Roald Dahl

of a sudden, Bam! The music is going low to high, leaving you on the edge of your seat. This is the thrill of foreshadowing, keeping you in a trance. The character development, keeping you filled in and dialogue for interest. This is well done is Roald Dahl’s "The Landlady" and Prosper Merimee's “Mateo Falcone”. In “The Landlady”, Billy gets entranced into the creepy landlady’s Bed and Breakfast. In the end, Billy ends up stuffed in the hands of a taxidermist. In “Mateo Falcone”, Fortunato…

in 1866, Charles Dickens successfully builds suspense by writing in first person with numerous imageries. In addition, suspense and tension are well-developed through various techniques, such as third person point of view and familiar imagery, by Roald Dahl in the contemporary gothic literature ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’. Dickens explores the theme of insanity to set up suspense throughout the story. This is clearly shown through the adjectives, such as ‘troubled’, ‘strained’ and…

but are they promoting the truth? Would one really know the accuracy of the identity they display? In “The Landlady” a story by Roald Dahl, about a bright young man, who gets drawn to a Bed and Breakfast run by a sweet, harm-free old women, or thats what he thinks... The reader discovers later in the book that, she is plotting to kill him! Similarly in another story by Dahl, “The Hitchhiker”, a short story in which, a driver picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, who is planning to attend the races,…

“Man From The South”, written by Roald Dahl and published in 1948, is a short story that features a preposterous man who makes purposeless bets and when the facing person loses the bet, the man, Carlos, chops off one of the opposing person’s fingers. In the story “Man From The South”, Carlos makes a bet with a young naval cadet that if the naval cadet can light his cigarette lighter ten times in a row without missing once, the naval cadet wins a sleek, pale-green Cadillac. If the naval cadet…

Suspense. Tension. These two words are often the main feature of gothic literature, both traditional and contemporary. ‘The Signalman’ written by Charles Dickens in the year of 1866 is an example of traditional gothic literature. In contrast to that is Roald Dahl’s ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, which is written in the year of 1953, is an example of contemporary gothic literature. Both stories create suspense and tension in a different but a similar way. In ‘The Signalman’, imagery, which is symbols…

Going Solo, Roald Dhal's memoir of his in east Africa and his service in the RAF (Royal Air Force), covers much of the builds up to World War II. In the book it mentions Tanzania. Tanzania plays an important part, since it was where he was sent to by the company that he worked for out East. Dahl tells about Tanzania that " The whole of that amazing tropical scene through the port- has photographed on my mind ever since" (p23). In fact, Tanzania is important because it is the start of his…

Are you Afraid? While both The Landlady and Lamb to the slaughter by Roald Dahl are great stories; both were not scary as they were more creepy. One problem with both stories is that there is a disconnect between the reader and the main characters. In The Landlady, Billy is very naive and always figures things out a little too late compared to the reader, taking them out of the experience. In Lamb to the slaughter the reader follows the killer, slowly losing their mind. While interesting, it…

A book in which Dahl gives his own twists on 6 well known fairy tales including Cinderella, Jack and The Bean Stalk, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Goldilocks and The Three Little Pigs and of course Little Red Riding Hood. In each fairy tale there is a surprise ending and in the case of Little Red Riding Hood there is no happily ever after but this time for the wolf. In Dahl’s version the plot revolves around the wolf and his desire for food with Dahl changing the angle of the original…

wife who is fully devoted to her husband and having the house clean is what every man desires near the end of his lifetime. Patrick Maloney had just that. In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” by Roald Dahl, Patrick, a chief detective, was no longer satisfied with his wife or anticipating the birth of his unborn child. Dahl creates a character who is a loyal, loving wife who faces the betrayal of her husband and things do not turn out as expected. The short story, is presented to the readers in the…

Maloney is a very smart person and she plans ahead before taking any steps. She looks very innocent but she is very evil from the inside. You never know when Mary Maloney can turn into the opposite of what she is. “Lamb to the Slaughter” is written by Roald Dahl. In this story Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband like any other ordinary day. When the truth of Mary Maloney’s husband relieves, she decides to kill her husband “Patrick”. Mary Maloney is not a sane person because she tries to…