I have looked at the short story 'The Dream Woman' which is about a man who is not very well man and a consultant comes to his neighbouring town to check that he is OK and find out what is wrong with him

life, “Do you know anything about the past life” the writer then using the technique of going back in time and goes through the life of Isaac Scatchard and his ordeal experience and meetings with ‘The Dream Woman’. When I first read the first part of the story I thought it was a story about a consultant and not something to do with the supernatural and past life of someone. As the story goes on it mentions a little about Isaac and how he hasn’t had a girlfriend and considering he is 38 at the time it is quite concerning but my personal opinion which grows throughout the story is that he is what is known as a ‘mothers boy’ as he still lives with his mother which I think is a bit unnatural. In this story Isaac then stays at a Inn because of mist and with the night falling the weather then starts to deteriorate and he then goes to his room, he wants to get home as soon as possible the next day because it is his birthday which is a significant date in the story and throughout the two stories of ‘The Dream Woman’ and ‘The Withered Arm’ there are a lot of  significant dates in these stories like the fact that when the Dream Woman appears it is 2am in the morning which is very significant, when the dream woman arrives it shows that this story is very supernatural whereas the withered arm is more of a coincidence than supernatural. As Isaac stays in this Inn a woman appears who is described as being very creepy and to a supernatural looking creature rather than human. I think that the technique the author uses to create a visual picture which you can see when reading the story “She was a fair fine woman, with yellowish flaxen hair, and light grey eyes, with a droop in the left eyelid.” I have also noticed the way the writer explains that he locks the door and places the candle of the draws shows the readers that he is doing this for a purpose and makes them weary about what’s actually going to happen. When I was reading the story I noticed that he didn’t have to mention that he locked the door so that is what made me wonder and think that their was something round the corner. The writer does this several times by ending the story at several points on a climatic point to keep the audience wondering “Extravagant and incredible as the events must appear to everybody, they are related here just as I heard them, and just as they happened.” I think that the characters in this story are described very well so that you actually get that feeling that you know them, this works in both ‘The Dream Woman’ and ‘The Withered Arm.” I can tell that these stories have been wrote near to the 19th Century because of the language which is used in the story, the jobs which people do and the objects which are used, like for example ‘ostlers.’ Also the aspects of the country life shows that this story was wrote in the olden days. Also you can tell that it is set in the olden days is the way in which when Isaac’s mother records the dreams by writing it down, this is very strange because in our days we wouldn’t right it down which shows the way the social, historical and beliefs which people had in them days, the most obvious way which shows that the story were wrote along time ago was the fact that there was no modern technology, no cars riding on horses and using a candle for light, this automatically shows the reader that this was wrote in the olden days. I think the reason why Isaacs mother records the dream is because she is very superstitious at that time.