H.G. Wells: ‘The Red Room’ and ‘The Cone’ The short stories ‘The Red Room’ and ‘The Cone’ by HG Wells both heavily feature tension and suspense. The author of the two stories, HG Wells, uses a number of techniques to create this mood and atmosphere to keep his readers interested. HG Wells immediately creates an air of mystery from the outset of ‘The Red Room’ when he introduces the ‘man with the withered arm’. This grotesque description of the man’s features, combined with his ambiguity due to having no name given to him, helps create this air of mystery and suspense. The term ‘tangible ghost’ helps create suspense too, as you normally associate the term ‘ghost’ with the supernatural, which sets up an expectation within the reader. Wells also uses similar techniques to generate a mysterious aura and atmosphere from the beginning of ‘The Cone’ when he describes the ambiguous characters. He gives them no names and refers to them only as ‘the man’ and ‘the woman’. This ambiguity creates a mysterious mood as the reader is unaware of whom these people are. His use of words such as ‘nervously’ and ‘whisper’ gives a suggestion that something is going to happen and creates a nervous expectation and suspense within the reader. Both short stories are part of the ‘Gothic’ genre and HG Wells heavily emphasises horror and mystery throughout the two stories to create a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. One way he creates this kind of atmosphere is through his physical descriptions of both the location and the characters. In ‘The Red Room’ he describes how ‘the grand staircase picked out everything in vivid black shadow or silvery il... ... middle of paper ... ...shment, which helps to add suspense, ‘Blood-red vapour as red and hot as sin’. There are a number of similarities and differences between the two short stories. ‘The Red Room’ is clearly a ghost story whereas ‘The Cone’ is a tale of anticipation and suspense. A tense mood is created in ‘The Red Room’ through a build up of supernatural happenings and ambiguous events, however, The Cone’s suspense is created through Horrocks’ threats and the constant references to fire, hell and sin. In conclusion, HG Wells uses a combination of different techniques to create suspense in both ‘The Cone’ and ‘The Red Room’. He uses both the openings and the descriptions of the location and characters to create the mood and atmosphere of suspense, and then builds on this with his use of dialogue, structure and use of figurative language.
In the novel Fools Crow, by James Welch, several characters have visions and dreams. The dreams are so realistic that they are a vision of what's to come in the future. A lot of the visions and dreams become a message or some type of warning to the people so that they are aware of thing that are going to happen. Many of these dreams that the characters have affect them positively or in a disastrous way leading to misfortune.
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
Title and Author: The book that I read was "The Red Pyramid" by Rick Riordan. He called it this because the antagonist, Set, is an Egyptian god and the color he is associated with is red. He builds a pyramid as a power source and it's made of reddish stones , and the main characters try to destroy it, so thus it's called "The Red Pyramid".
Is there any idea worth more than a human life? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor decides that he has nothing left to live for, and therefore becomes a martyr. The question for him or one in his position would be whether or not there exist causes worth dying for and if his position is one such case. There is no principle worth more than a person’s life and therefore principles worth dying for, only principles worth living for.
Today, having power is what everybody in this country relies on day to day and couldn't function without it. Every year more and more dams are being built and more man made reservoirs are being created to provide this electricity needed. These dams are very important in my eyes but Edward Abbey carries a different opinion in his writing "The Damnation of a Canyon."
Suspense is a key factor to the story, “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe. According to the Oxford Dictionary, suspense is the state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. Poe uses the senses to bring the reader aware of the building suspense. He does this by telling the reader about the ominous setting of all the chambers, especially the seventh chamber. The sound of the grandfather clock, sending sinister shivers throughout the party goers each hour, keeps them on their toes. Finally, the fast-paced chase of the intruder and the Prince build to the suspense at the final moments of the story.
A very famous man once said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933). This is certainly true when it comes to Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Arthur Miller lived through the Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism. After living through this era and being one of the accused communists Miller wrote the book titled The Crucible in 1952. This book told the story of the Salem witch trials with some modifications to make it more relevant to the current situation. The book ultimately became an allegory devoted solely to McCarthyism. In The Crucible it uses situations such as the actual trials; direct comparisons of the characters in the book to those that participated in the McCarthy trials and, the atmosphere of the two events were almost identical.
