https://thelingolexicon.com/fiction/short-stories/the-darkness-stare-short-story-by-fareha-arshed?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-darkness-stare-short-story-by-fareha-arshed An Online Literary Journal of Translations Thu, 09 Oct 2025 05:10:19 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://thelingolexicon.com/fiction/short-stories/the-darkness-stare-short-story-by-fareha-arshed#comment-956 Tue, 02 Sep 2025 10:17:03 +0000 https://thelingolexicon.com/?p=39757#comment-956 Fareha Arshed is one of the leading story tellers of today. I have already read this short story in her published book “Montage”. This is a powerful and unsettling story that effectively builds a claustrophobic atmosphere of impending doom. The central metaphor of the unseen door representing the protagonist’s fear of blindness is strong. However, the narrative is hampered by its structure.
The core strength is the visceral, Kafkaesque struggle with the door, which perfectly captures disorientation and despair. The nightmare sequence is particularly vivid and disturbing. The main weakness is the lengthy, expository back story that halts the story’s momentum. The story’s conclusion is devastatingly effective, leaving the reader with a profound sense of his trapped existence and the cruel irony of the door’s proximity.

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