On the other hand, there is the night watchman, the main character in “Night Fears”. It is portrait in different way, as it is seen from his mind and identifying with him makes him a believable character. His insecurities and fears are known. By portraying the character in this way, there is a full emotional engagement and identification with him. There is also a mounting disturbance. I think that at the end, when he commits suicide, it has an impact on the readers because that was an act that was not expected.
As the characters are portrait very different, the stories are structured very differently and this too can have an effect on how the stories are found believable. “Night Fears” has an intensity that perhaps “The Supernatural Man’s Story” does not have, because of the close involvement that I have discussed in the previous paragraph. It has a pace that builds intensity as the tension mounds and it captures the readers emotionally so it dose not give time to analyze what is happening. The fact that it is kind of a metaphoric story means that it is more believable?.
“The Supernatural Man’s Story” however is episodic. It recounts events that take place in different time but this dose not mean that that there is not an equal involvement. At the end, each episode concludes with something inexplicable that keeps the interest. This leads us into the supernatural being the central element in both stories. The treatment is very different and it may influence.
The supernatural is another factor considerate, and again it is used different in both stories. “The Supernatural Man’s Story” is basically traditional superstition. A rational explanation for every event is not found. The character believes this superstitions and traditions and then events occur that are not obviously explicable, they are accepted because of the fact the other characters accept them and because of the way the story is written that brings tension and the element of the supernatural which make a convincing story.
In “Night Fears” the supernatural is less involved. It is introduced with the appearance of the stranger who, by the way, is mysterious. When he starts to speak, I can say, that supernatural is really introduced. The stranger appears with its persistent questions and remarks to drive the night watchman to suicide.
Like in every good horror story, both stories have a twist at the end. In “Night Fears”, the stranger is considerate to be supernatural when the night watchman commits suicide. Just at the same time it is realized that it was not supernatural, but it was, as the night watchman first thought; a drunk man that leaves “dark irregular footprints” when he leaves, making us realize that it turns out to be psychological, the whole conversation was in the watchman’s head and was caused because of the night fears.
The twist in “The Supernatural Man’s Story” is that at the end, we learn that William has a son “who drowned in spring while at play there, and this had so preyed upon William’s mind that he’d never been seen near the spring afterwards.” This help to understand what happens at the end, on the day he died. It was William’s soul the one that was seen by the spring. This ending also arouses sympathy on us.
So, after analyzing all the different facts, I finally came with my conclusion. For me personally, both stories are engaging the way I read them because of the characters, supernatural and the way it is written but I find “Night Fears” more believable than “The Supernatural Man’s Story” because it turns out to be a psychological story. The events in “Night Fears” are very believable because the supernatural element ultimately turns out to be a psychological question, which is possible to believe that the night watchman disturbed the balance of his mind causing delusions about the stranger. This drives him to commit suicide. Superstitions in “Supernatural Man’s story” may be tradition but are not believable.