Elizabeth Gaskell short story The Old Nurse's Story, which is taken Essay

Elizabeth Gaskell short story The Old Nurse's Story, which is taken from the Virago Book of Ghost Stories (Virago 2006), The Weir by Connor McPherson, and dramatises Valerie's story - Essay Example ‘The Virago Book of Ghost Stories’ has series of ghost stories which are edited chronologically so that the reader can feel the change in the pattern of the ghost stories over the ages. In the short story ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’, the author Mrs. Gaskell pitches in various factors that make the plot of the story truly supernatural. She inculcates the series of untimely deaths, the secrets of the family, the sibling rivalries along with more common features like love and jealousy. The most important attribute that makes the story so popular in the genre of the supernatural stories is the addition of certain Gothic features like that of the old manor house, stormy evenings, extreme emotions, super natural ambience and above all the child ghost. The excerpts from the story, â€Å"I was all in a hot, trembling passion; and I said it was very well for her to talk, that knew what these sights and noises betokened, and that had, perhaps, had something to do with the spectre -child while it was alive. And I taunted her so, that she told me all she knew, at last; and then I wished I had never been told, for it only made me afraid more than ever† (Gaskell, â€Å"The Old Nurses Story†) provides for the superb case of spectre - child. The play ‘The Weir’ captures the scene of a regular rural Irish Bar where three ‘regulars’ are busy in having drink with the bar owner. The four of them are old time friends. While sipping in to their drinks, they are busy narrating and swapping stories with each other. All of a sudden, a lady, in her late thirties, arrives at the bar and asks for wine. She joins the four friends with her drink. The chemistry of the group changes as all of them tries to impress the lady with their stories which in due course of time turns to Irish folklores with supernatural events. After all the male counterparts are done with their respective stories, the lady commences her narration of the melancholy