The characters are unnamed strangers odd and distorted by age. They are described accurately by their strangest ailments which is repeatedly used to relate them to who is speaking, ‘said the man with the withered arm’ ‘the man with the shade’ ‘said the old woman’ The three characters are described as ‘grotesque custodians’ the man with the shade is described in most detail as he is the last to enter, ‘lower lip half averted, hung pale… from his decaying yellow teeth… eyes, small, bright and inflamed.’ Even their mannerisms are unfriendly and give them a less than human image ‘sat down clumsily… swayed her head slowly from side to side… a shambling step’ H.G. Wells uses repetitive phrases o influence the emotions of his audience by describing the man as ‘more bent, more wrinkled and more aged’ and by making us feel he is making the wrong choice as the only words of the old woman are of warning and of the trouble awaiting him. ‘A many things to see and sorrow for… This night of all nights… It’s your own choosing’
In all three stories there is a strong contrast between young and old, experience and innocence, wisdom and naivete, for example, the old custodians in ‘The Red Room’ have seen many a sight ‘to sorrow for’ whilst the narrator is young and naïve, who has never had a supernatural encounter. In ‘The Signal Man’ the aged male who saw the spectre was wiser than the young visitor and again had seen more than what the youngsters mind could perceive, Then finally the older Rhoda Brooks and the young innocent Gertrude Lodge in ‘The Withered Arm’.
Every movement and thought of the narrator is commented on, therefore increasing tension, for example he pauses momentarily outside the room to ponder on the strangeness of the three, he, through acknowledging his growing uncertainty increases the tension, his wavering confidence adds to the already heightened anticipation. He comments on the housekeepers eeriness ‘things spiritual… omens and witches were credible… ghosts beyond denying’
The journey to the red room is very long, therefore it is far from the custodians who would not stray any closer to the room than they are already, this also impresses the magnificence of the castle, the height and capacity (plus the exit of the building is farther!) The passage to the room is one most would certainly avoid undertaking, it is stereotypical of a ghost story, (as most things in it are!) therefore, it is easy to imagine the raw emotion the narrator must be feeling at the time (also helped by being written in the 1st person!) This induces a heightened atmosphere and tension, which is crucial ahead of the climax inside the red room. The bareness. Emptiness. Nothing is as it seems, ‘the echoes ran up and down the spiral staircase… a shadow came sweeping up after me… a rustling I fancied I heard’ The hallway being illuminated almost soley by moonlight, cast everything into shadows with the appearance of something sinister awaiting him ready to pounce, ‘impression of someone crouching to waylay me.’ The corridor abandoned, the dust lay undisturbed for so long it formed an even carpet.
The red room already had a sinister, disagreeable feeling from the conversations and uncertainty. Therefore to reinforce this his actions are noticeably preconceived everything is done for a reason, he opens the door to a side and cast a glance askance at the corridor behind him, almost in a last feeble attempt to satisfy himself that there is no-one behind him and that its all normal. He would not enter the room head on entering sideways instead. The little details are the ones that add the most atmosphere, ‘with my face half-turned … to the landing’ Although we know where he is by now it is again reinforced, we also know that a man died there and that they are in Loraine Castle, ‘the great red room of Lorraine Castle’ Great has a majestic air, it has a respect born through fear.
Even though his growing fear is plainly evident he still attempts to be confident, continuing to sneer at the legends of the past, doubting their validity, this happens also in ‘The Signal Man’, the narrator in this to, questions the validity of the misfortuned signal man’s visions, ‘superstition… half-credible beginning of it all’ and in ‘The Signal Man’ ‘it was the mental torture… how your imagination misleads you.’
The narrator thus proceeds to check the room for any secret passages therefore squelching any ideas that there could be another explanation for some of the things happening in the Red Room itself. This also gives a time to describe the room in all its glory and detail, ‘wide chimney… dark oak panelling… two big mirrors… sombre red sand blacks’ and so forth. He conducts his search very thoroughly.
