The red room is written like a journal, the constant use of I shows this “I can assure you, said I” firstly this shows the story is set in the past and it is written like a journal. Both stories are ghost stories: “it’ll take a very tangible ghost to frighten me” from the red room and “I had the sensation of someone being in my room” from farthing house show this, both of the quotes show that the two stories are in the ghost genre.
Both main locations are set internally and both are in a house or part of a house, “the red room” and “Farthing House”. “The red room” is totally internal; this creates an enclosed and scary effect. “Farthing House” is set in more than one place and so does not create the same effect as “The Red Room”.
Both stories are first person narration: “I thought of Cedar room” and “I can assure you” show this. First person narration makes the reader feel they are in the story, both stories are also recounts. One narrator is a woman in “Farthing House”, the evidence to support this is “you are Ms Flower, how nice to meet you. Janet Pearson” this shows that the narrator is obviously a woman. The narrator in “The Red Room” is a man: “H G Wells”
The description in “Farthing House” and “The Red Room” are quite similar to other, firstly the two stories describe the surroundings often this can be seen by “FARTHING HOUSE it was a neat elegantly lettered sign, not too prominent….”, this shows just how much “Farthing House” surroundings has been described. “The deep toned, old fashioned furniture of the house keeper’s room” from “The Red Room” also shows just how much the surroundings have been described.
A difference to the description in each story is “the red room” describes the characters in the story in more detail, “he supported himself by a single crouch, his eyes were covered by a shade, and his lower lip half averted ,hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth”. H G Wells uses adverbs and adjectives to get the exact image the writer wants to the reader. “Hung pale” suggests the character is sort of lifeless and not been outside of the “The Red Room” setting. “Decaying yellow teeth” suggests the character is rotting and creates a sort of sick and dirty feel of him.
“Farthing house” also creates a stereotype, as there is not much description or information about “aunt addy” this creates a stereotype of her.
Another difference between both stories is their style of writing; farthing house uses a much more modern style of language: “I’ve been extremely comfortable,” I said firmly” and “the red room” uses a much more old style of writing “I can assure you” said I” shows this story is set a long time ago.
From the analysis it can be seen that the two ghost stories are quite different although they do have similarities. “The Red Room” uses much more description than “Farthing House” but they both use the same main setting (inside a house/room). They both have different characters and style of writing but overall they are quite similar.