How does Hughes present a sesne of fear and menace in this story? The rain horse by ted hughes is a short story text. Ted hughes was a prolific poet and was more celebrated for his poetry than his prose. This narravtive reflects his poetry through the very vivid imagery created by the description of the blinding rain and mysterios horse. Hughes presents a sense of menace and fear through the description of the horse and the horse following him.
Hughes presents menace ad fear through the limited and mysterious descriptions of the horse. The simile: “It seemed to be running on its toes like a cat, like a dog up to no good. “ suggest that the horse is fast. The effect of this is that is gives a very mysterious impression of the horse to the reader. This presents fear and it the reader is unsure how to interpret the nature of this horse. The simile: “or a moment like a nightmarish leopard” suggests that the horse has a daunting aura about him.
The use of the adjective “nightmarish” gives the horse a negative connotation this create a menacing and frightful impression of the horse to the reader. The description: “He got one snapshot glimpse of the red-veined eyeball” suggests the horse has a sense of anger. The effect of the compound adjective “red-veined’ is it creates an almost human like imagery of someone in pure anger state. This shows menace and fear as it portrays the horse to be angry and violent. The limited yet very descriptive language used to describe the horse presents fear to the reader.
