Dickens and Wells create a sinister and supernatural

        In the Red Room the narrator does not believe in supernatural at the beginning of the story “ I can assure you”. The narrator starts the story in confidence as he does not believe in supernatural. However as the story goes on there’s a change of mind in the narrator. As the narrator gets more scared H.G Wells creates a sinister atmosphere by describing in detail the six senses. “The long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty and my candle flared and made there”.  This is when H.G Wells describes the staircase and therefore paints a picture in out mind that it has a sinister and supernatural atmosphere in the staircase.

        The way that Dickens and Wells describe The SignalMan and the prisoners helps to increase the feeling of the super natural. In The SignalMan, Dickens describes the The SignalMan in a very detailed way. He uses many different techniques and strong vivid words to describe The SignalMan, which increases the feeling of supernatural in the story. “Saw that he was a dark sallow man with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows”. Here Dickens has described the The SignalMan in very deep detail. When Dickens says “sallow man” he is saying that the The Signal Man could be pale yellow colour or pale brown. Also light and dark imagery is used when describing The SignalMan. “He was a dark sallow man”. By using light and dark imagery it makes it more tensing and mysterious as dark is known to be/described for something bad and light is described for happy events. However The SignalMan is described in dark imagery therefore it is giving us an idea that something mysterious is happening.

        In the Red Room H.G Wells also used strong adjectives to describe the decay of the pensioners. “More bent, more wrinkled, more aged ever than before”. This is giving us the idea that the pensioners are getting worse than before as H.G Wells says “Even than the first”. Also he describes them of having “decaying yellow teeth” which gives an impression and signs of old age. This gives it a bit more of a supernatural effect as there are old people in the castle and they have lived there for many years and still have not seen a ghost ever.” I have lived, and never a ghost have is seen as yet”.  Is this something to be worried about if the old pensioners have not seen anything since they have lived here?

        As the story progresses, Dickens and Wells continue to elevate the sinister and supernatural atmosphere through the way that they describe settings of the stories. In The Red Room a lot of multi-sensory description is used when describing the atmosphere and what event is happening. “The long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty and my candle flared and made my shadows cover and quiver.” In just this quote a lot of vivid adjective are used to help describe the atmosphere. Using vivid language helps bring up the tension of sinister and supernatural effect. When H.G Wells wrote “made the shadow cover” he used darkness personification. This is one of the major key elements used when describing sinister and supernatural. I think this is  a good way of describing sinister and supernatural because it gives a clearer picture in the readers mind. “Listening to a rustling that I fancied I heard”. Here two of the six senses have been used which is also another technique sued when describing a supernatural affect.  When Wells describes the house he uses many words which effect on decay. “I heard the sound of a stick and a shambling step on the flags in the passage outside, and the door creaked on its hinges as a second old man entered more bent, more wrinkled more ages even then the first”. In this quote a lot of the words are very strong and are used to describe the decaying of the house and it gives us the idea saying how old the house actually is. It’s that old that the doors hinges are breaking off and the doors creak. Wells also uses a lot of triplets “another age, an older age an age”. He used triplets to give more impact on the story and also because if you use triplets it gives the reader the idea that it’s something big or something that we need to know therefore it is repeated.

        In conclusion Charles Dickens and H.G Wells have used many and different techniques and ideas to create a sinister and supernatural atmosphere in the opening of The SignalMan and The Red Room. Both the authors were influenced by events which they had experienced as when Dickens saw a railway derailed at high speed therefore he wrote his story which included a character dying by the train. I think that both H.G Wells and Charles Dickens have done well on writing a sinister and supernatural atmosphere. However I think H.G Wells used more techniques and skills when describing the sinister and supernatural atmosphere. I think H.G Wells had a better idea when he was writing the The Red Room as his words were more vivid and they were stronger therefore I got a clearer picture of the The Red Room than the The Signal Man.