Twins

Eric Wright gives little hints about what is going to happen in the ending when the wife and husband are talking about the other woman on page 216. At this point you can realize that he was running through what he was going to do to her that night. He was asking what would work and get ideas about how it would work better. He was trying to get her to plan her own murder and plan how he won't get caught. This gives a clue about what is going to happen later on in the story because you can tell that when he is talking he is giving more detail. This means that what he is telling is coming from his own experience, not one of a make believe character.

"His wife often criticized his plots for being too complicated, but this one worked". The term in medias res can be applied to this opening statement because you need to read to the ending to understand what this means. It is a sentence that explains what happens in the story, but it is incomprehensible unless you know what happens in the ending.

The author used this technique effectively, it makes the reader wonder what is going on, and therefore, will read on. The reader will want to find out what plot worked, how it worked, and how were his other plots complicated. It also sets a type of mood for the story, it produces a mystery for what worked and how it is proven that it works. The reader will question what type of plot it is. This makes the author's technique effective in having the reader want to know more about the story.

 In the first part of the story the point of view is from the husband's perspective. It's all about his plot and how he is going to make this one work. In the second part of the story, it's the wife's point of view. This is partly because the husband was murdered by her, therefore; can not be from his perspective anymore. The first part of the short story is mostly dialogue, whereas; the second part of the story isn't any dialogue, it's informing you the full effect of his story's plot.

The author used the first style because he wanted you to get familiar with the male character and try to figure out that the wife already knows without being in the wife's perspective. This is effective because you can get the clues about halfway through the story that give you the idea that the husband's plot isn't a plot for a novel. The second style is from the wife's perspective this is where you see the wife follow through with the husband's plot. The reader understands that the wife knew all along and you get a new feel for the story. You could re-read the story it will be seen in a new light. You will be able to realise the clues leading up to the twist.

The author wants us to believe that the husband is going to murder the wife then follow through with his plan in making her death seem irrelevant to him. Instead, the author has the wife kill the husband and the wife uses her husband's plan to avoid getting caught by the police. The twist works because the reader just finds out that he's actually going to try to kill her. The author then shocks them with the fact that he lied and the wife killed him instead. This has the reader in a state where they aren't sure what just happened, when they get to the last sentence they realise what went on.

The twist isn't very realistic in the sense that if you found out your spouse is going to murder you, you probably wouldn't go to a deserted place with him/her. They could find another method of killing you other than what you had controlled. You would probably call the police and/or run away and look into getting a retraining order if he/she couldn't be arrested. You could also play it cool and just file for a divorce saying that you know about the other relationship and it's not fair to any of them to be cheating.