How does the writer use language to create suspense in The Red Room

How does the writer use language to create suspense in The Red Room

The Red Room is about a man who is staying at an old house with a

haunted room, which he is going to spend the night in. He is unwilling

to listen to the warnings of the three elderly occupants of the house

who are sure that the room is haunted. The story starts with the man

speaking and being very confident about staying in the room and how

only a tangible ghost will frighten him he is saying that nothing can

hurt him unless it is solid or touchable which is not what ghosts are

like. So he is also saying that ghosts do not exist. He tries to back

up this by saying that he has “ lived for eight and twenty years and

never seen a ghost” however the old woman says “ that he has never

stayed in a house like this”. This creates more suspense because the

reader want to know what the house is like and why it is haunted and

what the inhabitants have experienced to support their beliefs in a

paranormal housemate.

To make the story more mysterious none of the characters is named. The

three old people are described, as though they are unhealthy and

decaying so they look like ghosts in comparison to the narrator. The

narrator then wants to go to the room, so he asks the elderly people

if they would guide him there but they just ignore him. He sounds very

authoritative and superior but also very arrogant and the old people

do not answer him so he repeats the request a little louder and they

just tell him where he can find the candle and say he must go alone.

Then the old woman says “this night of all nights” which again creates

more tension because what did happen on this night? They give him

directions to the room and he leaves them and heads for the room but

just before he leave the old man says “its of your choosing” the old

man is saying that when the narrator finds what ever is in the room

don’t come to them saying we was pushed you into it”.

The writer goes on to set the scene for the journey to the room.

Portraying it as a chilly echoing passage, which sounds very

threatening and menacing. He talks about the three old pensioners that

occupy the castle coming from an age where there was no science and

the existence of omens and witches were creditable. As he goes down