In the story, “The darkness is out there” by Penelope Lively, tension is built in a range of several different ways. The title already makes us distraught, as it is so indistinct. The readers ‘mind's eye’ automatically focuses on the 'darkness’ in the title, causing us to feel uneasy at the possibilities as to what this mysterious darkness symbolises. The story then leads us into a sense of false security. Soon after they arrive at the cottage Kerry sets off to work around the garden and Sandra works inside. Her and Mrs Rutter talk away and the conversation leads to a photo of Mrs Rutter’s husband who was killed in the war. This puts us in such a relaxed state of mind that we are easily taken aback to sudden truths, which become known later in the story. Penelope Lively describes Mrs Rutter as a ‘cottage loaf of a women’, which gives us the image of a warm comforting lady... The reader may also notice her use of friendly language and her kind gestures when she offers her two young visitors a ‘chocky’, as she always ‘keeps a few choices by for visitors’ and she calls them ‘Ducks’. There is also a great deal of description about the scenery inside the cottage, like the ornaments
“Big-eyed flop-eared rabbits and beribboned kittens
And flowery milkmaids and a pair of naked
Chubby children wearing daisy chains.”
All these actions are those of a kind person, and we begin to like Mrs. Rutter. She comes across as one of the typical little old ladies who spend hours of the day baking treats and fancies.
When ‘Packers End’ is mentioned at the beginning and the stories and tales that are attached to it come about, the tale tenses up and makes the reader feel anxious as to why this is brought up. We are worried when it is described by Sandra as a place that is ‘nasty, creepy’. The fact that at the time we never get the full story about this place, just adds more unease. With this mixture of fear and calmness, we are at this stage constantly on the edge of our seats. The images of sweet old Mrs Rutter contrasts with those of Packers Wood, subtly suggesting that we must be prepared for what happens next. When the odd jobs are done and everyone sits down to have a ‘friendly chat’ we find out that during the war, Mrs Rutter let a German Airman die when his plane crashed in Packers End, and how she and her sister left a young person to die in a broken up plane. The fact that they checked on him several times during the two days before he died, and didn’t help him, or even tell anyone else because ‘it was raining cats and dogs, foggy too’, the reader was totally unprepared for.
We are immediately shocked at how someone who we thought of as 'nice' had such evil in them, and so are the teens. Sandra already knows how her husband died in the war, but the way Mrs. Rutter tells the story, so matter-of-factly and with no shame or regret, increases the tension between them all, and Kerry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He doesn’t understand how someone could leave another person to die, and to him, the fact they were in a war, where people are killed, doesn’t make a difference. I suppose that if a person has not experienced the feelings of what its like to be in a war, to lose someone you dearly love, then there will never be able to totally understanding as to how someone could do something so sad. I also believe that during the 1930’s and the 1940’s, people had a different way of life. The fact that Mrs Rutter lost her husband in the war made her feel as though the ‘jerry plane’ crashing was a blessing, and it is obvious she has no regrets. We see how Sandra has an insight at why Mrs. Rutter felt she had nothing to be sorry for in acting this way.
The setting of “The Half-Brothers” shows a sense of loneliness and most of the story takes place on the ‘harsh and lonely Fells’. There was also the lack of relatives and friends at the funeral of her daughter. In the text it says that the people who did go were
“Neighbours – my aunt, and one far off cousin,
Who were all the friends they could muster”
It shows that she doesn’t even have hope of having anyone to be close to. She has her sister, but they are of very different personalities. Even though Aunt Fanny was a “kind, warm hearted creature, who thought more of her sisters welfare than she did of her own...” Helen felt they couldn’t talk to each other and because of this, could not share her feelings of sadness with anyone. This feeling that the main character no longer has anyone to understand them is strong in both of the stories.
Later in the story Helen gives birth to a baby boy who she called Gregory. And he became her life.
“She seemed after that to think of nothing but her new little baby.”
Helen used her obsession as a way out of thinking about the bad things that were happening to her. Because she had felt so lonely, she found her new child the only thing to make living worthwhile. Her sister was really worried about her still, as she knew that with no money they would surely be unable to survive, so Aunt Fanny stayed, but she knew that something would still have to be done.
“That’s when William Preston, who was afterwards my father, came in”,
Helen married William Preston because he said that he would make sure that her child was looked after, the child that was Helen’s sole reason for being. He basically bought her into marriage, and it is obvious that Helen only married him because of her financial situation. This means that it was clear from the beginning of the marriage that William Preston wanted Helen because of her good looks, and Helen needed him more because she had no money. This made it very easy for him to rule over her. This saddens the reader, as Helen is so weak that she feels that all she has to live for is her only child. Helen falls pregnant again, and was unsure about having another child, as she loved Gregory so much. She guards him with her life, and because of this, she gives birth early due to an argument about Gregory being bad, as she made excuses for his behaviour. William Preston knows that Helen does not love him the way he wishes she would, and he feels jealous by all her love for her sons. He blames everything on Gregory, and when Helen dies due to the early birth, that too is his fault. He is not treated the same as he is only seen to William as a stepson. Almost as though he is nothing but an inconvenience. The ending of the story made me feel sad by what happened. The tension in “the darkness out there” is that of fear, of shock, but in “half brothers” it comes across in sadness…of the tragic events that happened in the story and the unfortunate fate of Gregory.
“The Half-Brothers” is a very detached story, as the narrator does not seem to have any sort of connection with the people he is talking about, even though he is the second son, he bears no name throughout the whole story. The narrator in “The Darkness Out There” I would say is Sandra. I think this because right at the very end of the story, it is Sandra who does what seems to be a conclusion, and this brings out her maturity. At the beginning she is annoyed by something so small as who she has to work with, but the events that happen show her how “everything is not always as it appears”. At the end, it is not only Kerry who has ‘grown’, but herself too.
My Own Personal Views:
I found the story “Half-Brothers” more informative and its structure appealed to me more because I found it more interesting. However I found the contrast between darkness and light in the story by Penelope Lively rather fascinating. The twist and turns of the short story were very cleverly put together to form a roller coaster of a read. When I was reading the beginning of the story about sunshine and flowers I started to think about the title and how it seemed very strange in connection to what I was reading. The reader could quite easily become stuck into what at first seems like some kind of fairytale, only to be suddenly hit by a somewhat shocking ending which is totally unexpected. “Half-Brothers” has a rather steady flow. I do not mean by this that there is no tension because that certainly is not the case. The tale has a very tragic structure all the way through, and all throughout reading this story, as a reader, I felt generally saddened almost as though it were a true story.
