Compare and contrast 'The Old Nurses Story' by Elizabeth Gaskell and 'Lost Hearts' by M.R. James discussing theme, plot, character, narrative structure, use of narrator and variety and effectiveness of language

Compare and contrast two of the 19th century mystery stories you have read starting which you prefer and why. In your essay you should discuss in terms of theme, plot, setting, character, narrative structure, use of narrator and variety and effectiveness of language

‘The Old Nurses Story’ by Elizabeth Gaskell and ‘Lost Hearts’ by M.R. James are both 19th century mystery stories, so naturally they have similarities due to them both having the same genre but there are some ways in which the stories differ.

‘Lost Hearts’ is about a young girl called Rosamond aged about 4 or 5 who is orphaned and so has to go and live with her elderly Aunt, Miss Furnivall at Furnivall Manor. One evening the nurse left Rosamond with Miss Furnivall when she went to church. When the nurse returned she couldn’t find her, the nurse followed some footsteps in the snow and found Rosamond in the arms of a Shepherd frozen in the extremely cold weather. The nurse takes Rosamond home and asks where she has been. She told the nurse a girl told her to follow her but the nurse didn’t believe her as she only saw one set of footprints in the snow. The housekeeper tells the nurse that a long time ago Miss Furnivall and her sister Maud fell out because they loved the same man. The man chose Maud and Maud became pregnant, leading to her father throwing her out in disgrace. Miss Furnivall never did anything to stop her father as she still had a grudge with Maud as the man had chosen her sister. Maud and her daughter then came back for revenge. They try to get Rosamond but Miss Furnivall offers herself instead and therefore dies to protect Rosamond- an irony as that is what Miss Furnivall should have done many years ago, she should have protected her sister and her niece.

A boy called Stephen Elliot is orphaned and so is invited to live with his elderly cousin at Aswarby Hall. Stephen arrives and is greeted by his cousin Lord Abney who is unusually interested in his age. The housekeeper tells Stephen that Mr. Abney has taken in to other children before but both strangely disappeared. One night Stephen had a dream where he was in a disused bathroom where he thought he saw a figure lying in a bath. Mr. Abney frequently reminded Stephen that the spring equinox was approaching and that it was a critical time for the young. One day Stephen woke to find his nightgown was ripped like a wild animal had clawed down it. There were similar marks to his door. Not long later on March 24th Stephen is asked to go and see Mr. Abney in his study at 11 o’ clock. While Stephen was waiting to go and see his cousin, he heard cries. He looked out the window and saw two ghostly figures. Stephen tried to open the door of the study. Eventually it yielded. Stephen looked around he found a sort of diary and he read it. It told him that Mr. Abney had killed the two other children who had ‘disappeared’ and that he was planning to kill him that night. Mr. Abney wanted to take his heart to add to the other hearts to gain supernatural powers. Mr. Abney couldn’t though as Gevanny and Phoebe had come back for revenge and killed him.

The theme between the two stories have a lot of similarities. They both include a main character who is orphaned go and live in an unknown relatives house. Both Rosamond and Stephen have a close relationship to the servants in the house. Revenge is one of the strongest similarities, both stories have a relative that has done something wrong to someone in the past and the ghosts of these people came back for revenge and so resulting in the deaths of the relatives Mr. Abney and Miss Furnivall. There are some differences such as Miss Furnivall realises she has ...

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The setting is similar in both stories; both are set in large manor houses, which are surrounded by trees. The houses both have wings on each side of the house and both houses have lots of windows. Also a church appears in both setting, there is one situated in the grounds of Aswarby Hall and one within walking distance at Furnivall Manor. The setting also has some differences though, Aswarby hall is situated in a flat park in Lincolnshire and Furnivall Manor is situated in front of the fells in Northumberland.

