The Red Room

The Red Room

I am writing an essay, based on the story ‘The Red Room’, and will try

to explain what makes it such a good mystery story. Some of the main

reasons for why it’s a great story include the vocabulary and words

the author has used and the setting that the story is created in. The

author uses gothic language, giving the story more suspense; he also

sets the story in a haunted setting which builds up tension. The story

was written by HG Wells, between the turn of the 20th century. HG

Wells was an English author and a political philosopher; he was most

famous for his science fiction romances. Wells gets across his ideas

of the red room in many ways throughout the story.

‘The Red room’ belongs to the gothic genre. A gothic novel emphasises

mystery and horror and it is filled with ghost haunted rooms, just as

‘The Red Room’ does. They also have underground passages, secret stair

ways and so on. The genre builds up a mount of tension in the story

where the description of the house gives the impression that it is old

and abandoned. The old woman says, ‘eight and twenty years you have

lived and never seen the likes of this house’. This illustrates that

the house must be historic and it could also be decaying.

The story of ‘The Red Room’ is written in first person, this suggests

that the reader believes it’s from personal experience and knows what

they’re feeling. At the beginning of the story, the main character

(also the narrator) is open minded and sure of himself. He believes

that there are no ghosts. He is very cynical, which is shown when he

refuses to believe what the three old pensioners tell him. The

anonymous character is referred to as `I’ as we don’t know how these

pensioners know him or who he is. This leaves him with no identity,

making readers think he’s mysterious.

The character says ‘I can assure you said I, that it will take a very

tangible ghost to frighten me.’ The author uses very expressive words

in his writing and uses the adjective `tangible’; this means you can

touch the ghost. You cannot touch ghosts genuinely and this is why the

author uses this adjective, because the character believes ghosts are

not real. The character feels unsure when the three old pensioners

make him feel uncomfortable. He says `the three old pensioners made me

feel uncomfortable.' This explains that the character is not made to

feel at ease. It also brings out that the old pensioners are quite