The Stories of ‘The Terribly Strange Bed’, ‘The Whole Town is sleeping’ and ‘The Landlady’

‘All three stories deal with the subject of fear, murder and suspense. Compare the three stories and comment on which story you find the most successful.’

Fear and suspense, when used correctly can create a story just as gripping and fascinating as it is chilling. This can be achieved in a variety of ways, settings and time periods. The three stories selected in this case demonstrate three successful yet individual methods, which although are written in different time periods, with different types of victims and criminals, still manage to link to each other in a variety of ways.

‘The Terribly Strange Bed’ is written from a first person perspective, looking back at an event in his life, immediately telling the reader that the narrator eventually survives. It is set in eighteenth or nineteenth century France and uses language in an according style. ‘The Whole Town is sleeping’ is written from a third person perspective and is set in the 1940s, including modern technologies such as the cinema. For this reason, fear is mainly generated via a mix of darkness and solitude. ‘The Landlady’ is also written from a third person perspective, but is set in a slightly later time period, around the1960s. The fear in this story builds slowly and is more psychological than the other two, as the victim is unaware of the danger and therefore the reader is left to identify the danger on their own.

Another difference between the stories comes with the victims. Billy Weaver from ‘The Landlady’ is the most unique of the three victims. He is a seventeen year old male attempting to become a successful businessman.

“He was trying to do everything briskly these days. Briskness was the one common characteristic of all successful businessmen…the Big shots at head office were brisk all the time. They were amazing.”

He envies the “Big Shots” and is focussed sternly upon joining their successful ways. He is truly innocent and naïve as is proved when he enters the ‘The Landladies’ house. Within minutes he realises that his host is “off her rocker” but considers her “harmless” and a “kind and generous soul”.

He notices oddities such as the fact that she has only had two guests in the last three years and does not even think twice when the landlady states that they “are still here.” Other lines such as “I stuff all my little pets” are just as odd and almost frightening, but he fails to pick up on them. He may even recognise the danger but is too weak and indecisive to take any action. He is always focussed on his career, so much so that he fails to notice the situation he has found himself in.

I find it difficult to dislike Billy Weaver due to his freshness and innocence, but his terrible observation skills make him appear thoughtless and stupid. Although the Story is left open with no definite ending, the fact that he has already drank the tea that “tasted faintly of almonds” i.e. contained cyanide gives the reader the impression that his death is imminent. He is not particularly close to picking up on the landladies’ psychotic and murderous ways, believing them to be incredulous and the weakness of his character gives the reader the impression that even if he did find out, he would be too frightened to act.

Mr Faulkner from ‘The Terribly Strange bed’ is almost the opposite of Billy. Instead of being oblivious to danger he consciously seeks it out in an attempt to find excitement. He is “thoroughly tired, in fact, of all the ghastly respectability’s of such a social anomaly as a respectable gambling house.” He is young, rich and wild. His speech demonstrates his first class upbringing although his intelligence surpasses that of an every day schooling.

When he enters the “blackguard” gambling house his wildness overpowers his intelligence. This continues to be the way while he brakes the bank, becoming ‘drunk on gambling’ and refuses his friends advise to leave until he is left alone with a group of “ragged and hungry” group of criminals, drunk on champagne carrying a great deal of money. The two soldiers who have supposedly befriended him are obviously bad news, but his focus and addiction to the gambling and his unfit state of mind due to the alcohol cloud his judgement. For this reason again he absentmindedly accepts quite obviously drugged coffee and agrees to sleep in the ‘Old Soldiers’ lodgings.

Up until this point, Mr Faulkner appears to be just as gullible as Billy, but he at least recognises the danger he is in. He is also quick whited and decisive, qualities that allow him to roll away, out of the bed to safety. Although it seems unfair that Billy should die while Mr Faulkner survives, the manor in which he recounts the reckless story, with lines such as,

"I must do him, my friend, justice in saying that he repeated his warnings and entreaties before retiring” give the reader the impression that he has seen the error of his ways and will prosper accordingly. In my opinion, his complete and utter naivety meant that there would be little hope in life for Billy.

The third and final victim, Lavinia, shares more characteristics with Mr Faulkner than with Billy Weaver, but is still an individual in her own right. She is a reckless and beautiful young maiden living out a quiet existence in a “little town far away from everything”. She lives on her own and does not work, her main aim in life to marry well. She is the ‘leader’ of her friendship group, a title she has gained via being brave when others were scared and decisive when others were unsure.

She tries extremely hard to be brave at all times although not in a courageous or supportive way. She would rather take her chances with the lonely one than lose face in front of her friends. Another example of this occurs when Lavinia refused to sleep at her friend’s house despite “Francine beginning to cry”.

