The structures of both stories are such that you are immediately thrown into the plot. Both stories start with speech- “The Red Room” starts with ‘I can assure you that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me’ while “The Signalman” starts with ‘Halloa! Below there!’
By throwing the reader straight into the plot without explaining anything at first, Dickens and Wells have already brought the element of suspense into the story. The readers are compelled to read on and try to find out where the story is leading them. They have many questions in their minds, which need to be answered. For example, right at the start of “The Red Room” the readers will ask, where is this taking place? Who is this person? What ghost is he talking about? All these questions are answered by hints given by Wells. If Dickens and Wells had explained the background to the story at first, the readers might lose interest because then there would be no suspense in the story.
The most important factor that leads to the building up of the suspense is that the readers only get to understand the whole plot by the end of the story. This is mainly due to the twist at the end of both stories leaving all the suspicions in the readers mind irrelevant. “The Red Room” ends with Wells explaining in-depth, what it was that was haunting the room all throughout the story. He says there is ‘a power of darkness’ haunting the room filled with ‘black fear.’ “The Signalman” ends with the narrator explaining what he found most unusual in the supernatural events that had taken place. Dickens points out one detail in the story that some readers might not have overlooked making the readers look back at the events that happened in the story, retaining the fear and suspense.
The settings in both stories are very spooky and bone chilling, so also adds to the fear and suspense. They set the atmosphere because the entire story takes place there.
In “The Red Room” the entire story takes place in Lorraine Castle. The name of the room itself is very eerie because it reminds you of blood, which is red and quite disturbing. The entire castle is adorned with ‘deep-toned, old fashioned furniture’, which makes the narrator feel he has entered into another world. At that time there was no electricity for light bulbs so only candles could be used. The usage of candles in a story is a very effective way of bringing out fear and suspense because if the candles suddenly go out, it leaves the narrator alone in the dark, which is a very unnerving situation, especially if the room is said to be haunted.
In the story, many people have died in the Red Room before the narrator arrived. There were stories of a duke who began dying in the Red Room and finally fell off the stairs at the entrance of the room. There were also many older stories of a ‘timid wife and the tragic end that came to her husbands jest of frightening her.’ These stories are the basis from which the rumours of the Red Room being haunted by a ghost came from.
“The Signalman” is set in a very deep and steep valley. Most of the story happens in the valley itself, which has been described as a ‘great dungeon.’ The signalman’s post is described as being ‘solitary and dismal.’ Inside the valley there is a long railway track, referred to in the story as ‘The Line’ and everywhere and everything inside the valley is described as being dark and gloomy. Looking one way you see ‘a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon.’ Looking the other way you see a ‘gloomier entrance to a black tunnel.’ At the mouth of this tunnel is a ‘gloomy red light’ that again, reminds you of blood. All around there is a ‘barbarous, depressing and forbidding air’ that struck the narrator chill. The foreboding presence of darkness is signified when Dickens says ‘little sunlight ever found its way to this spot.’ Dickens then goes on to say that the narrator seemed ‘as if I had left the natural world’.’ This brings the thought into the readers mind that by leaving the natural world, the narrator has reached the world of the supernatural.
The historical and cultural context of both stories also adds to the fear and suspense. “The Red Room” and “The Signalman” are set in an era when science and technology are developing very quickly and were changing the world. The introduction of science into normal life brought up the concept that everything can be explained and there are no such things as ghosts and specters because they are not scientifically possible. The narrators in both stories are from this new generation that does not believe in the supernatural and are very skeptical towards the idea of a ghost coming to haunt you. In “The Red Room”, right at the start of the story, he says ‘it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ This immediately shows he is very cynical towards ghosts because if he does see a ghost, it cannot be tangible. If it is tangible, it is simply not a ghost. In “The Signalman”, when the signalman narrates his story, the narrator dismisses it in an antagonistic manner, saying it is a ‘disease of the delicate nerves that minister to the function of the eye.’ This reflects his bringing up that science can prove everything, and could also be hinting a medical background. However, the other characters in the stories (the signalman from “The Signalman” and the three grotesque custodians from “The Red Room”) are from an older age when ghostly phenomenon and apparitions were thought as being acceptable and that is why they believed the unusual events that happen in the stories to be the work of the supernatural.
Since the narrators are very skeptical about the supernatural, the readers feel they are too proud and overconfident. They do not heed any of the warnings and turn a deaf ear to all the ghostly stories. In “The Red Room” the narrator is described as being ‘broadened to an impossible sturdiness.’ This makes him look strong and tough and maybe even a little bit arrogant. This enhances the suspense tremendously because in nearly all movies and books, the person who does not believe in ghosts and supernatural is always the first to fall in trouble or maybe even die.
As the stories go on, Dickens and Wells add a few hints that tell the reader that the narrator’s overconfidence is ebbing away and turning into fear. The narrators, who had started off so confidently, start feeling very nervous. In “The Red Room” the narrator took a table and ‘on this lay my revolver to hand.’ Questions start entering the minds of the readers as to why somebody who did not believe in ghosts was keeping a revolver ready to hand to protect himself and if he really is as brave and fearless as he had described himself to be? Suspense then increases, as the readers want to know whether he would require the aid of the revolver, so they read on to find out.
By the end of the story, the narrators are confused as to whether ghosts and the supernatural really do exist because of the doubts put into their minds due to the unusual events that happen in the story. In “The Red Room”, at the end of the story, the narrator confides to the custodians that there is something haunting the room and says that the room is haunted by ‘fear!’ that will ‘not bear with any reason.’ This tells the readers that the narrator now acknowledges the existence of the supernatural, opposed to what he had felt like when he had first entered the castle. Not everything can be explained by science and there are some things that still remain unknown.
