The Watcher By The Threshold Literary Devices

John Buchan’s short story “The Watcher by the Threshold” is an example of 19th-century literature dominated by realism with expressions of everyday life, events, and relationships. In the story, the narrator recounts his visit to his beloved cousin Sibyl, and her husband, who is experiencing some form of sickness and appears to be possessed or haunted by a ghost. Rarely is an author able to thrill and scare the reader with just words alone. By using specific literary techniques such as vivid imagery, personification, similes, and metaphors, Buchan succeeds in telling a thrilling horror story that allows the readers to experience the same emotions as the narrator. In literature, imagery is a technique employed by the author to help the reader create “mental images” through the words and phrases the author uses (Literary Terms). In The Watcher by the Threshold, vivid imagery is used to describe the lands, and the characters. The narrator describes Morefoot, the place where he is heading to visit Sybil and her husband, as having “a …show more content…
From Buchan’s vivid descriptions of where he was versus where he was headed, the reader immediately …show more content…
When Buchan said that “…mystery dwelt in every cranny” he sparked a curiosity in the readers of exactly what mystery was lurking in the house (Buchan 506). Another example of personification would be when Buchan gives the sun the human quality of dying; he describes, “…last dying spark of the sun”, hinting to the reader that the sun has just set (Buchan 508). Even more personification was used to describe the scenery, “the sun sent a shiver of crimson over the crests of certain firs”, leaving the reader with the vision of fir trees tinted red from the sunset (Buchan