“Let’s run” gasped Francine.

“No” Lavinia replied.

This line demonstrates almost cruelty on Lavinia’s part. She revels in her calmness while others panic without caring about her friend’s feelings.

From the moment she is on her own, she loses her nerve. She hears a mans voice and “walks a little faster”. Now that she has nobody to act in front of, she begins to worry. While crossing the dark ravine, she considers staying at her friend Helen’s house but dismisses the idea quickly worried about appearing scared in front of her friends. She even counts the steps to safety, and believes that someone is following her, albeit erroneously. She has completely lost her coolness by this point. She is panicking terribly, “her heart exploded, the beating filling the universe”, and she sees herself for what she is for the first time, a fraud.

Once again the ending is left open to the imagination, although Bradbury leaves a strong feeling of immanent death. If Lavinia does die as is commonly believed, it seems correct that she understands and recognises her shortcomings moments before her death, in a classic manor, once she is unable to change.

She is in part responsible for her demise. She refuses warning with lines such as “if I’m the next victim, I’m the next victim” and forces her friends into a dangerous, lonely, dark situation after the cinema when they would have quite happily been at home. Despite this, she is not as responsible for the danger as Mr Faulkner is. In a similar fashion to Billy Weaver, the danger finds her as opposed to vice versa, and although she somewhat embraces it, feeling no fear, simply “the slightest prickle of excitement” when she realises that she may be the next to die, she cannot be blamed entirely for her death.

In my opinion, I feel far more sympathy for Billy Weaver than I do for the other victims, as he is innocent. I dislike Lavinia for her arrogance, and although Mr Faulkner is a loveable rogue, his stupidity does make him rather unappealing. The ‘best’ victim, in my opinion is Lavinia. Mr Faulkner’s search for danger makes his finding it less shocking, and the fact that Billy is unaware means a complete lack of emotion on his part. Lavinia is hunted down during a complex twist of emotion and fear that really grasps the reader. Descriptive writing adds to her character, and her supposed death at the end of the tale gives the reader the impression that the events were believable and even likely.

Just as the victims in a story have a part to play, the villains are just as important. An ideal match would come between a victim that the reader can relate to and empathise with and a villain who can terrify. Victims in a story can vary greatly, and the villains can do just the same, as is demonstrated by the three selected stories.

Out of the three “The Lonely one” from “The Whole Town is sleeping” is probably the most common variety of victim. He is a newcomer to the town, with little known about him. He is alone in life, and a mentally disturbed, sick, twisted individual. He murders the ‘most beautiful woman in town’, then the next and the next. He “strangles them”, leaving “their tongue hanging out of their mouth”. For these reasons it is assumed that he has some kind of sexual motive for his killing.

What makes him a “classic” murderer is talk around the town. He is known of but not known, and is feared and avoided accordingly, becoming somewhat a cult figure around the town, as is demonstrated by Lavinia’s friend who scares her by jumping out and shouting “I am the Lonely One!”

The murderer/s in the other stories are different. The victim does not know that they are around a murderer and therefore are just as if not more scared than the victim in “The Whole Town is sleeping”, when they realise. The fear is also varied. Lavinia is terrified by the realisation that she is faced with “The Lonely One”. She knows his reputation and therefore her fate. Mr Faulkner is unaware of the villain’s intentions, so when his situation hits him, he has no limit in his mind as to what will happen to him. Billy Weaver is completely unaware, so the fear is felt entirely by the reader.

The Landlady is a frightening villain because she appears to be so ordinary upon first glance. Every person trusts people like her everyday and the realisation that this series of events could easily happen is terrifying. He describes her as “forty five to fifty” and says that she is “terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school friend at school”. This look, which he actually describes as “harmless”, adds yet more to the fear as it shows the reader that in every day life, you can never be sure of anyone or anything. Although it seems apparent to the reader that the landlady has a murderous plot, it would seem so obvious to the victim. Lines such as “I stuff all my little pets” seem extremely strange but no one would except that their hostess was planning to kill them.

She commits murder using cups of tea laced with cyanide to poison her victims. This is just as sinister, as it would be possible to be killed without evening realising what was going on. A cup of tea is such an innocent gesture that it would be excepted from almost anyone, especially a kind old lady, within minutes of meeting them. This once again would be true of reality.

These links to real life makes the landlady a lot more frightening than the Lonely One. The Lonely One’s character has been overused, and despite clever use of tension steadily building to a crescendo, fails to avoid becoming a cliché. A random serial killer arriving in ones hometown is very unlikely, but the Landlady could appear anywhere.

