The Red Room, The Black Cottage, and Sikes and Nancy

The Red Room by HG Wells, The Black Cottage By Wilkie Collins, and Sikes and Nancy By Charles Dickens

The story of ‘The Red Room’ by H.G. Wells is told to us in first person. Suspense is created because of the story being in the first person because the audience doesn't know any more information than the narrator who is visiting the red room. The audience would have no idea of what should happen next so they are not expecting the shocks of surprises. This is also quite effective to us as it is told directly to the reader. The opening sentence says ‘I can assure you’ said I,

‘that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ And I stood up before the fire with my glass in my hand. This suggests that the main character is pretending that he does not believe in ghosts as he said that it will take a real, concrete ghost to frighten him. It is like he is trying to be witty about ghosts, in making out that he does not believe in them. It mentioned that he was stood in front of the fire which is beginning to set the scene to us. This is effective to us as a fire is gloomy.

We are then introduced to the second person. The author wrote ‘It is your own choosing’ said the man with the withered arm, and glanced at me askance. The character is described as having a withered arm which is grotesque. The man looked at the main character as if to ask him a question so he replied ‘Eight and twenty years’ said I, ‘I have lived, and never a ghost have I seen’ This is an indication of old language as the structure of the sentence is very pre 20th century.

Now we are introduced to another character, an old woman. She is described to us to be quite an odd person; it says ‘The old woman sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open.’ It is a strange thing to do to be sat staring and we can already picture her pale eyes. It continues to say ‘Ah’, she broke in: ‘and eight and twenty you have lived and never seen the likes of this house, I reckon.

There’s a many things to see when ones still but eight and twenty. She swayed her head slowly from side to side. ‘A many things to see and sorrow for.’ This raises suspicion to us as it is like she knows something but is not letting on to us what it is.