Comparison of Works of "Samphire" and the "Hitch-Hiker Short"

The two short stories of “Samphire” and “The Hitch-Hiker” can be considered as two very different stories, however some similarities can still be found between them. The story of “Samphire”, written by Patrick O’Brian, is a story about a woman named Mollie who, as made obvious in the story, simply despises her husband named Lacey, a strange little man who doens’t show much real care for his wife.

Appearing to be a conventional married couple on holiday by the sea, as the story progresses, the emptiness of their relationship becomes visible, and Mollie’s unhappiness leads to her desperate attempt to kill her husband, which doesn’t go through as planned.

Roald Dahl’s “The Hitch-Hiker” is a comedic and suprising story about a man who picks up an unusual hitch-hiker. The strange hitch-hiker eventually gets the driver into trouble with the authorities, but as unexpected events take place, the drivers view of the strange hitch-hiker changes.

A good way to compare stories is to first look at the main characters, or the protagonists and antagonists.

For the first story of “Samphire”, it is obvious that Mollie’s husband Lacey is the antagonist of the story, atleast that is how the author describes him to us; the author makes it quite clear to the reader that everything Lacey does annoys Mollie, that he is weak and does not really care for Mollie. It is noticeable that Mollie does not say one word to her husband throughout the whole story, more evidence that her husband is simply to self-involved to even notice her silence.

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It is evident that Lacey is even slightly abusive in their relationship: “Lacey was her lord and master, wasn’t he? Love, honour, and obey? He put his arm round her when they came to a sheltered turn of the path and began to fondle her, whispering in his secret night-voice, Tss-ts-tss, but he dropped her at once when some coast-gaurds appeared”. Mollie attempts to murder her husband, almost appearing as the heroin of the story at this point due to the reader’s hate for her husband, essentially making her the protagonist of the story.

For the story of “The Hitch-Hiker”, identifying the protagonist and antagonist becomes a little more complicated. In the beginning of the story, we percieve the driver, essentially Roald Dahl as the story is in the 1st person, as the protagonist and the hitch-hiker that he picks up, named Michael Fish, as the antagonist. Roald Dahl describes the hitch hiker similarly to a rat so that it makes the reader assume that the hitch hiker is probably a murderer or some other sort of criminal; once the reader assumes that, it will make them predict that something bad or interesting will happen involving the narrator and hitch-hiker.

However as the story progresses, we see that the hitch-hiker may have been wrongly labelled, helping the driver out of a speeding ticket and changing the antagonist to the police officer that pulls them over for speeding. In these ways, the two stories are quite different in terms of protagonists and antagonists. Both stories are based closely on the conflicts and relationships within them. A distinct conflict can be found within the story of “Samphire” between the married couple of Mollie and Lacey.

Throughout the story, the author makes it clear to the reader that everything her husband does annoys Mollie to the point that she simply stops caring: “At the next tobacconist, by the pier, he made the same joke to the man there. She stood near the door, not looking at anything”. Though she hesitates at first, Mollie tries to push Lacey off of the cliff and nearly succeeds in killing him, elevating their conflict. Though at first the conflict seems to be between the hitch-hiker and the driver, the main conflict within “The Hitch-Hiker” comes down to the strife between the driver and the police officer.

We are introduced to the hitch-hiker as a sinnacle, suspiscious looking man who appears to be nothing but trouble, and though the hitch-hiker tempts the driver to speed, he then saves the driver from the police officer by stealing the officer’s black book. Though the driver never fully trusts the hitch-hiker, by the end of the story they form a relationship as the driver is thankful of the strange hitch-hiker. Each story has it’s own themes that make the two stories unique from eachother.

One similarity between the two stories’ themes is that the stories both finish at the same place they started. For instace, in “Samphire”, the story starts with the woman Mollie being miserable with her husband. The climax of the story is when she attempts to kill her husband, however she does not succeed, and the story ends where it started, ending with the line: “and there were her feet marching on the path; one, the other; one, the other, down, down, down” as if to show that this was not the first time she had done this.

With “The Hitch-Hiker”, the story begins with a man driving; he then picks up a hitch-hiker and they get pulled over for speeding. By the end of the story however, the hitch-hiker has stolen the police officer’s black book, therefore essentially going back to the start. The other similarity between the stories is that there is an element of misjudgement within them. For example, in “Samphire”, the husband Lacey misjudges his wife into thinking that she actually cares about him and his samphire plant: “In the morning she said she would like to see the samphre again.

He was very pleased and told the hotel-keeper that she was becoming quite the little botanist”, his misjudgement of course leading to the attempted murder. As for “The Hitch-Hiker”, it is the driver that misjudges the hitch-hiker; although the driver labels the hitch-hiker as a rather suspicious person, he rescues the driver from a speeding ticket, and the drivers way of judging people by speech and appearance is changed.

The literary presentation is another thing to look at when comparing two stories. In terms of the level of detail that is used in the stories, each story uses about the same amount, each being fairly descriptive in their own way. O’Brian does a good job of painting a picture of the enviroment and misery in “Samphire”, where as Dahl uses descriptive imagery to show us exactly what the hitch-hiker would look and act like.

One difference between the two stories is the atmoshphere of the stories; the atmosphere of “Samphire” is almost one of misery and emptiness, whereas the feeling that you get when reading “The Hitch-Hiker” is one of interest and intrigue, mostly wanting to see what the characters say to eachother and finding out who the mysterious hitch-hiker is. The major difference between the two stories in terms of literary presentation however is the conversation and interaction between characters within the stories.

The only conversation within “Samphire” is done by the husband, whereas Mollie never talks, leaving the story to progress through actions rather than dialogue. On the other side, “The Hitch-Hiker” is based solely on the witty dialogue between the driver and his passenger that keeps the story progressing and interesting. Overall, the two stories have their similarities and their differences, while certain similarities can be found between the two stories’ themes and conflicts, they each become unique when it comes down to the characters and overall literary presentation.