How Does Liam O Flaherty's Use Of Suspense

Suspense is an important component to many stories such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. It is also important to Liam O’Flaherty’s The Sniper as it drives the story and keeps the reader eager for more. The Sniper is about a sniper fighting in a civil war and how he handles a dangerous situation that puts his life on the line. The author, Liam O’Flaherty writes the story in a way that utilizes suspense and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. In the short story, The Sniper, Liam O’Flaherty uses setting, imagery, and pacing to create a feeling of suspense for the reader. The sound of the wind howling, the moonlight shining through the clouds on a dark and stormy night; these descriptions are a way to pull readers into the setting the story will take place. The Sniper first uses setting to create suspense by using vivid descriptions. The story starts off, in “Dublin [which] lay enveloped in

By the use of multiple adjectives and lines to describe a certain object or person, readers can indulge themselves in the story they are reading. On the second page of the story, readers are finally introduced to their protagonist, the sniper, whose “...eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic” (164) and “...were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death,” (164). Readers can guess that his job as a sniper was probably the cause of such cold and bitter eyes, but begin wonder as to what experiences in his job had caused him to harden in such a way. Suddenly, the sniper is hit by a bullet, “there was no pain--just a deadened sensation, as if the arm had been cut off,” (165). The readers are presented with a horrifying description of how the sniper felt having his arm shot by an opposing sniper. The protagonist is hurt and cannot use his arm, leaving readers anxious and worried about what will happen to