Another similarity in the stories, is the nature of the victims themselves. In both stories, they are compassionate, emotional and kind natured, for instance, Rosamond begins to cry because she does not want the ghost to freeze in the cold: “Hester! Let me go to her; they are drawing me to them” compared to Meg who is determined to save the old woman from her husband: “Moresby Abbey. She told me in the end. I got her confidence.” This makes them easy targets for the ghost for they are susceptible to them, and without characters like Geoff or Hester to stop them, they would probably both die. Geoff and Hester have similar roles, which are to comfort and calm down Meg and Rosamond and prevent the ghosts from doing them any harm. They also the realists in both stories, bringing both Meg and Rosamond down to earth. In this way, they are both the stabilising forces in both stories. The difference between them is that Hester is also the narrator in “The Old Nurse’s Story” whereas Geoff is not. In “The Call”, the narrator does not take part in the story and has nothing to do with the final outcome, whereas in “The Old Nurse’s story”, the narrator, Hester, is one of principal characters of the story, making “The Old Nurse’s story” more credible, for it is retold first hand as opposed to someone who was not there.
A common trait in both stories is the way the tension buils up. In “The Call”, it is built up through a series of phone calls from the ghost to Meg and Geoff and the way that it talks to them, using short, abrupt sentences such as “He’s going to kill me”. The author describes the mood of the story by using long descriptive sentences; for instance, when the ghost first hangs up the phone on Meg: “ Meg put down the phone wearily, and suddenly shivered, though the office was over-warm, from the roaring gas fire.” However, “The Old Nurse’s Story” builds tension up through a series of sinister events, which lead up to the climax of the story, when the ghosts burst out of the east wing of the house.
The setting of a story can also help build up tension. Both stories are set in winter, which is a time when most ghost stories are set. There are however differences in the settings. The setting at the beginning of “The Call” is not typical to a ghost story, for it is set in a warm Samaritans office, where Geoff and Meg had brought “long red candles to light, and mince pies to heat up in our kitchen and eat at midnight”. Its ending, however, is much more typical for a ghost story, set in the cold, by a river “So easy to slip in, let the icy arms embrace you, slip away”. The setting in “The Old Nurse’s Story” as opposed to “The Call” is a typical one for a ghost story: Cold, eerie mansion. The encounter with the ghost happens “One night- just after New Year’s Day had come at last”, a time when it is the coldest. The mansion is also isolated from other houses in the area and more importantly “Dark and gloomy” which is a common aspect found in ghost stories.
Furthermore, a description of the weather is capable of changing the mood of a story from being content and cheerful to gloomy and frightening. For instance, the ring of the phone breaks the atmosphere of happiness and joy created by Meg and her husband: “Geoff was just kissing her, mouth full of flaky pastry, when the emergency phone went” compared to “Cold; so cold.” after it was taken. This aspect of the cold is also closely knit with the surroundings and settings of the stories, which all together add to the ambience of the story.
In additional, another common feature between the two stories is, the difference in language. The language used in “The Call” is contemporary; i.e. it is casual and modern as opposed to “The Old Nurse’s Story”, where the language used is much more formal. This can be explained by the fact that “The Old Nurse’s Story” was written in Victorian English whereas “The Call” was written in 20th century, less complex, English. “I did what he bade me” is not the type of language that one would expect to encounter in everyday life. Also, the language in “The Old Nurse’s Story” was much more descriptive than in “The Call”, thus making the story much heavier and longer:
“There was a chandelier all of bronze hung down from the middle of the ceiling; and I had never seen one before, and looked at all in amaze. Then, at one end of the hall, was a great fire-place, as large as the sides of the houses in my country, with massy andirons and dogs to hold the wood;” as opposed to “The Call”:
“Geoff took one look at his wife’s grey, frozen, horrified face, and snatched the phone from her hand.”
In both “The Old Nurse’s Story” and “The Call”, the final truth is revealed as to the origins of the ghost or ghosts. The original mysteries regarding them are solved. One common aspect of both stories is that one person dies in them. In both cases, it is not the main character, Harry in “The Call” and Mrs. Furnivall in “The Old Nurse’s Story”, but a character who has had past connections with the ghost in some way or another: Harry had been talking to Agnes Todd for twenty years after she died, and Mrs. Furnivall was responsible for the death of the girl.
What happens to the ghosts in both stories is however completely
different. In “The Call”, the ghost is exorcised by being sent to the afterlife once
Harry dies, whereas in “The Old Nurse’s Story” the murder of the little girl is re-
enacted in front of Hester, Miss Rosamond, Mrs Furnivall and Mrs Stark.
On the whole, “The Call” has the traditional elements of a ghost story, however, it is modern in terms of language. This enables the reader to better understand and follow the story, as opposed to the “The Old Nurse’s Story” that is a traditional ghost story, with heavy language, which detracts from the enjoyment of the story. Its predictability also works to the detriment of the story in that it ruins the element of suspense and tension. It concentrates very much on description. The element of suspense in “The Call” is very well kept by the fact that the story jumps from scene to scene and is not so descriptive, keeping the reader hooked on the story and making it a more enjoyable one, with a very unpredictable ending.
In “The Old Nurse’s Story”, the reader is left asking themselves what will happen to Miss Rosamond and Mrs Furnivall, leaving the reader guessing, whereas in “The Call”, the reader knows full well that the story is finished and that after Harry’s death, the ghost will not call anymore.
