The Superstitious Man’s Story by Tomas Hardy and Night-Fears by Leslie Poles Hartley Essay Example

his mind. While the watchman tries to think about the good things in his, (to get away from fear) like family, money and his job, suddenly a stranger appears:"...someone was sitting on the barrier, his back turned on the night watchman's little compound." The watchman feels strange, because he never heard the stranger moving close to his compound: "Strange, I never heard him come." This is where the mystery starts in this story, because as the night watchman starts talking to the stranger, it is hard to tell whether he is talking to a real person, or talking to himself. Therefore it is possible that the stranger is just watchman's fantasy and at the end of the story, the watchman commits suicide as a cause of being tortured by his own consciousness and fear.

However, what makes the mystery even more powerful, is that the stranger is said to rise and walk away leaving footprints in the ground:"Then he climbed back and crossing the street, entered a blind alley opposite, leaving a track of dark, irregular footprints..." Therefore, the two possible explanations are: There really was a stranger and by talking to him, the night watchman realised many true things about his life, which forced him to commit suicide. The other possibility is that, there was no stranger and the watchman was talking to his own consciousness. This depressed him and he committed suicide.

In the end, no answer is given, it all becomes a mystery.'The Superstitious Man' is supposed to be an oral story, which one of the characters in it, is telling to another. I believe, that this story is written from this particular viewpoint,

because Hardy saw it as an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the superstition existing in his village. This story could be a typical example of those stories, which were told, when Hardy grew up. I believe, that stories that were similar to 'The Superstitious Man's Story,' were the cause of the existing superstition in Dorset.

This story is written in the third person, which is the way that makes the story sound real:"Nancy did not answer yes or no...three days later William Privett was moving with John Chiles in Mr Hardcome's meadow..." Obviously the teller wants the listeners to believe and live through it and therefore, all the story is written in this particular person. As the story is told, it is easier to add exciting bits to it and make listener amused:"To he great surprise, and I might say alarm, on reaching the foot of the stairs his boots were standing there as they always stood when he had gone to rest..." It is hard to write in third person, but more people can be involved in the story and as the story is told, the listener can imagine it, like watching TV:"...William not being a man giving too much speaking, and his wife being occupied with her work." As you can see here, we get to know better about each character, when writing in this particular person.The 'Night-Fears" is also written in third person for the same reasons. The writer can easily describe, at the same time, the atmosphere and character:"...they bristled like a barricade. The night watchman felt himself in charge of a fortress." Perhaps, if the story was written in the first person,

like the viewpoint of the watchman only, we would never see the two possible explanations. We would only see one and as people never realise that they are talking to themselves, then the stranger most probably would be seen as real.

This suggests us, that William went looking for his son's spirit.As an absolute contrary to William's character is the night watchman, in the story "Night-Fears." The watchman is said to be an ordinary man, caring, working, correct and good husband. As it is the end of the war, he is very happy to have the job and can't imagine the sadness if he loses it. This tells us, that the watchman is very thankful and careful person: "The night watchman felt himself in charge of a fortress." However, the night watchman's worries, tells us that he is quite an unstable and searches for things that can go wrong in everything. As he proceeds in his search for bad, he figures out and comes to a conclusion, that all the bad will start from the new job.

Especially in 'Night-Fears'. Some old expressions and words are used in both stories: "domain, ee, cuckoo, when the eye don't see..." I think that the use of these words and the old and more difficult structure of sentence, makes these stories seem more mysterious. Some of these words, such as: "drab-coloured" expresses and imposes much more imaginary and descriptive image, than just simply saying: "dull brown." The use of the words "drab-coloured" suggests a wet and cold image, where as the words "dull brown" doesn't impose anything else except the image of the colour itself.As a conclusion, I find 'Night-Fears'

more mysterious and easy to believe. This might be because I don't believe in much superstition and 'The Superstitious Man's Story' is all about superstition and people who believe in it. 'Night-Fears' seems more realistic, because even in our days, there are people who die committing suicide, just as a cause of what they believe in. If people are easy to brake (spiritually) these days, then seventy years ago it would have had been even easier. The mystery in the story about the night watchman, crosses with reality, at some point. It is perfectly possible, that the night watchman committed suicide for his own reasons, where as William in 'The Superstitious Man's Story" just died because of a superstition people believed in.