In "The Fall of the house of Usher," Edgar Allen Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him. Poe tries to evoke suspence in the reader's mind by using several diffenent scenes. These elements include setting, characters, plot, and theme. Poe uses setting primarily in this work to create atmosphere. The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder, strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. The use of character provides action and suspense in the story through the characters' dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is hypochondriac, is very depressed. He has a fearful apperance and his senses are acute. This adds curiosity and anxiety. The narrator was fairly normal until he began to imagine things and become afraid himself. Because of this, the audience gets a sense that evil is lurking. Madeline is in a cataleptic state. She appears to be very weak and pail. Finally, when she dies, she is buried in a vault inside of the mansion. In this story, the plot consists of rising events, conflict, climax, and resolution. The rising events include the parts in the story when the narrator first arrives at the house, meets Roderick, and hears about Roderick's and Madeline's problems. Madeline's death and burial are part of the conflict. At this point, Roderick and the narrator begin to hear sounds throughout the house. The sounds are an omen that an evil action is about to occur. The climax is reached when Madeline comes back from the dead and she and her twin brother both die. Finally, the resolution comes when the narrator escapes from the house and turns around to watch it fall to the ground. The theme that Edgar Allen Poe is trying to convey is do not let fear take over your life because it could eventually destory you.
For a writer, stylistic devices are key to impacting a reader through one’s writing and conveying a theme. For example, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates use of these stylistic techniques in his short stories “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The former story is about a party held by a wealthy prince hiding from a fatal disease, known as the Red Death. However, a personified Red Death kills all of the partygoers. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is about a man who visits his mentally ill childhood companion, Roderick Usher. At the climax of the story, Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, murders him after he buries her alive. Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories employ the stylistic decisions of symbolism, dream-like imagery, and tone to affect the reader by furthering understanding of the theme and setting and evoking emotion in readers.
Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a deeply symbolic work. Centered largely on concepts of soft science fiction, Dick presents to the reader a work which is based essentially on themes of philosophy and theology; he leads the reader to ponder such concepts as the true nature of reality and the direction in which our current society is headed based on then-current social and cultural phenomena - specifically, the growing use of hallucinogenic drugs in the 1960s. These themes are presented by way of a dystopian future set in the year 2016. Due to the nature of the thematic material and the complexity of the work itself, the book is clearly intended to be read and understood by an adult audience.
Edgar Allan Poe could be considered as the creator or the horror genre in literally with his chilling and twisted stories. Every story Poe wrote always has a deeper meaning than what is presented on the surface. Getting past the surface of the story Poe normally leaves similar meanings that he wants the audience to be presented in his stories. Poe’s main form of presenting this to his audience is through dark symbolism, imagery, and theme. All three of these elements are embedded in the layers of The Masque of the Red Death and The Cask of Amontillado.
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.
Isolation of an individual from the judgement of society morally strengthens them. John Proctor, from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a prime example of this. He was influenced by the evils lurking in the society of Puritan Massachusetts. Although the people of Salem considered themselves righteous and pure, many of them were not. They were overly watchful and judgemental of their neighbors, which lead to a corrupt church. It was lead by a mislead Reverend, and his lying niece, Abigail. Such unscrupulous behavior in the town deceived people and lead them away from their fundamental Puritan beliefs. However, John Proctor's isolation from the town showed that he grew stronger because he favored what Elizabeth thought of him, and his faith and
In an interview with The New Yorker George Saunders described his stories as “making a representation of good and representation of evil and then having those two run at each other at full-speed, like a couple of PeeWee football players.” One of Saunders’ stories published in a 1992 issue of The New Yorker pits a man’s character against the long-time mourning about his deceased wife. Through depictions of this struggle and a very old widow, he explores the profound topic of their integrity and status. In Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz George Saunders satirizes people’s undervaluing of experience and memories and their rejection of identity using the tone of the story and satirical devices such as farce and irony.
Being confronted to the unknown can be challenging and unpleasant. In his short story entitled “Cathedral” Raymond Carver portrays the journey of a man’s personal thought and understanding about life. Blindness is unfamiliar for the narrator, but when his wife decides to invite the blind man she has been corresponding with for several years to their house, he has no choice but being confronted with it. The journey of the main character in this short story reveals the difference between seeing and understanding.