Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant" is a short story written by Mary-Louise Buxton. It is written as a first person narrator, as a child called Elizabeth. It is written quite unstructured, mostly describing the life of Elizabeth and her family in their home in Mount Pleasant, not showing the stories twist until the end. The narrator uses a very childish language using expressions like "Mammy", "babby brother" and "Eeny meeny miny mo". As a short story, the plot and character descriptions are quite simple, but this story is written in a way where you can interpret a lot, without reading it. It is not told where the family comes from, or who the owners of the old house were, but it leaves hints, by the details of the story. It doesn't say directly that there is a ghost haunting the house, but it leaves the impression.

The themes of the story involve childhood. By being narrated by a child, it gives us the perspective of a child, and lets us feel the imagination and fears of a child. The story might not have the characteristics of a horror story, but has of lot of mystery in it. If there is actually a ghost in the house or not, is for the reader to decide, it could also just be the innocent imagination of a child. It can also be interpreted as a simple story about the life of a family, but in that case the story might come off as a bit boring, not really having a twist. But the narrator's technique makes us think that there is something special to come. The writer uses ethos to make us emphasise with the girl, by being sweet and innocent, using a very childish language, but also being curious and having a great imagination which gives some action. By using more complicated words and long sentences, she also seems intelligent even though she still comes off as a silly girl, with the childish words, which adds the most the humour to the story.

The story takes place in Elizabeth and her family's new home "Mount Pleasant". It is described as a big beautiful house

...