"and the river seems dreamlike in the daytime..."

The story of 'The Erl-King' is based on the traditional story of a creature who haunts forests and carries off travellers to their deaths.
In 'The Bloody Chamber' collection the story of The Erl-King is written in a more sexual way as the female character is not led to her death by the creature but is instead led her into sex and corruption. The way in which it is written is very dream-like, therefore aiding the ambiguity of the story and allowing the characters and settings to have the qualities associated with dreams. This can be seen in the female character's apparent omnipotence; " I knew at once that all its occupants had been waiting for me" and the way the order of the story seems to jump and repeat itself. The female character/narrator refers to the obscurity of the setting and the illusions that it creates for the reader through her descriptions of the woods; "It is easy to loose yourself in these woods." The opening paragraph of the story sets the scene in a dream-like way by using personification but it helps to create a 'half-belief' as it describes a scenario that could potentially be true; "vertical bars of brass-coloured distillation of light coming down from sulphur-yellow interstices in a sky hunkered with grey clouds that bulge with more rain. It struck the wood with nicotine-stained fingers, the leaves glittered."