Comparison of three Victorian Short Stories, The Red Room, The Signalman and The Man With The Twisted Lip.

Comparison of three Victorian Short Stories

In the ‘Red Room’, H.G.Wells explores the nature of fear. He is very clever because he gradually builds up the tension by describing the journey of the man leading towards the Red Room. Due to the old people who try to scare the man, you get the idea that there might be a presence in the room. You find out that people have died in the room, but the man is convinced that nothing will scare him.

“ It will take a very tangible ghost to scare me”.

In ‘The Signalman’ there is a twist because the signalman is having many visions about people dying on the track and the visions come true. He feels that something is going to happen before it takes place, in a way you are waiting for something to happen. It is very strange because he is actually having visions of his own death but he does not yet know, which is a bit tragic for the reader because you know that he is going to die.

In ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’ Sherlock Holmes solves the crime. Because the story is in the first person you get immediate reactions to the events that occur, you want to solve the mystery with Holmes.

In ‘The Red Room’, Wells chose to make to make his contents and setting that deliberately gives the story an almost timeless quality. He even makes it clear how ancient and old-fashioned everything in the castle is. Unlike Dickens and Conan Doyle, Wells does not wish the story to be closely linked with the period in which he wrote it, this was so that he could explore the ageless nature of fear itself. The story is atavistic in a way because he is relating and including the ideas that are contained in gothic fiction, which makes the story more effective. Gothic fiction attempts to terrify the reader and it always involves the supernatural. Possible features in a Gothic story are ghosts, curses, hidden rooms and witchcraft whilst the usual locations are castles, monasteries and cemeteries. This story contains some Gothic elements, namely Lorraine Castle, grotesque characters, haunted rooms, ghosts, witches, superstition, previous deaths and curses. Wells borrowed literary tradition of Gothic literature when he wrote ‘ The Red Room, purposely being misleading about its precise time or location.

In ‘ The Signalman’, Charles Dickens uses the railway which is a recent invention just beginning to spread across the nation, it was cutting-edge technology. For Dickens to chose this as a setting, it gives the story a contemporary touch. References to steam trains and the thought of every small, obscure signal box in the country being permanent and manually operated gives the story a sense of historical context to the reader today. There is also a very Victorian idea about the variation in the class system, it being very noticeable to the narrator that the signalman is too educated to be in a job where he is not able to use all of his intelligence that he holds. It is important to recognise the originality of Dickens to combine the ancient supernatural with a modern railway setting. He was undoubtedly influenced by the fact that in 1865 he had been involved in a railway accident, where ten people died. He wrote ‘ The Signalman’ a year later.

In ‘ The Man with the Twisted Lip’ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle focuses the story on the last decade of Victoria’s reign. Conan Doyle is precise in describing the location which is the same dense network of streets in East London occupied by Jack the Ripper. He was never caught so maybe he could be lurking around the alleys ready to pounce on his prey, people are aware of the danger. The public criticised the police because they are seen to be incompetent in the way that they handle the series of brutal, cold- blooded murders. The area of ...

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In ‘ The Man with the Twisted Lip’ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle focuses the story on the last decade of Victoria’s reign. Conan Doyle is precise in describing the location which is the same dense network of streets in East London occupied by Jack the Ripper. He was never caught so maybe he could be lurking around the alleys ready to pounce on his prey, people are aware of the danger. The public criticised the police because they are seen to be incompetent in the way that they handle the series of brutal, cold- blooded murders. The area of East London was highly polluted, full of smoke-erupting factories, while people live in foul, gloomy houses. Disease was widespread but medicine rather scarce, with doctors prescribing opium-based laudanum to the rich wealthy classes who could afford it. The opium addicts would go to ‘ The Bar of Gold’, but the addicts would be gentlemen and not members of the working class. This would be quite a surprise because you would never expect a gentleman to go to such a dark, gloomy enclosed place like ‘ The Bar of Gold’.

Dickens builds up tension in the story, making the reader constantly feel concerned for him. We know from when the traveller observes the book collection that the Signalman has in his hut that he is intelligent. He has studied mathematics and literature in his spare time as shown in the text; “He had taught himself a little language” showing that he knows something of English literature, or possibly a foreign language, and seems to possess a quite overall well-rounded ability because; “He had also worked at fractions and decimals”, this making the reader wonder why the signalman is not in a job where he can use all of his mental ability. This also adds to the stories strange and mysterious atmosphere.

Dickens also uses irony in his tale to help create a sense of tension. The most important example of this is when then the visitor, and narrator of the story, offers to stay the night with the Signalman. However his offer is refused. The reader at this point knows that because the Signalman is on his own, something is bound to happen to him.

The title "The Red Room" immediately attracts the reader's attention; it is symbolic but leaves unanswered questions. "What is the red room?" "Why is it red?" We associate red with fear and danger. Is this room dangerous? Overall, the title raises so much curiosity that it has an overwhelming effect, wanting us to read on and find answers to our questions.

In a short story, the reader will be able to have a strong influence from the writer's first and last lines. This makes them very important and is well thought out. This is the first line:

‘I can assure you,’ said I, 'that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.'’

From this first line, the reader can assume two pieces of information. Firstly that this story involves a ghost, and secondly that the character is an educated and well-read man. This high level of interest increases the tension and stops the reader from putting the book down. Also, as it is a short story it gets straight to the point.

