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 echo and be scary. The passage gives the reader the image of loneliness as well.
The way the castle is described makes it sound scary as well. Some of the phrases used to describe it are:
“Glistening in the moonlight”
“Chilly and dusty”
“Absolute silence”
All of these phrases make the castle seem old and deserted, and as though it is the home of a ghoul or monster.
‘A Case of Murder’ isn’t a traditional Victorian, Gothic horror story like ‘The Red Room’ but it still has many of the features of Gothic horror.
‘A Case of Murder’ is a poem about murder, which is usually associated with horror. ‘The Red Room’ only hints towards murder and violent attacks whereas ‘A Case of Murder’ actually has a violent attack:
“So he took Daddy’s stick and he hit the cat”
and murder in it:
“But he had to do something with the dead thing there”
Darkness is a typical feature of horror as it obscures vision, which can make things seem what they are not.
Both pieces of text have a main character that is scared of what he thinks is happening and of what he fears might happen. The fear is all in their head whilst they are on their own. Both characters behave irrationally even though their ages are very different. Fear reduces the mans mind in ‘The Red Room’ to how a nine year old thinks:
“My hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox”
The boy in ‘A Case of Murder’ becomes so scared that he doesn’t know that hurting the cat is wrong:
“His eyes squeezed beads of salty prayer”
This shows how the boy is actually only nine years old because he prays that it didn’t happen like when you’re younger, you do something and then wish to turn back time.
‘The Red Room’ is written in traditional, old English language. It builds up tension with very descriptive language:
“The deep-toned, old fashioned furniture”
It uses the old English to build up the scary, horror atmosphere, which helps to describe the castle and the man’s surroundings in the red room:
“Surveying the scene of my vigil”
This is typical of Gothic, Victorian stories because of the period they were written in and the language that was used in the period they were written.
The imagery in this story is descriptive and traditional of a Victorian horror story with its castle, the characters and of what is in the castle. The author uses the imagery as part of what the man is scared of. He uses shadows, furniture and the candlelight all as part of the man’s imagined fear of the red room:
“The shadows seemed to take another step towards me”
The structure of the story is organised. It has a beginning, middle and an end. It doesn’t seem to be all over the place. The story is quite short yet all the detail and description of all the many features makes it seem quite long.
The atmosphere in the story is tense from the start of the story when the man is talking to the aged people:
“I left the door wide open until the candle was well alight…”
This shows that the man is tense and beginning to become scared.
Even thought begins tense, the tension builds up throughout the story so that when the man is in the red room, you think the man does have something to be scared of instead of it just being the fear which is making him think irrationally:
“The shadows seemed to take another step towards me.”
The man is now using personification with the things in the room so that he gives himself something to actually be frightened of. The personification used helps the reader to imagine what the man is seeing and going through.
The atmosphere in the story is typical for the old castle, it’s just the fact that it’s a horror story so u expect ‘something to be around the corner, waiting…’
In ‘A Case of Murder’ the language is modern and nothing unusual from a normal poem, although the poem does seem to be a bit confusing in the way it flows and in the way it is repetitive:
“They should not have left him alone,
Alone, that is except for the cat.”
“To be left alone in a basement flat,
Alone, that is except for the cat.”
‘The Red Room’ is not a poem and it is not modern so the language is very different to the language in ‘A Case of Murder’:
“A buzzing machine of soft black stuff”
This tells us that the poem isn’t as old as the story as it uses a machine as a metaphor.
The imagery from the story is descriptive and so is the imagery in the poem but they both use different settings and atmospheres so the two texts aren’t similar. ‘A Case of Murder’ uses it imagery just to describe the settings:
“In the spidery cupboard under the stairs”
But ‘The Red Room’ uses its settings and imagery to build tension and create the sense of fear for the man:
“I had pulled up a chintz-covered armchair and a table, to form a kind of barricade before me…”
‘A Case of Murder’ is structured so that it flows and has rhythm. It uses the atmosphere to build up tension by describing the sounds as onomatopoeic words:
“Cracked like a nut”
And by using metaphors and similes:
“A buzzing machine of soft black stuff”
Which is different to ‘The Red Room’ because it isn’t full of similes and metaphors.
The settings in both texts are similar because they are dark and lonely but both are different, as the texts are both written in different periods of time. ‘A Case of Murder’ is more modern and ‘The Red Room is old because it is set in a castle instead of a basement which aren’t usual associated with Gothic, Victorian short stories.
Both texts contribute to the theme of fear by using traditional features of horror. Both texts use the theme of irrational thinking to build up tension and fear. The poem has an actual character that is violent towards something which is similar to the story where the man becomes violent because of what he fears is happening.
I consider ‘The Red Room’ the most successful at building up fear because it uses imagery and atmosphere to make the castle seem more scary and to play with the man’s mind whereas, ‘A Case of Murder’ relies on the murder of the cat and the irrational thinking of the boy to try and build up the tension. The story is a more traditional horror story, which is full of description, and the imagery is excellent at letting the reader become the man in the story, so I think that the story is overall the most successful in building up fear.