Compare and contrast - 'The red room' by HG Wells, 'The Black Cottage' By Wilkie Collins, and 'Sikes and Nancy' By Charles Dickens

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English coursework

    From The Victorian short stories we have read, I have selected ‘The red room’ by HG Wells, ‘The Black Cottage’ By Wilkie Collins, and ‘Sikes and Nancy’ By Charles Dickens…

    The story of ‘The Red Room’ by H.G. Wells is told to us in first person. Suspense is created because of the story being in the first person because the audience doesn't know any more information than the narrator who is visiting the red room. The audience would have no idea of what should happen next so they are not expecting the shocks of surprises. This is also quite effective to us as it is told directly to the reader. The opening sentence says ‘I can assure you’ said I, ‘that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ And I stood up before the fire with my glass in my hand.  This suggests that the main character is pretending that he does not believe in ghosts as he said that it will take a real, concrete ghost to frighten him. It is like he is trying to be witty about ghosts, in making out that he does not believe in them. It mentioned that he was stood in front of the fire which is beginning to set the scene to us. This is effective to us as a fire is gloomy.

    We are then introduced to the second person. The author wrote ‘It is your own choosing’ said the man with the withered arm, and glanced at me askance. The character is described as having a withered arm which is grotesque. The man looked at the main character as if to ask him a question so he replied ‘Eight and twenty years’ said I, ‘I have lived, and never a ghost have I seen’ This is an indication of old language as the structure of the sentence is very pre 20th century.

    Now we are introduced to another character, an old woman. She is described to us to be quite an odd person; it says ‘The old woman sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open.’ It is a strange thing to do to be sat staring and we can already picture her pale eyes. It continues to say ‘Ah’, she broke in: ‘and eight and twenty you have lived and never seen the likes of this house, I reckon. There’s a many things to see when ones still but eight and twenty. She swayed her head slowly from side to side. ‘A many things to see and sorrow for.’  This raises suspicion to us as it is like she knows something but is not letting on to us what it is. The lady is trying to say that he has never seen the kind of things that she has seen inside the house. She is described to be swaying her head slowly from side to side. This is a weird thing to do. Again, her character is put across to be very odd.

    Both of the old people that have been introduced to us so far are unlikely characters, which add to the suspense of the story. The characters are used as devices to build up tension. The main character is acting like he is not scared of ghosts, but the old people are weary of this and are making it out to him that he should be scared, by dropping little hints like ‘it is your own choosing’ and ‘There’s a many things to see when ones still eight and twenty’.

    The young man told the old people ‘if I see anything tonight I shall be so much the wiser. For I come to the business with an open mind.’  It is like he is humouring the old people, yet trying to keep up his brave attitude towards ghosts. The man with the withered arm repeated again ‘It’s your own choosing.’  It is effective that the author has referred to the old man as ‘the man with the withered arm’. It adds to the tension that he has no name.

    To add to the tension, a second old man enters. H G Wells uses short clauses to show that he is panicking in his thoughts. Example- 'The door creaked, on its hinges, as a second old man entered, more bent, more wrinkled, more aged, even that the first'. H G Wells writes these small phases deliberately so that as the readers are reading the story in their minds can go though the action quickly. It goes on to say ‘His eyes were covered by a shade, and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.’ He is made out to be grotesque and scary. The author began to refer to the second man as ‘the man with the shade’ here again, not giving him a name.

    The author wrote ‘the man with the withered arm gave this newcomer a short glance of positive dislike; the old woman took no notice of his arrival, but remained with her eyes fixed steadily on the fire.’ This shows that the three old people don’t like each other, their ignorance proves that. This adds to the tension.

     The man with the withered arm again repeated ‘I said- it’s your own choosing’ This time, like he wanted the young man to reply. As the young man replied ‘it is my own choosing’ the author wrote ‘The man with the shade became aware of my presence for the first time, and threw his head back for a moment and sideways, to see me. I caught a glimpse of his eyes, small and bright and inflamed’. He did not get a full view of the man. This raises suspense as to why the old man was kept in the dark and why his identity is not revealed.

    The young man finds the old people who look after the castle, frightening and depressing. We know this because he refers to them as 'grotesque custodians'. The word 'grotesque' suggests something that is disgusting and horrible. Possibly he could be referring to them in this way because he feels awkward with them.

    The young man wanted to prove to these old people that he was not afraid so he said to them ‘If you will show me to this haunted room of yours, I will make myself comfortable there.’ At this, the old people ignored him, yet the old man with the shade acknowledged him as he ‘jerked his head back’. Was it that they did not hear him or that they chose to ignore what he was saying? The young man repeated himself, but a little louder this time. The old people were not willing to show him to the room. This arouses suspicion as to what is in the room and why they are so unwilling to go there as it said- ‘If you go to the red room tonight-’ (‘this night of all nights’ said the old woman.) ‘You go alone’. The reader is left asking questions at this point. We are still unaware of why ‘this night of all nights’ is different to any other night. This keeps the readers interest because you want to find out why?

     The young man then asked for directions to the room. The man with the shade seemed unsure about whether he should go to the room as he asked ‘And are you really going?’. It is as if they were trying to put him off the idea of going to the room as the old woman repeated ‘This night of all nights?’.  This may be because they are too scared to go anywhere near the room themselves, because know what is there. This also gives HG Wells the opportunity to develop the journey to the Red Room, and he can go on describing other happenings along the way.

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    As the man moves towards the door H.G Wells describes the man with the shade, moving closer to the others. Maybe there is something horrifying in this house if three people who seemingly hate each other are cowering together in front of a fire, or maybe they were plotting something.

    As the young man walked down the corridor, HG Wells describes the atmosphere to us. This 'chilly, echoing passage' is common in a ghost story for it is dark, damp, cold and dusty. It is dimly lit, any sound can be heard and any movement made ...

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