The story in the first page introduces four characters. A young man, an old man and his wife, and another old man. We never know their names. The young man is uncertain about the red room being haunted. The three elder people believe that it is haunted and dare not even go there. Opposites build drama and drama builds tension. This is the perfect example of how opposites build tension. Firstly, we have the young against the old, which also symbolises the inexperienced against the wise. There is also the conflict between 'unwary' and the 'wise'. Although they may be wise, the older people have not ever dared to go to the red room. They have become wise as they have heard the stories about the room but none of them has ever had first hand experience of the room.

Repetition is also a device used by writers to build tension. One of the most obvious examples is on the first page.

‘It's your own choosing.’

The old man is trying to warn the young man but at the same time he is leaving the 'decision' to him. It is as if the three old people are removing themselves of their responsibility of the young man. It is their duty, like guardians, to warn the man of what they believe is to be his death.

Another use of repetition is on page two where the old woman keeps on repeating, "this night of all nights." We never find out why that night is important but it gives the reader a question. Although we are going to find out when we read on; we want to have answers and this continues our interest into "why was that night important?"

In this story, the location is very important. The story is set in a castle. A ghost story in a castle is not a new idea and although it is a rather unoriginal location, it is very appropriate. The old people who inhabit the place cannot use most of it to live in because they are afraid of the 'red room'. This keeps them well away from that section of the castle. A castle is such an appropriate location and here what we do not know is far more frightening than what we do know. A castle is a perfect example of what we do not know! It is full of rooms, corridors and stairs. As the story continues, the young man explores the castle on his journey to the red room. On route to the red room, he comes across what looks like a figure in front of him only to find it was an ornament of a Chinaman on a buhl table. Then as he approaches the door to the red room, the tension builds and he enters very quickly closing the door behind him. He finds himself in a huge red walled room. As he continues to arrange the room, the tension is allowed to fall giving the reader a certain release. As he becomes more aware of the shadows in the room the tension rises again:

"The shadow in the alcove at the end in particular had that undeniable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of a lurking, living thing, that comes so easily in silence and solitude.”

Again, this shows us how darkness is far more frightening than being able to see and knowing what is there. Tension is built by how the young man expresses his feelings. To conquer his fear of the unknown the man places a candle in an alcove in the corner of the room:

"At last, to reassure myself, I walked with a candle into it, and satisfied myself that there was nothing tangible there. I stood that candle upon the floor of the alcove, and left it in that position."

Here he is referring to the opening line about having to find a very tangible ghost.Tension mounts as he begins talking to himself, but after listening to the eerie echoes, he gets more frightened than before. The tension increases now all the time. He is getting more nervous and he feels the need for more candles. He has to get some from the corridor and he lights them and places them around the room. His spirits lift but there is also tension created through his black humour. He may be watching what he describes as "cheery and reassuring little streaming flames," but he is getting nervous and he jokes about how he should warn any ghost about tripping over a candle on the floor.

Then it happens. The first candle goes out, casting a black shadow on the wall. The second candle goes out and the tension in the story is boosted as there is uncertainty about why the candle went out. Although the man does not feel any draft, he claims that it was a draft that blew it out. He tries to reassure himself by lying to himself although he has a deeper feeling that he may not be alone. He has to dismiss this from his mind otherwise he would become the victim of his own fears. As he goes over to re-light the candle, it goes out, then another and another. Then one is extinguished in front of him while he is looking at it

"Shadows seemed to take another step towards me"

The light symbolises the truth. Without light, there is no truth. If the light goes out he has no way of finding out what is in the red room. The darkness creates the tension and fear. In light, we can see but when it is dark we cannot see and therefore tension and fear is everywhere. When the man says that the shadows take another step towards him, he is saying that fiction is closing in on him and as it does, he is been drawn away from the truth. In the story, the man has a revolver. This symbolises violence, which leads to conflict, and conflict builds tension. Fire symbolises warmth and scares off evil. The old people with disabilities symbolise the fear inside him and how he would not like to end his life. However, at the end, he does become like them, talking in their style about what had happened.

Panic comes as the room suddenly changes into shadows with him racing around trying to keep up with the candles as they go out. The tension is further highlighted, as the sentences become shorter. Clumsily he knocks his thigh against the table. His downfall begins. From here on he loses control, it is as if he is sinking. He loses his search for the truth as he tries to light the fire with the last candle. He runs into something and knocks himself out. .Then there is a gap in time; tension starts to unwind slowly.

He wakes up the next morning after being rescued at dawn by the old people. He personifies fear with the red room. He has had a fight with his fear and in the end his fear wins. For me, the red room symbolises one's own fear. Nothing is actually in the room except what one believes is there.

The tension in the story is the unknown. Any passage relating to the unknown could build tension.

Language plays an important part and changes with characters. The old people have an old English vocabulary, whereas the young man is given a very upper class and stylish vocabulary. Around the tense moments of the story, the language relating to the young man's experience is described in very short sentences with a lot of punctuation.

The climax to ‘Twisted Lip’ is more indirect, no chases or fights, its simply the suspense, as in ‘Front’ to find out what happened to Neville, the writer uses a good technique to keep the suspense on the readers, he writes that it looks like Holmes knows what happened and as it is narrated by Watson the truth isn’t found out till Watson finds out; the last few paragraphs after Holmes gets to the police station and shows that Boone the cripple is Neville st. Clair. This is especially successful after the long speech between Holmes, Neville’s wife and Watson. Holmes mostly creates the conversation, but this long conversation brings everything into a summary and can put the reader on the edge of their seat. The build up to the ending of the story however is very effective, as it is written through the eyes of an almost ‘secondary’ character, meaning Watson isn’t the one solving the clues in fact he doesn’t help much at all, looking at the story at this angle it is very successful and is also more realistic.