Compare the ways in which the authors in the three stories 'The Signalman', 'The Red Room' and 'A Terribly Strange Bed' present mystery and fear.

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Compare the ways in which the authors in the three stories ‘The Signalman’, ‘The Red Room’ and ‘A Terribly Strange Bed’ present mystery and fear.

‘The Red Room’, ‘A Terribly Strange Bed’ and ‘The Signalman’ all aim to create mystery, suspense and fear in the reader. Although all achieve this, they all do it in their own unique way. ‘The Red Room’ is about a person (the narrator) who goes to a ‘haunted’ room in an unknown house; they are sceptical of the haunting and aim to discover the truth. ‘A Terribly Strange Bed’ is again based around the narrator (as is ‘The Signalman’) however in ‘A Terribly Strange Bed’ the narrator goes to Paris gambling, and consequently wins a lot of money. He then proceeds to spend the night in a terribly strange bed. Like the previous two stories the narrator in ‘The Signalman’ is unnamed creating mystery and questioning in the readers mind. The narrator visits a ‘signalman’ who lives in a small hut and begins to tell the narrator about premonitions he sees. A series of mysterious deaths start to occur.

All the stories have a fairly traditional structure. All build to a climax and use them well to create fear and mystery. Both ‘The Red Room’ and ‘The Signalman’ open with dialogue. I think this is a positive aspect because it begins the story right away and the reader immediately begins to question and think about what is happening, what the characters are talking about, why and where they are. In ‘The Red Room’ from the start you wonder what the narrator is doing in this unknown house and for what purpose is he there. However in ‘A Terribly Strange Bed’ the narrator gives history and background to why he is in Paris. I think both have a different perspective however they are both effective because with not knowing there is more mystery however knowing background creates a lot more suspense and fear because the reader is anticipating some thing might happen. It makes the reader insightful as to what could later happen.

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All the settings create fear, mystery and suspense but again all do it in their own way. ‘The Signalman’ has a traditional eerie setting, set directly by a railway and railway tunnel, immediately gives the impression that something unnatural could occur. ‘The Red Room’ I think has possibly the best setting because we know nothing about this room or house. The reader knows that it is meant to be haunted and of some of the past events but not much else is known. The clever use of language is used effectively throughout, they describe the room like any other ...

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