Comparing short stories

The characters in the stories also enhance the suspense and atmosphere. The characters in 'The Red Room' are described as an old woman with 'pale eyes'. There is also a 'man with the withered arm' and a second man, 'more bent, more wrinkled more aged than the first... his eyes were covered by a shade, and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.' (Pg 3-4)

Their appearance builds fear and suspense because we wonder what has happened to them and why they are in the state that they are. The characters in 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' also help with creating fear and suspense.

'Lavinia Nebbs, aged thirty-seven, very straight and slim, sat with a twinkling lemonade in her white fingers, tapping to her lips, waiting.' (Pg 37)

In both the stories the characters warn and try to scare the key character.

In 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' 'everyone's advised to go straight home and not linger on the streets.'(Pg 46) and Grandma Hanlon says, '"won't catch me out on a night like this,' wailed Grandma Hanlon. "Not with the Lonely One strangling women. Lock myself in with a gun."' (Pg 38)

This is also true for 'The Red Room',

'"It's your own choosing" said the man with the withered arm.' (Pg 3)

'"But if you go to the red room tonight-"

(This night of all nights!' said the old woman.)

'"You go alone."' (Pg 5)

But we only scared when the main character gets scared. We feel fear when the feel fear. We get jumpy when they get jumpy.

The main protagonists of the 2 stories are Lavinia from 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' and the narrator from 'The Red Room'. Both the characters are cynical about danger. In The Red Room the narrator puts himself to face danger on purpose but on the other hand Lavinia is just trying to live her life and just get on with it.

In the opening scene of 'The Red Room' the narrator is pessimistic,

'"I can assure you," said I, "that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me."'(Pg3)

And when Francine asks if it is a better idea to stay home, Lavinia replies,

'"it's early. The Lonely One won't be out till late."' (Pg 39)

Another theme which flows through the stories is that we are more scared of what we can't see. This is shown when the narrator sees all of the candles going out until there is no light.

'The flame vanished as if it had been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb, leaving the wick neither glowing nor smoking, but black.' (Pg 11)

He feels agitated and nervous.

'My hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox.' (Pg 11)

He is aware of a force that is present in the room and when the tension gets too much for him he gives in with a loud horrific scream.

'and lifting my voice, screamed with all my might - once, twice, thrice.' (Pg13)

This makes us experience fear too.

In 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' fear and atmosphere is created mainly at the end when Lavinia is going through the ravine. It is as though she is being followed but it is too dark to see.

'"someone's on the steps behind me.

I don't dare turn around."

Another step, another echo.

Every time I take a step, they take one.' (Pg 52)

She is also agitated and nervous,

'She heard her clumsy feet on the porch, felt her hands scrabbling and ripping at the lock.' (Pg 55)

She thinks and recalls about her past,

' The story about the man coming in your house... and now he's standing by your bed. I got you!' she screamed. It was like nothing she had ever heard, that scream.' (Pg 52)

This generates fear, suspense and atmosphere because we do not know what will happen next. We don't know what to expect.

Both the characters talk to themselves for reassurance. Lavinia says to herself, '"Nothings happened, has it? No one around, is there?" (Pg 52)

The narrator tries to reason, '"This won't do!" said I... "What's up?" I cried with a queer high note... "steady on!" I said. "These candles are wanted," speaking with a half-hysterical facetiousness.' (Pg11)

They try to block out what is happening around them and by doing so they hear sounds and voices which build atmosphere. The moon may also be a secondary element of fear. The moon is associated with many fear stories and werewolves. This is a reason why the reader will undergo fear. In 'The Red Room' there is a moonlit corridor,

'moonlight coming in by the great window on the grand staircase picked up everything in vivid black shadow.' (Pg 7)

And the opening of 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' is a moonlit sky.

'There were two moons: a clock moon with four faces in four night directions above the solemn black courthouse, and the real moon that was slowly rising I vanilla whiteness from the dark east.' (Pg 37)

But the moon can also be used as reassurance because it is the only light there is.

'I thought suddenly of the moonlit corridor' (pg 13)

I also looked at the setting and how it created fear, suspense and atmosphere. 'The Red Room' is set in an isolated castle. 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' is set in a small town but the main character lives on the other side of the ravine so she is also inaccessible. The characters are on their own and are a long way from help. It creates suspense because anything could happen to them and there is nobody around to help. Francine tries to warn Lavinia,

'And it won't be me,' said Francine, "coming back through this terrible dark ravine tonight, late. It'll be you, Lavinia, you down the steps and over the rickety bridge and maybe the Lonely One behind a tree.' (Pg 39)

It is also ironic because the Lonely One does actually end up behind her in her house.

In both stories the authors make use of shadows because they seem to follow you and this adds to fear. It is frantic when the lights go out in 'The Red Room' and also when Lavinia makes her journey home across the ravine in 'The Whole Towns Sleeping'.

Echoes also add to atmosphere. It may feel as though there is an extra person there with you but they ate invisible and you cannot see them.

The language and style suggest atmosphere. The atmosphere is suggested by structure and action by the author's choice of vocabulary. This helps the imagery and in turn helps to create suspense and atmosphere.

The vocabulary used when describing the characters creates imagery. In 'The Red Room' they are described as having a 'withered arm' and 'pale eyes'. This is also the same in 'The Whole Towns Sleeping'. The way that Lavinia is described in the opening scene. The vocabulary sets up the atmosphere and suspense.

The description of the house in 'The Red Room' also adds to fear and atmosphere. There is a 'queer old mirror' and the 'door creaked'. In 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' the streets are 'oven-baked' and is 'like walking on a hard crust of freshly warmed bream'

There are warnings 'This night of all nights' and the repetition of some of the sentences helps with the fear and suspense. There are also repeated references to the old peoples fear, darkness and shadows.

There is a good use of imagery which includes good use of similes, metaphors and personification of darkness and fear.

'Fashions born in dead brains'

'Ocean of mystery'

'Like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the starts'

'...closed upon me like the shutting of an eye'

'...crushed ...reason from my brain'

I personally preferred reading 'The Whole Towns Sleeping' compared with 'The Red Room'. This is probably because it is more recent compared with 'The Red Room' which is set in the Victorian times. It deals with an issue of today compared with an issue of ghosts that many people do not really believe in or are not very concerned about.

So as you can see, from what I have scrutinized, this is how the authors created fear, suspense and atmosphere. There are similarities and differences and some key ingredients to what makes a good scary story.

Dipika Gohil 11K

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