Comparing The Red Room (H.G Wells) and The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins)

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Natania Duhur 10S Stanley     English Coursework

English Coursework

How is sense of fear and uncertainty created by the settings of The Red Room and The Yellow Wallpaper?

‘The Red Room’ by H.G. Wells and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are both horror stories and they explore ideas of fear and the uncertainty that prey on the human mind. ‘The Red Room’ is about a young man who goes to stay in the Red Room in the castle. He is doubtful that the room is haunted when three old people warn him; however when he stays in the room for a couple of hours the fear of the unknown starts to play on his mind.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is written from the perspective of a young woman and her husband who go and stay in a stately home. When the young woman has worries about the wallpaper, she is told by her husband who is a doctor that she is ill. Day by day as she stays in the room she becomes more and more disorientated by the wallpaper and the story ends disastrously. The aspects of the setting I am going to explore are the locations of the rooms, the objects and furniture around them and inside them, the history behind the place. Light and colours used and other senses that the story plays on will also be examined.

When the young man in The Red Room asks to go to the Red Room he is told, ‘You go along the passage a bit… through that is a spiral staircase... down the corridor at the end, and the red room is on your left up the stairs.’ The fact that the instructions to get to the room are so complex, and very lengthy, shows that the room is very far away. The journey is long; and so the young man will have time to reconsider his decision and fear may play on his mind during the journey. It is also very easy to get lost in a place that is not known very well and this creates uncertainty to whether the young man will arrive at his destination without the stress of being going astray from his path.

The fact that the room is very low down and isolated also creates a sense of unease. The room is on the left, and the left is associated with being sinister. When people say ‘their right-hand man’, it is someone that they are at ease with and settled with. The left is the opposite, and is associated with more threatening situations as it is often unknown. This threat creates a sense of apprehension.

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On the other hand, the Yellow Wallpaper’s location contrasts with the Red Room. The Red Room’s location is very detached and creepy but the Yellow Wallpaper’s location is very idyllic. The location is described as ‘the most beautiful place’. The fact that it is perfect makes the atmosphere tense; as it is unknown to if the location will remain the same. As the room with the Yellow Wallpaper is unpleasant it shows why the woman wants to leave so badly and the fact that she cannot escape creates tension. Also out of the windows she can see, ’Those mysterious ...

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