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The Dark Half: Difference between revisions
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'''''The Dark Half''''' is a novel by [[Stephen King]].
Thad Beaumont is a [[Most Writers Are Writers|novelist]] who writes thrillers under the pseudonym of George Stark. As he moves on with his career, he begins using his real name and puts the pseudonym to rest, going so far as to hold a symbolic funeral and erect a headstone for the late Stark. Not long afterwards, someone with Thad's fingerprints and going by the name of George Stark starts killing people...
{{tropelist}}
* [[Arc Words]]: "The sparrows are flying again."
* [[Author Avatar]]: Thad Beaumont, to an extent. Stephen King has written (and still does, occasionally) under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman, and he treats Bachman like a separate person, even giving him a separate biography in Bachman novels. He wrote ''The Dark Half'' partly to explore that idea in a literal sense.
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* [[Enemy Without]]: This should be self-explanatory.
* [[Evil Smells Bad]]: A policeman inspecting the car George Stark had used earlier notes that it smells hostile and animalistic. Stark also falls into this trope later in the book, being followed by the stench of his own decaying body.
* [[Evil Twin]]: If Stark was really Thad's vanished twin, he could be considered this.
* [[Eye Scream]]: During Thad's childhood his foetal twin begins to regrow ''in his brain'' including an eyeball and several teeth. A surgeon lances the eyeball and extracts it. Cut to the future where the Thad is an author writing crime fiction about a character
* [[Impaled Palm]]: Stark at one point makes Thad stab himself through the hand with a pencil. See [[Poke in
* [[Grave Humor]]: Stark's headstone reads [[Understatement|"Not A Very Nice Guy"]].
* [[Groin Attack]]: George Stark combines a old fashioned straight razor, an upward slashing attack, and the groin of an unfortunate cop. All described with typical King [[Squick|skill]]. Did you just wince? Imagine reading it.
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* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Thad's colleague, Rawlie [[De Lesseps]], at first appears to be nothing more than an absent-minded professor. Actually, he is very knowledgeable about folklore and literature and helps Thad to uncover the mystery behind the phrase, "The sparrows are flying again."
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: Like a few other of King's books, some parts appear as actual handwriting instead of the typed font.
* [[Poke in
* [[Psychopomp]]: The sparrows, mentioned by name.
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Sheriff Pangborn. After Stark leaves a bloody fingerprint perfectly matching Thad's at a crime scene, Pangborn arrives to arrest Thad. But when Thad produces an ironclad alibi, Pangborn believes him and does all he can to help catch Stark.
* [[Rise
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: After Stark is "killed", he begins to exact revenge on everyone he views as being responsible for his death.
* [[Serial Killer]]: Alexis Machine, the arch villain of George Stark's crime novels, is one of these.
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: Some see the story as this in light of what happens to Thad afterwards (See [[Bittersweet Ending]]).
* [[Split Personality]]: George Stark started out as this.
* [[Slashed Throat]]: Stark uses a straight razor to slash his victims' throats.
* [[That Man Is Dead]]: Played with and subverted when Thad has a mock photo shoot in front of Stark's grave.
* [[Twin Telepathy]]: A plot point.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Works
[[Category:The Eighties]]▼
[[Category:Horror Literature]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Literature of the 1980s]]
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