Compare 'The Red Room' by H.G Wells and 'The Darkness under the Stairs' by Lance Salway examining how the writers create suspense in the stories.

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Compare ‘The Red Room’ by H.G Wells and ‘The Darkness under the Stairs’ by Lance Salway examining how the writers create suspense in the stories

The main purpose of any ghost story is to scare the reader. There are many techniques used to accomplish this in both ‘The Darkness under the Stairs’ and ‘The Red Room’. In this essay I will compare the ways in which the two writers create suspense and focus on how they communicate fear. Their stories were not written in the same period and were therefore aimed at audiences with different ideas of what scares them.This makes many of the techniques the same but they are used in different ways to suit the audience.

The main similarity between each story is that the plot involves a mysterious room that compels the main character to discover the room’s secrets. They both use tension before the character enters the room to keep the reader guessing what is going to be in the room and ultimately what will happen at the end of the story. This use of suspense is what makes both stories successful but it is accomplished through various techniques. The main difference between each story is the ending. In ‘The Red Room’ the main character survives and in ‘The Darkness under the Stairs’ the main character dies. The ending of any story is important but more so for a ghost story as it is what the whole story builds up to: a dramatic climax.

In the ‘Darkness under the Stairs’ Andrew, the main character, is the only

person who knows about the room’s mystery therefore Salway makes it more frightening because Andrew is facing the problem alone. His reasons for entering the room are more understandable as he wishes to settle his peace of mind. Salway uses the repetition of the phrase “…he had to…” to help the reader understand Andrew’s reasoning. It is this feeling which is frequently repeated and it creates fear and suspense as the reader is waiting to discover what is in the room and why Andrew has this feeling of intrepidation. In ‘The Red Room’, the speaker is going into the room to prove a point and share the knowledge of the room with the people at the beginning. On the one hand, this makes it less frightening because he doesn’t have the fear, as Andrew does, of going mad as if he is imagining it all. On the other hand, he does, face the room alone and so experiences the fear of the room by himself, which creates a sinister atmosphere.  

In “The Darkness under the Stairs” Salway uses the suspense, tension and a series of climaxes right up to the last paragraph. From the moment the story begins there is a tense atmosphere: “As soon as he stepped into the hall, Andrew knew at once that something was wrong. He couldn’t tell what it was…” By using “…as soon as…” and “…at once…” the story starts immediately with suspense as the reader wants to know why Andrew is feeling like this but has to wait until the last few lines to find out. This gives the whole story continuous tension. At the beginning of “The Red Room,” Wells uses a different technique. He begins the story with speech that allows the reader to predict the end of the story, “…it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me…” This makes the reader think that this character will almost definitely be scared by the end of the story. Wells doesn’t describe what is happening in the story from the beginning, the situation is very unclear, “I half suspected the old people were trying to enhance the spiritual terrors of their house…” This sentence is used very early on in the story when we don’t know who the characters are, what the house is like or what “terrors” there are in it. This technique is used to make the reader read on to find out these things. It is a different technique to “The Darkness under the Stairs” but creates the same effect.  

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Throughout “The Darkness under the Stairs” the feeling of unease in the hallway is repeated: “…icy blast of fear…” “…dark wave of dread…” and “…dark wave of panic…” These are all references to the fear that Andrew experiences when he is close to the cupboard, describing how he is nervous but he doesn’t know what of or why he feels this way. This builds up towards the ending by focusing on the mystery of the cupboard, “Andrew stood…paralyzed with fright. Yet the hall looked harmless.” Wells uses a similar technique in ‘The Red Room’ as the speaker says, “…I ...

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