Both Rosamond and Stephen’s parents died and both go and live with relatives. Both Rosamond and Stephen are not frightened when they see the ghosts. Rosamond is 5 years old and is taken care of by her nanny and Stephen is 12 years old and doesn’t have a nanny. Rosamond is a caring person and is upset she can’t help the phantom girl. She is also extremely impressionable as she leaves the house and goes with the phantom girl. Stephen is quite level headed and is not particularly upset when he finds his nightgown is ripped with claw like marks.

Mr. Abney is interested in pagan religion where as Miss Furnivall is a Christian but makes her prayers at home as she is far to ashamed of what she has done previously in her life to go to church. Mr. Abney has no guilt what so ever of what he is done previously in life as he was planning to do it again to Stephen. Both Mr. Abney and Miss Furnivall are described as tall and thin though Miss Furnivall was described as a beauty in her youth with ‘handsome eyes’ though now she is described to have ‘sad, heavy eyes’ showing that she was now truly sad of what she had done earlier in her life.

The ghosts in ‘Lost Hearts’ were an Italian, Gevanny Paoli and a gypsy, Phoebe Stanley. The ghosts in ‘The Old Nurses Story’ were the phantom girl, phantom Maud and the phantom old lord. Both sets of ghosts were wanting revenge and both ghosts received revenge. The ‘Lost Hearts’ ghosts were much more horror like with a gap in the chests with no heart in it, with long sharp claw like nails, where as ‘The Old Nurses Story’ ghosts were more alive looking. Rosamond described the phantom girl as ‘pretty’ and Maud was described as ‘beautiful’ though the ‘The Old Nurses Story’ ghosts were angry. Maud was described as a ‘fierce women’ and the old lord was cursing and swearing repeatedly.

In ‘The Old Nurses Story’ the opening starts with a nurse – who by now is an old lady relating to what happened to the mother of the children she is now looking after. In the story you have a feeling of listening to a conversation between the nurse and the children. There is the use of a flashback technique. In ‘Lost Hearts’ the same flashback technique is used but it is almost as if you are the listener and that you are getting told the story. The story basis itself around specific dates and chronological order.

‘Lost Hearts’ in many ways has an external narrator due to the narrator having some involvement in the story but is more remote as he plays no part in the narrative himself. Therefor it isn’t as biased as you don’t get a pacific point of view. The ‘Lost hearts’ is more formal and description is used often and effectively such as the description of the two ghost children. ‘An appearance of menace and of unappeasable hunger’ this is emotive language and it suggests darkness and that something bad is to happen. ‘Lost Hearts’ is time orientated with dates used constantly throughout the story helping to make the story more effective as time has a lot to do with the events such as the spring equinox.

‘The Old Nurses Story’ has an internal narrator. Hester is the narrator and she also plays a part in the actual story. Having an internal narrator means you have a more personal view of what happens in the story. This narrative involves the reader more as you see events from the Hester's point of view and the observation of character is her opinion. The only problem is it can be a biased point of view.

The nature of narrative of ‘The Old Nurses story’ means the language is more informal. When the nurse is actually speaking it is in more dialect and colloquial ‘mighty proud I was’ ‘and proud enough was I’ giving the effect of a more conversational tone. Figurative language is used for description such as the description of the organ ‘looked so brave and fine’ this figurative language is describing the organ in figures of speech making the description more realistic to the reader. Dashes were used by the writer to build up fear about what was about to happen to Miss Furnivall this builds up intensity in a cumulative way. Miss Furnivall’s death was quite dramatic she was ‘stricken down by the palsy’ a fit of trembling, paralysis, she then put her face to the wall and muttered an extremely powerful ending ‘what is done in youth can never be undone in age’ this is repeated for effectiveness. The effectiveness of this ending is excellent it almost sums up the whole story in a few words, it also assures the reader that Miss Furnivall is truly sorry about her behavior.

Both stories have equal good point and bad points and each story is original in its narrative and characters. So I conclude this report to say the idea of the story is the same with revenge been the main focus but there is a lot of differences that make each story have its on identity.