Compare H.G. Wells' The Red Room and Farthing House by Susan Hill
"There was no mistake about it. The flame vanished, as if the wick had
been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb, leaving the wick
neither glowing or smoking, but black." Ghost stories use dark and
fear of it as a key element, and most occurrences happen in the night,
and/or in the dark.
The aim of this essay is to compare and contrast the two short stories
- The Red Room by H.G. Wells and Farthing House by Susan Hill. The Red
Room was written pre twentieth century and Farthing house was written
post twentieth century. I will mainly look at the formulaic structure
of the stories and the tension that is built up throughout them by the
authors.
A good ghost story involves a mixture of tension and an interesting
plot or storyline. The formulaic elements - e.g. old
houses/graveyards/other sinister settings, threatening
housekeepers/guests/noises, staying overnight, dark/night, threatening
weather (e.g. storms, thunder) and a death/previous ghostly history
all help to create the genre and entice the reader to continue
reading. There should be twists in the story, to help make it more
interesting, and less predictable. There is also often a lot of
mystery involved - mysterious key characters, unknown noises and
people etc.
The Red Room is a pre-20th century story, written by H.G. Wells in
1896. It is about a room that is allegedly haunted and the story is
told by a young man who is spending the night there. He starts off
extremely confidently but as the story goes on he becomes more and
more frightened and the tension increases. The Red Room is about the
personal experience of the young man whilst in the room, and his own
fear o...
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...ing plots. Some elements of the
first formula have stuck, which is why 'The Red Room' and 'Farthing
House' are so similar, although written years apart. I think that they
have stuck because they are a winning combination that attracts
readers.
Over time ghost stories have become more popular and some stories have
also been shown as films or television programmes. This shows that
they are still a popular part of culture and probably will continue to
be in the future. Films and television programmes still often stick to
the formula - setting and history, for example. However the visual
images and plots differ. Farthing House is testimony to this, the
setting is similar but the plot and purpose differs. "I was not afraid
anymore, not now that I knew who she was and why she had been there,
getting out of her bed in Cedar room, to go in search of her baby.
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Blue Remembered Hills is set on a summer day in the west of England in
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Men and Women in The Withered Arm and Other Stories by Thomas Hardy and Men and Women in Turned by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A Comparison of 'The Bar of Gold' by Conan Doyle and 'The Red Room' by H.G. Wells
her own life and she either wanted to have sex or go back to sleep.
Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own
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"The cost of freedom is always high. One path we shall never choose is the path of surrender and submission." - John F. Kennedy. Often in works of literature protagonists must overcome obstacles throughout their life/story. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill and A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen are no stranger to this story telling design. It is clearly composite within The Book of Negroes as well as A Doll 's House that the protagonists of both works run through a parallel of obstacles which lead them both to the same hierarchical understanding, and end. Throughout both works it becomes evident that Aminata and Nora are both being suppressed by outside figures. As the stories progresses, it becomes more apparent to the reader that both Aminata and Nora are not genuinely satisfied with their lives. When it is realized by the protagonists that their
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” are two short stories that incorporate multiple similarities and differences. Both stories’ main characters are females who are isolated from the world by male figures and are eventually driven to insanity. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unidentified narrator moves to a secluded area with her husband and sister-in-law in hopes to overcome her illness. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily’s father keeps Emily sheltered from the world and when he dies, she is left with nothing. Both stories have many similarities and differences pertaining to the setting, characterization, symbolism, and their isolation from the world by dominant male figures, which leads them to insanity.
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Whilst in the library skimming through the books, one in particular caught my eyes, Room by Emma Donoghue. The book’s dark colours and large red lettering with a child in the background gave a feeling of evil, not unlike that of the horror movie Insidious, and suggested the book had a horror or supernatural theme to it. Audrey Niffenegger, famous of course for The Time Traveler’s Wife amongst other popular novels, praised Room, saying that it’s ‘a book to read in one sitting.’ This combined with Room being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010 and Sunday Times No.1 Bestseller increased my expectations significantly, and cemented it as my choice for this assessment. I read this book for enjoyment however, I must admit I was eager to finish it, which resulted in irrational irritation with the characters and detrimentally affected my response and interpretation of the book.
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How does the writer create tension and suspense in The Red Room? The writer is able to create tension and suspense through various ways in the short story ‘The Red Room’. The opening sentence in the story immediately mentions the supernatural, which immediately tells us that this is a gothic story. The first sentence is dialogue, but we do not know who is speaking.