How do the authors of these two short texts encourage us to make predictions and are these predictions valid?

               The way in which HG Wells utilizes the characters helps us to predict. The narrator is straight away perceived to be overconfident, arrogant and pompous when he starts by saying”I can assure you… it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me” presenting him to be a stereotype victim of a ghost story. When we are introduced to the “man with the withered arm” we automatically question or predict what happened to his arm, as well as feeling a sense of danger. The old woman sitting “staring hard in to the fire” with her eyes wide open is a very disconcerting and uneasy presence which is typical in this horror genre. The student caught a glimpse of himself in the “queer old mirror” adding to the reader’s perception of arrogance towards the student and also showing how the student perceives his own lack of fear with his robust nature and egotism helping us to predict his downfall. When HG Wells mentions “her ladyship” it gives it gravity and a sense of importance but still remains vague making us predict. The student was in a “state of considerable nervous tension” proving and also making us predict that his arrogance is going to be his downfall. Kate Chopin also helps us to loosely predict by the use of her characters. We are given a subtle understated hint about Mrs Mallard being “afflicted with a heart trouble” which is easily elapsed to add power to the final denouement. Sadness even goes deep in to Mrs Mallards “dreams” and wins the readers sympathy by emphasising her vulnerability and innocence. Kate Chopin diverts us from the likelihood of her death by describing her as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression” emphasising her suffering and years ahead along with the description of this repression is backed up when Chopin gives us the reasons for Mrs Mallards monstrous joy. The mention of Mr Mallard’s “two white slender hands” emphasises even more her authenticity and innocence making her vulnerable. Chopin tries describing Mrs Mallard like “a goddess of victory” to show her arrogant hubristic behaviour to portray hubris. Wells uses very distinctive and unusual characters to portray a classic horror story with a bit of mystery. He even uses his characters appearances to help us to predict. Chopin uses her customary characters to deceive the reader and to create a certain amount of paradox helping us to predict.

               Throughout “The Red Room” Wells uses many actions and events to make us predict. Wells intentionally adds a break in the dialogue when the old woman “sways her head from side to side” to make the reader get drawn in to waiting for what she will say next which adds tension as well as a sense of wisdom. Wells uses the repetition of “and” to suggest through the repetition of the conjunction, less pace adding anxiety. There is an atmosphere of hostility when the man with the withered arm gave the student “a short glance of positive dislike” hinting vague details which encourage the reader to speculate further. Wells describes a “monstrous shadow” mocking the student actions presenting to us an uncomfortable, inhuman image which is typical of a ghost story. The “grotesque custodians” hints of the gothic therefore instantly of the supernatural helping us to predict and it is also very formal language highlighting the pomposity and arrogance of the student narrator. The student standing “in the corridor” is to try and create a delay and also it suggests the student is apprehensive and makes the reader wait to create a climax of tension. Wells uses the “invisible hand” to make us predict a ghost or some sort of other presence. When the Student says “I was either struck or struck myself” Wells gives the ambiguous possibility of another presence in the room making the ending a mystery. Wells uses a descriptive sense of urgency, short clauses, regular commas and lengthy descriptive sentences. Chopin also uses actions and events throughout “The Story of an Hour” to help us to predict. When Josephine told Louise about her husband’s death in “broken sentences” it increases the reader’s expectations of suffering ahead. Chopin uses heavily descriptive repetition and open sounds to emphasise how “free” she feels. Chopin also uses long, complex sentences with abrupt direct sentences and use of an oxymoron when Chopin describes her happiness as a “monstrous joy” as it expresses her uncertainty. Chopin includes a childish conjunction by the repetition of “and” instead of a comma and which makes it a lingering sentence which increases the sense of uncertainty making us predict. Chopin portrays to us an image of her living “for her self” making us predict that she will live a long life of happiness and her husband’s death was a positive thing. The fact that Josephine was “kneeling before the closed door” shows she has grave concerns of her sister’s future helping us to predict death. She purposely uses someone “opening the front door” to create a short sentence adding tension and an intentional lack of detail to make us predict. When “Brently Mallard” entered, the language used was very impersonal and formal along with irrelevant detail to add a sense of coldness indicating isolation. Wells uses short actions like sophisticated and formal language to describe tense events and help us to predict. He also uses events like the invisible hand to make predict. Chopin uses actions such as an oxymoron to help us to predict and she uses events such as “Brently Mallards” entrance to help us to formulate a prediction.

               Throughout these short stories both authors insinuate the reader to make false and misleading predictions. An example of this is when Wells suggest “a lurking, living thing” making us expect it in the ending but he also implies a “ghost” making it uncertain. Wells again implies a living presence when he describes the candle as being “nipped between a finger and thumb” which again is contradicting the readers other prediction of there being a ghost, making it even more indecisive. The vague repetition of “shadow” encourages the reader to hypothesize misleadingly due to the lack of detail Wells uses. Chopin also encourages us to make false and disingenuous predictions. Chopin tricks us by giving us a justifiable reason for example “protecting Mrs Mallard” deflecting the reader from the possible uncertainty of the husbands death. When Chopin describes Louise as being “paralysed” the reader is tempted to believe she is more saddened than usual when the opposite is the case. Chopin describes Louise as waiting “fearfully” showing us that she thinks it is wrong to be happy and relieved about her husband’s death. There is an ironic repetition of her living when Chopin describes her as growing old and “grey” with a “a long procession of years to come” making us predict she will live a long life.  Kate Chopin creates a final irony when she describes Louise as dying from “a joy that kills” as the family and the doctor remained convinced that she was grieving for her husband and that she died with joy of her husbands return. Both Authors encourage us to predict for example Wells uses contradictory and ambiguous hints to help the reader to predict falsely. Chopin uses deceptions and irony to make us fallaciously predict.