“Lethal” by Joyce Carol Oates: The Sinister Element 

"Lethal" by J.C. Oates could potentially be very upsetting to some audiences, this is due to the sinister element created by the implied violence in this piece. 

We had to read this piece it terms of it being a monologue and look into it for effective or not techniques that build a unique voice and essentially characterize the person that the monologue belongs to. 

Reading this piece I decided to look into this sinister quality of the man that is created through the repetition. This repetition of "a little" in the the first half of the monologue and the emphasis on that is placed on it at the end of almost every sentence creates a sense of a romantic scene between a man and a woman. It'd could be interpreted as a man talking softly to his parter. 

Later, as soon as the first demand comes through the use "Don't" one begins to understand that the woman may not exactly enjoy the situation and the sinister elements comes about slightly, it is not until he says "I won't hurt if you don't scream" and blaming her for "exaggerating". This is when the reader understands that this could potentially develop to a rape scene really fast. This is when the sinister element intensifies and the repetitive use of "a little" takes a very sinister like meaning. 

At this point we can really see this character through his words.We can see him believing in all the accusations and remarks that he's making about the woman he's talking to. He's blaming her and becomes aggressive really fast. There's a contrast creating to the calmer and more implied sinister quality of the first part through the diminishing of his actions by the expression "a little" but at this point he gets aggravate and the sinister elements because very evident and dangerous. 

He's repeating  "you're" followed by a blame, he makes it look as if it's the woman's fault. 

This shift in temper and personality is really effective in creating this real like feel of this man. He's very realistic and  you can see his delusion that it's her fault and that she wants to "castrate him" escalate making the implication of the crime that's about to follow very vivid.

It's a very effective monologue and it encapsulates this three-dimensional character.