The Darkness of The Night
In Robert Coates short story ;"The Darkness of the Night" Fred is mislead by his love for Flora because she pretends to be someone that she is not, and he is naive enough to want to commit on her behalf. I will be proving that of how Fred was mislead into committing the murder by evoking certain emotions, the rejection of solution to her problem, and threatening of the relationship between each other.
Flora manages to evoke certain emotions from Fred that ultimately play a part in his final decision to kill Flora’s husband. Flora does not waste any time to talk about her husband; something she knows makes Fred angry: “Always when she starts talking about her husband, Fred would get a feeling of hot helpless anger .(Pg 274)" In this situation, it shows how flora always tries to elicit feelings of anger from Fred. She is well aware of how this makes Fred feel, which is exactly why she makes sure to bring it up. Flora also uses pity in many ways. Firstly, her body language seems to suggest that she is trying to show Fred that she is sad with her life and how her husband treats her. When Fred arrives at the bar and sees Flora, she’s at the corner of the bar, slouched over with her head resting on her hand drinking a beer: “When their eyes met, she didn’t smile or wave; she just watched him… (Pg 273)." All throughout the night, she’s very sad and negative and she keeps insisting that she’s not worth Fred’s time and effort. This is very apparent when she says: “Why don’t you just go? Why don’t you just leave me? (Pg 275)." This further builds up feeling of pity from Fred. Flora then goes on to say: “What’s a man like him want of a woman anyways?(Pg 275)." With this statement, she is telling Fred that her husband mainly uses her for his own needs without any interest in hers. She’s making Fred think that she is being used for sex which makes Fred pity her even more. Flora initially tells Fred that her husband is waiting up for her. However, we later find out that she
Flora manages to evoke certain emotions from Fred that ultimately play a part in his final decision to kill Flora’s husband. Flora does not waste any time to talk about her husband; something she knows makes Fred angry: “Always when she starts talking about her husband, Fred would get a feeling of hot helpless anger .(Pg 274)" In this situation, it shows how flora always tries to elicit feelings of anger from Fred. She is well aware of how this makes Fred feel, which is exactly why she makes sure to bring it up. Flora also uses pity in many ways. Firstly, her body language seems to suggest that she is trying to show Fred that she is sad with her life and how her husband treats her. When Fred arrives at the bar and sees Flora, she’s at the corner of the bar, slouched over with her head resting on her hand drinking a beer: “When their eyes met, she didn’t smile or wave; she just watched him… (Pg 273)." All throughout the night, she’s very sad and negative and she keeps insisting that she’s not worth Fred’s time and effort. This is very apparent when she says: “Why don’t you just go? Why don’t you just leave me? (Pg 275)." This further builds up feeling of pity from Fred. Flora then goes on to say: “What’s a man like him want of a woman anyways?(Pg 275)." With this statement, she is telling Fred that her husband mainly uses her for his own needs without any interest in hers. She’s making Fred think that she is being used for sex which makes Fred pity her even more. Flora initially tells Fred that her husband is waiting up for her. However, we later find out that she