Suspense in the Red Room

Suspense in the Red Room

  • Submitted By: adb0505
  • Date Submitted: 03/30/2010 12:51 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 732
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 546

Introduction
How is suspense created in the red room???
The short story we read, is a Gothic horror story which was written by H.G wells in 1894.The plot of the story was about a young man goes to a haunted castle and spends the night in a haunted room he had been warned by 3 custodians. But he does not listen and he stays the night there on his own with only candles. The plot set the genre and built up the tension. The story is a Gothic type genre because it has been set in a castle which has been abandoned for 18 mouths. And the mystery takes the place over just only one night with shadows and candles also a fire. Which shows that it is a very dark building which adds fear to the reader with all the evilness behind the story?
The Victorians were fascinated by the spiritual story's in the late 19th century and were determined to prove that some sort of afterlife existence. So Gothic stories were quite popular at this time. This was a popular story for woman at this time.
The Opening of the red room grabs the reader effectively and strong, it starts with a confident line “it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me “.This is a link to the supernatural which is meant to frighten people but in this case the man is very confident the confidence showed by the man is very strong even when the custodians keep repeating themselves “it’s your own choosing”. So the custodians are making the reader think what is inside the red room? To build up the tension the woman also repeats “tonight of all nights” This is repetition bringing tension to the story also in the story there is a man in which he has a whirled arm so the reader might think that he has been inside the red room. A Victorian reader would have put the connection of the man with the whirred arm to be God punishing him; the appearance of the man allows tension to also build up which makes the reader think more and more. Furthermore the three custodians are almost inhuman in the appearances given...

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