How Are Suspense and Tension Created in The Red Room?
In The Red Room by H.G. Wells a lot of suspense and tension is
created. The Red Room fits into the gothic genre because it has some
of the requirements for a gothic story in it, like, being set in a
castle, an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, a prophecy, the
supernatural and high levels of emotion. The story creates tension in
lots of ways such as, shadows, noises, charcters and general mystery
surrounding the red room.
At the beginning of The Red Room the author creates tension by having
the narrator straight away in a scene which is unusual to him, he is
in a dark old room with old people who are mostly disfigured and
slightly other worldly in the way they look and behave.
“… I had scarce expected these grotesque custodians.” He sees them not
as ordinary people but as being grotesque so is clearly unhappy being
with them. The author also immediately creates tension by talking of
ghosts and the supernatural straightaway.
“… It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.” So we already
have talk of ghosts in only the first line! As the narrator begins
his journey to the red room more tension is created.
“… and my candle flared and made the shadows cower a quiver, the
echoes rang up and down the spiral staircase…” so we have shadows
cowering and quivering which is exactly what people do when they are
frightend, the shadows are also being personified which could be a
representation of the narrator’s fear. The author uses shadows again
to create tension when he is on his way to the red room.
“… and as a shadow came sweeping up after me…” so we feel that the
narrator is being chased up the staircase by something perhaps not of
this worl...
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...king him and
this could result in something happening to him. The description also
enables him to understand how the rumours in the red room could have
started which makes him very nervous. Light and dark are obviously
very symbolic, dark represents danger and the unknown whereas light
means we are safe because we can see everything around us and it is
harder to be fooled by noises or shadows in the light.
Tension and suspense were constantly created in The Red Room by H.G.
Well’s using various techniques, the writer uses a lot of different
techniques to keep the reader wondering and to make sure that tension
and suspense are always present in the story. In my opinion there is
no one technique which is used to greater effect than any other one.
I think that they are all used in equally effective amounts and they
all help to create suspense and tension.
Also if I look at the genre of the story, suspense is built at the
In the second stage, the cave dweller can now see the objects that previously only appeared to him as shadows. “Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer th...
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How is language used to create atmosphere in The Red Room and The Signalman - What is the difference In this essay I will be comparing two stories, The Signalman and The Red Room, I will be looking at the language techniques and how they work. are used throughout the story. All language techniques are used for a reason and in this case it is used to create atmosphere and also keep the readers attention. The stories are both Victorian and remembered for their supernatural content as well as the actual story.
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...e will be lost as sudden lightning or as wind. And yet the ghost of her remains reflected with the metal gone, a shadow as of shifting leaves at moonrise or at early dawn. A kind of rapture never quite possessed again, however long the heart lays siege upon a ghost recaptured in a web of song – Tennessee Williams” (Hoare).
In the passage the author uses similes and metaphors of mystery and light vs dark to show his attraction to the women's stories. In the first couple of lines he uses metaphors to describe the road and the environment around him. He is very anxious to hear the old woman talk about her stories, he compares it to the shedding of skin. The women's stories are helped to be imagined by personification “shadows stood up and walked” (line 19).
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Once we looked at the pavement and found the blocks loose and displaced by grass, with scarce a line of rusted metal to shew where the tramways had run. And again we saw a tram-car, lone, windowless, dilapidated, and almost on its side. When we gazed around the horizon, we could not find the third tower by the river, and noticed that the silhouette of the second tower was ragged at the top. Then we split up into narrow columns, each of which seemed drawn in a different direction. One disappeared in a narrow alley to the left, leaving only the echo of a shocking moan. Another filed down a weed-choked subway entrance, howling with a laughter that was mad. My own column was sucked toward the open country, and presently felt a chill which was not of the hot autumn; for as we stalked out on the dark moor, we beheld around us the hellish moon-glitter of evil snows. Trackless, inexplicable snows, swept asunder in one direction only, where lay a gulf all the blacker for its glittering walls. The column seemed very thin indeed as it plodded dreamily into the gulf. I lingered behind, for the black rift in the green-litten snow was frightful, and I thought I had heard the reverberations of a disquieting wail as my companions vanished; but my power to linger was