In Collins’ story, there are a group of killers. They are not psychopaths as are the murderers in the other two stories, and think of murder as something of a business venture. They coldly calculate a plot allowing them to steal money from their victims. It is difficult to make any connection to real life as is possible with the Landlady, as Mr Faulkner searches out this danger, it would never have found him.

To the reader and Mr Faulkner alike, a plot of some kind is almost inevitable. He is carrying immense wealth in an environment made up of “ragged and hungry” thieves. Even after he escapes the “blackguard” gambling house and arrives at his ‘his’ friends lodgings, he takes precautions such as barring the door and checking the windows. The only connection to real life comes with the style of the attempted murder itself. Despite every precaution on the part of Mr Faulkner, the plot still comes close to success.

They attempt to suffocate him using a silent machine designed to push the top of his bed down on him while asleep and suffocate him. This frightens the reader, as it shows that there is always a way and that you are never really safe.

These murderers are, in my opinion not as fear inspiring as the aforementioned other two. The Lonely one is hardly an original character, but the reason that this character has become a cliché is become it is a high quality portrayal of a terrifying villain. The landlady is a surprise killer, and is more of a psychological prompt for the reader, rather than a terrifying written character. She inspires further thought, leaving the reader thinking ‘it could have been me’. The ragged gang is less effective because it fits into no particular category. It is apparent that a plot will take place but still attempts to surprise the reader when one does. Also, the escape of the lead gives the impression that the gang is poorly organised and inefficient, whereas the supposed flawless slaughter of the leads in the other stories leaves the reader feeling the opposite.

Although the villains in the other two stories are very different and therefore difficult to compare, I slightly favour the Landlady. Although it is difficult to feel fear during the story, as is possible with “The Whole Town is sleeping”; it leaves the reader with feelings of uncertainty that will be contemplated well after the end of the story. In my opinion, a terrifying mythical killer doesn’t come close to a tamer, real life equivalent.

The settings and surroundings of each story effect it a great deal and once again are varied from story to story. They are able to accentuate emotions and characteristics that would otherwise be difficult to express. “The Landlady” is set in the mid nineties in the quiet town of Bath. Although this is not generally thought of as a classic setting for a murder story, it is still effective as it ads to the real life comparison, showing the reader that murder can happen at any time in any place.

The small bed and breakfast is seemingly dark and quiet, with little sign of life, as the Landlady has dedicated her life to surrounding herself with death. This gives the reader the impression that Billy is alone, and escape will come only from his own initiative, an area of his personality in which is lacking.

Also, Billy is obviously accustomed to large, business orientated, commercial areas, as he comments on the regular behaviour of businessmen. This means that quiet, lonely and hardly commercial Bath is foreign turf. He is away from home in a new place making these experiences completely new to him. He therefore does not know how to deal with them.

Finally, the sign that first attracts Billy to the B&B, “compelling him, forcing him to stay”, introduces the idea of abnormality and mystique to the reader and gives a hint as to the strange activity that is to follow.

“The Whole Town is sleeping” is set in a very small town in Illinois country in the 1940s. The size of the Town is very important as it inspires Lavinias way of thinking. There is little excitement in her life so when some appears in the form of the “Lonely One” she relishes it and uses the situation to demonstrate her reckless bravery to her friends. She has lived a peacefully doing little with her life.

The ravine is also used to its full potential. Nowadays, it would be unusual to have to walk through a ravine to get home. A lack of transport in the forties allows Bradbury to force a character to walk through a dark frightening place such as a ravine, whereas in modern day, where towns are highly populated and generally built up, it would be harder to include this scene in a story realistically. The lack of transport is also utilised by making the characters walk too and from the cinema.

“The Terribly Strange Bed” was written many years ago, probably in the eighteen hundreds. This can be gathered via the use of language and the very fact that they visit a gambling house to find danger as opposed to a club or bar. The time period is optimised in several ways. An example of this comes when Mr Faulkner Breaks the Bank, but can not get home for fear of being robbed. Later time periods would allow the use of a Taxi or another form of driven transport.

The gambling house that he visits was chosen to be “blackguard” and was chosen well. He enters to see “mute, weird tragedy” that exceeded even his expectations. This means that from the moment he enters the gambling house, he is in over his head. Returning home would embarrass him in front of his friend and would hardly appear masculine, so he is forced to stay.

As he continually drinks and loses his self-control, the reader realises that he is in great danger not only of losing his money but also of losing his life. In fact, the gambling house constitutes a large part of the story line. He visits it to find danger, but ends up in a difficult situation, as it would be unsafe and unwise to stay, but also to leave. The setting is the author’s way of forcing Mr Faulkner into “The Terribly Strange bed”, and therefore as much of the story as any of the characters.

