart to make the reader realise how the killer is talking. The sentences are disjointed with lots of exclamation marks e. g. True! -nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous. This is added to make the reader know how he is feeling.