Compare and contrast two short stories, focusing on the techniques used to create a sense of mystery and tension? The two short stories I will be looking at are "A Terribly Strange Bed" and "The Whole Town Is Sleeping"

Authors Avatar

Wide Reading

Compare and contrast two short stories, focusing on the techniques used to create a sense of mystery and tension?

The two short stories I will be looking at are “A Terribly Strange Bed” and “The Whole Town Is Sleeping”

The setting of “The Whole Town Is Sleeping” is dark and dreary at night but during the day it is a completely normal town. The ravine is shadowy and creepy especially as there is a killer out. It says

          

“Not with the lonely one strangling women”

This makes the whole town even more isolated and frightening especially at night. The ravine is scary because it is out of the way of all civilisations even more so with the killer on the loose. The setting of the story is set at night so all shops are closed and people are peeping through there curtains making it all seem so much more creepy.

The setting in a “The Whole Town Is Sleeping” creates mystery and tension because there is nobody outside at night which is when this story is set because of the murderer. This creates a feeling of danger because if you are out and you end up seeing the murderer not many people, if any will be around to help.

 “A Terribly Strange Bed” is set in a poverty stricken casino. This place is never a nice place like Illinois in “The Whole Town Is Sleeping” when it is nice during the day. It is frightening during the day and at night because of dodgy people and because the casino is poverty-stricken. The people are dodgy because they can’t really afford to be in the casino and are obviously intent on winning money.

One of the characters is one of the young men at beginning of the story who is looking for something different. He can obviously afford a more up market club because he has just finished college and blows five-franc pieces often. It says

Join now!

“had lost and won plenty of five-franc pieces there”

He is after a challenge, which is what he will get going to a seedy casino because nobody will be rich and they will do anything to cheat.

Another character is the dirty wrinkled old man because he shows how the casino is for poor people because he has just lost his last coin. He also sums up the atmosphere in there because he doesn’t talk as does none of the other characters in the club except for the croupier and is voice was dull. It says

...

This is a preview of the whole essay