Compare and Contrast the Ways in Which The Authors Set Out to Create a Sense of Fear In Their Readers.

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Compare and Contrast the Ways in Which

The Authors Set Out to Create a Sense of Fear

In Their Readers

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the ways in which the authors of ‘The whole town’s sleeping’ and ‘A terribly strange bed’ create a sense of fear in their readers.  I will be finding similarities in many different areas of the stories, including, plot, characters and settings.  Also I will be finding differences between Bradbury and Collin’s use of language.

‘The whole town’s sleeping’ is based around women in small town strangely being strangled.  The people of the town don’t know who the murderer is and he may never be revealed.

In ‘A terribly strange bed’ a man is in a seedy gambling house and is winning all the money.  A man drugs his drink and he goes to the bedroom for a nap.  The bed starts to move.  The man only just escapes.

The plot of the two stories is quite similar in the way that both the main characters put themselves in danger.  Lavinia Nebbs the main character is an independent woman and will not rely on anyone,

“If there were any real chance of anything happening to me, I’d stay here with you.”

The author of ‘The whole towns sleeping’ put a sense of fear in the reader by building up the tension.  Bradbury shows the main character as feeling safe and then she gradually begins to get scared by feeling insecure in her surroundings.  

In ‘A terribly strange bed’ Collins shows a man in a seedy gambling house winning most of the money.  He then later gets his drink drugged and he becomes drowsy.  He wanders into the houses bedroom and lies down on the bed.  All of a sudden he finds that the bed is moving downwards, he begins to panic but cannot move,

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“And still my panic-terror seemed to bind me faster and faster”.

Also the plot contrasts as ‘The whole towns sleeping’ has a set plan of a murder a month, so the characters know if they are at risk, but the plan changes when Lavinia has the presence of an unwanted guest at the end,

“Behind her, in the black living room, someone cleared his throat…”

‘A terribly strange bed’ holds no awareness of a near death and so Collins has to build the fear from scratch,

“Good God! The man had pulled his hat down over his brows ...

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