Differences and Similarities of Short Stories :: The Withered Arm The Red Room Essays

Differences and Similarities of Short StoriesIn this essay I will be comparing the differences and similarities offour short stories I have read, , The manoeuvreman, The Red Room, The composition with the wriggle Lip and The Withered Arm also I will belooking at how the writers have created an atmosphere.The four stories are all of mystery and try to restrain the reader grippeduntil the end, all have areas in which there is suspense. In TheSignalman Charles Dickens keeps the reader in suspense because whenthe ghost visits the signal man you dont really issue who the hauntingwarning is for. In The Red Room H.G. Wells keeps the reader insuspense because when the ghost is sighted it is never reallydescribed. In The Man with the Twisted Lip Arthur Conan Doyle keepsthe reader in suspense by not actually telling if it is a murder onjust disappearance. Also in The Withered Arm doubting Thomas Hardy keeps thereader in suspense because you find out who Gertrude catches the rashfrom.Each w riter had a setting and different historical background TheSignal Man was pen in 1866 by Charles Dickens, the surroundingsfor his story was an old railway station with old steam trains. TheMan with the Twisted Lip written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle waswritten in 1860. This story was one of many Sherlock Holmes taleswhich display aspects of life in the last decade of Victorians reign.The Red Room by H.G Wells was a black letter horror story, which hadtraditional scenery at a castle (Loraine castle). The Red Room waswritten in 1894, H.G Wells makes it obvious how ancient and oldfashioned everything in the castle was. The Withered Arm by ThomasHardy was written in 1865 and located in Wessex, around Dorchesterwhich Thomas Hardy calls Caster bridge the county town of Dorset wheremost of his stories were set.The Signalman by Charles Dickens was set at an old rail way station,with steam trains. The idea of a signal box in the countryside and being manually operated, gives a sense of histo rical background fortodays readers.The Man with the Twisted Lip by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was set inthe streets of East London. A few years onwards the story was written afamous sequential killer Jack the Ripper murdered people on the verysame streets where the story was based on in the story it saidAn endless succession of sombre and deserted streets.This gives the effect that the streets are frightening and vicious.The Red Room by H.G Wells is a Gothic horror story set in a