The writer’s choice of characters and settings for all three of the stories are chosen to create fear. The variety in characters and settings, and the author’s specific style of writing naturally leads to variety in fear.

“The Whole Town is sleeping” creates an opening for tension early on by introducing the murderous “Lonely One” quickly. From this point on, the tension builds steadily while the girls express their fear, until something shocking happens in front of them. An example of this would be when Lavinia’s friend Tom Dillon jumps out in front of them, or when the girls see Eliza Ramsell’s corpse. After these events, the tension levels drop, and begin building once again.

While Lavinia is crossing the ravine and running to her house, the tension levels approach there highest and while she unlocks her front door reach a crescendo. When she finally gets inside, she relaxes, as do the tension levels. When she hears the man behind her, she panics, and although the end of the tale cuts the tension short, it is quickly building.

Tension early on is limited by Lavinias sarcasm, and although the other girls are terrified, the mood is broken. The real tension comes from the dark solitude of the ravine and Lavinias uncertainty as to whether she is being followed or if she is safe.

“The Terribly Strange Bed” builds tension constantly, without ever really relaxing, until it culminates with the escape from the bed. Fear is generated via the realisation that Mr Faulkner is in immense danger in an unfit state and that, and violence is bound to follow. The reader relaxes slightly when Mr Faulkner locks himself in the room, even if he does not.

After he escapes the bed during several lines of sheer panic, he still has to escape the room without alerting his captures. The style of writing changes slightly at this point, changing from the excitement of gambling, or the giddiness of an alcoholic daze, to a more focussed stealth like fashion. Tension is moderate due to his self-confidence, although still present. Once he has found a policeman, all tension lifts, and the story simply continues to explain the outcome.

Tension is once again generated by solitude, although in a different style. It is no longer the absence of life that terrifies, it is the absence of friends and of everything he knows.

“The Landlady” contains little no tension. Billy Weaver is unaware of the plot to kill him so is relaxed and friendly throughout. The Landlady is just as amicable, so tension rarely amounts. The only tension felt is by the reader, as Billy subconsciously races to realise his situation. The Landlady is still frightening just in a separate manor the other books. It is psychologically disturbing as was previously mentioned, and concentrates on the fears of the reader as opposed to the fears of a main character.

In my opinion, “The Whole Town is sleeping” has by far the best ending of the stories. It builds to breaking point then stops, finally allowing the reader to relax. The sudden and unsuspected appearance of the “Lonely One” is a satisfying twist, while still managing to leave the ending open for debate. It ends at its best, leaving the reader with a feeling of excitement that is not approached by either of the other novels and is all the better because of it.

“The Terribly Strange Bed” reaches an exciting crescendo similarly to Bradbury’s book, but continues long after it. This extra section once Mr Faulkner has escaped the bed and the establishment and has found a policeman, removes all tension and the majority of the immediate affect of the book, leaving the reader cold. In my opinion, a more suitable ending could have taken place immediately after the escape, or even to leave the reader on a cliff-hanger during it. As it stands, a crescendo is wasted.

While “The Terribly Strange Bed” wastes a crescendo, “The Landlady avoids one entirely. Dahls’ novel could have stopped at a number of times, as the ending was not particularly important, simply leaving Billy’s life hanging in the balance. I personally prefer it to “The Terribly Strange bed” as it leaves the reader thinking, but does not have the immediate effect of Bradbury’s effort. A crescendo would mean an entirely different style of writing throughout the book and therefore would be impossible to include, but in my mind is still a preferable ending.

Of the three, my favourite murder story on all accounts is “The Whole Town is sleeping”. I believe that a murder story should contain danger, excitement and suspense throughout. The Landlady opts for a tension free style that although is successful in its own way, does not fulfil my expectations.

An ending should be exciting and thought provoking, and although a cliff-hanger is always a welcome inclusion, it is by no means a necessity. “The Terribly Strange Bed” reaches a climax early on, and includes almost an epilogue to explain the story. This somewhat ruins the effect of the ending, and therefore leaves little lasting impression.

One should be able to empathise with the lead and feel generally worried for their safety. The reader should also have feelings towards the villain whether pity, hatred or a mix of the two. The environment should accent the characters and draw to light aspects of their personality that would otherwise go unnoticed, as well as increasing providing fear.

In my opinion, “The Whole Town is sleeping” fulfils these criteria the best out of the three selected texts, and is therefore the most successful story.