An excellent short story. Well written. The effective forecast that shows Seymour’s
peculiar behavior. Then follows the part where the girl and Seymour go into the
sea. Because of his madness, the reader is afraid that he will drown the girl
at any moment. For example, the expression: “He edged the float and its passenger
a foot closer to the horizon.” This signifies that the girl is pushed away from
the shore to the more dangerous spot in the sea. This intensifies the reader’s
scare. The abrupt ending is effective, betraying the reader’s expectation. The
reader does not know what will happen with his gun until the last moment, or
until they read the last three words: his, right, temple. Almost all the
readers, I guess, would think that he would shoot Muriel.
A good writer knows how to betray the reader’s expectation.
