In lamb to the Slaughter at the beginning Dahl starts the story calm, because Mary Maloney is waiting for someone which also creates suspense towards the reader when is the person she is waiting for going to arrive who could it be. For instance ‘The curtains are drawn’ ‘house is clean, warm’ ‘table light is alight’ ‘whiskey glasses prepared’ This creates the impression that she is waiting for someone, the table light and the curtains drawn creates the mood of a romantic feeling which creates tension towards the reader of what is going to happen next who is she waiting for.
Dickens sets the story in Victorian times, which creates the atmosphere of being dark, dingy and scary. For example ‘shadowed’ this suggests to the reader that the Victorian times, created the atmosphere that they were dark and scary. A shadow is a black figure, which is dark. Also He set it at the time of industrial revolution. Which creates the impression of ‘Dirtiness’, ‘smoke’, and ‘Dark places’.
Dahl sets his story in a nice average house, in a city. This creates the impression of ‘nothing would happen in a normal house’. For example ‘The room was warm and clean’ this suggests to the reader and creates an impression that nothing serious in this normal house would happen.
Dickens describes his main character the signalman as an’ dark sallow’ ‘dark beard’, ‘heavy eyebrows’. This creates the impression of a stereotypical average Victorian villain. Which is creates suspense towards the reader to what is the man like but later in the story this became a charade because the signalman is actually an well-educated man For Example ‘He also worked on fractions and decimals, and tried a little algebra;’ this shows he is not what he seems like at first and which is proven later in the Signal Man.; also he doesn’t describe the narrator much, which also creates suspense, which makes the reader think ‘what does the narrator look like’ and ‘why is he there In the first place’. .
Dahl doesn’t really describe Mary much but reveals her real side later in the story. For Example ‘Dark Eyes’ this implies that she has a dark soul.
Dickens and Dahl create suspense and tension several different ways in the story, For instance at the start of lamb to the slaughter it’s said that Mary glanced at the clock For instance ‘Now and again she would glance up at the clock’ this emphasises to the reader to whom is she waiting for because the reader doesn’t know its her husband Patrick she’s waiting for.
Also in The Signalman Dickens creates tension by showing that the signalman doesn’t want the narrator to say halloa bellow there! For Example ‘there was something in the man that daunted me’ this suggests to the reader that The Signalman had something against the narrator when he said halloa bellow there! This creates suspense and tension towards the reader.
Dahl creates tension by making the reader think at the start and also in the middle of the story, at the start the reader has a sense of suspense created by the waiting and in the middle when what does Patrick, Mary’s husband say to her and gets he angry or temporarily mad. For instance ‘Her first instinct not to believe any of it’ this suggests to the reader what has happened to Mary which makes the reader think and give them a sense of suspense.
In Conclusion the both stories create suspense and tension, but in different ways, the signal man was written in the Victorian times and lamb to the slaughter was written earlier in 1954 which altogether creates a different atmosphere, Different senses of eerie feelings of what you get from the Victorian times and 1954. I think both stories create there own individual sense of suspense and tension towards the readers.
By Abdulmannan Raja 10F
