Comparing the two texts: ‘The Red Room and ‘A Case of Murder’

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English Coursework

Fear

Comparing the two texts: ‘The Red Room and ‘A Case of Murder’

Outline how they deal with the theme of fear.

Fear is an irrational emotion that is brought on by unusual circumstances and your thoughts when you are alone. It can bring on a sense of insecurity, feelings of paranoia, nervousness and intimidation.

There are many features in horror stories and poems that can bring on fear, ‘A Case of Murder’ and ‘The Red Room’ contain some of these features.

        ‘The Red Room’ is set in a dark, draughty, almost abandoned castle, which is traditional of a Victorian, Gothic horror story, “Lorraine Castle”. Whereas ‘A Case of Murder’ is set in a dark, lonely basement flat which is also a feature of horror but more modern:

“To be left alone in a basement flat”

        The story uses many of the old horror features to create an air of mystery that follows suit with classic Victorian, Gothic stories such as ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dracula’.

The horror features used in the story are shadows, candles, echoes, moonlight, old furniture etc. Quite a few of these features are given personification that makes the reader have an image of the feature being a human being:

“A monstrous shadow of him crouched upon the wall mocked his action…”

This seems as though the shadow is a person who is watching the man, which builds an image in the reader’s mind of what the shadow must look like.

        Another typical Victorian, Gothic feature is the three old people that the man is with at the beginning of the story. The way in which they are described give grotesque images of how scary they seem. “The man with the withered arm” is described to have “his lower lip, half averted”, “decaying yellow teeth” and “red eyes” which puts a horrific image in the reader’s mind. The “red eyes” also make you think of a devil which is evil and mainly associated with horror.

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        In addition, “the man with the withered arm” creates an air of mystery by repeating the line:

“It’s your own choosing”

This line leaves the reader wondering what the man means so they become anxious to read on and see what the mans own choosing actually is.

        Furthermore, ‘The Red Room’ is set in an old castle, which is quite traditional of Victorian, Gothic stories. The castle has a “spiral staircase” and a:

“Long, draughty subterranean passage”

Which can both add to fear because with a spiral staircase you can’t see what is around the corner and a passage can ...

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