The fact he felt it necessary to barricade himself in and bring his gun increased tension through the ever growing anticipation. He is unnerved; ‘jumpy’, he, obviously is very anxious and finds comfort in not staying still, so the audience stay the same. They are not led into a false security, therefore the atmosphere does not diminish in the slightest, nor does it have chance to linger or grow stale. This and the descriptions keeps the story alive, as darkness is something we can all relate to, especially the feeling of it, and impenetrable silence closing in, ‘darkness closed upon me like the shutting of an eye… an ocean of mystery and suggestion beyond its island of light’. Even though the narrator cheered himself a little with a personal joke (‘when the ghost comes I could warn him not to trip over them’) he could still not deny his feelings ‘the brooding expectation of the vigil weighed heavily upon me’.
As the candles extinguished one by one H.G. Wells began to increase the urgency and pace of his sentences, thus showing the narrators apparent hysteria over powering all rationality. I ts is highly probable, that there was nothing unnatural in the snuffed candles, a draught or the breeze caused by his movement could easily extinguish them. However, as the ideas were already implanted, his mind had abandoned all reason and began forming, irrational conclusions for which they could have happened, ‘the flames vanished, as if the wicks had been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb… something seemed to blink on the wall’. The narrator admits that ‘a queer high note got into his voice’ and he spoke ‘in a half-hysterical facetiousness’. The pace yet still increases as he dashes from candle to candle becoming frantic. The tale at a climax the atmosphere also piercing, in all reality however, all of the things that happened could be explained.
The descriptions of the happenings inside that ‘red room’ took up a large space of the whole tale, focusing on the frantic actions of a man at his wits end, he fell unconscious, as his quest for the door failed miserably (it would have helped if he knew which direction it was in!) and remembering no more.
By day everything was different, the custodians looked normal, just intrigued elderly people. The atmosphere diminished in an instant, however the tension still lies, in awaiting the narrator’s conclusion. He repeats words again, as he did in the beginning of the story, including a capital letter to emphasise it ‘There is Fear in that room of hers- black Fear.’
The ‘Signal man’ by Charles Dickens is also a dark shadowy story about a young man on a quest to unravel an aged signalman’s distressing fate. A panicked spectre has a hidden warning that needs to be deciphered before its too late. However in thinking the manifestation is an illusion of his mind, the narrator tries to calm him so he can continue to perform his duty, but little does he know how wrong he is until the signal man’s sudden demise.
The setting is as eerie, desolate and as unwelcoming as Lorraine Castle. Everything about the trench is gloomy and uninviting, ‘forbidding air… as solitary and dismal a place… crooked prolongation of this great dungeon.’ However unlike the gradual description of the setting throughout the text in ‘The Red Room’, it is described primarily in a single paragraph. The trench is of ‘clammy stone’ suggesting dampness, and a cold uninviting, chilly environment ‘deadly smell… as if I had left the natural world’ Again like ‘The Red Room’ the tale never warms, the atmosphere is dire therefore the tension is built on an expectation of horrors to come.
The box is minimalist, with simply the bare necessities for a basic living and work environment. In fact there are more work instruments in there than living, ‘a fire, a desk for a book, a telegraphic instrument, and a little bell’. It is easy to see why the narrator would think that the signalman was insane when he spent so many hours without company in such meagre conditions, a small box hut cut into ‘a dripping wet wall of jagged stone’ near a black tunnel with little light. The atmosphere here is ‘as wet as the wall!’ and as cold as the stone it consists of, through the detailed descriptions of the unwelcoming environment.
The characters are unnamed, both narrator and signalman are strangers, therefore preventing the audience to warm to them. The reader is ‘daunted’ by the pair especially the signalman who instils fear in even the narrator. He has the appearance of an overhanging shadow, he is dark and easy to imagine as a man with a drawn, tired face, ‘foreshortened and shadowed… dark sallow man… dark beard’. I believe this coupled with his strange, cold, mannerisms, causes the narrator and hence the audience to be wary of him, ‘there was something in that man that daunted me’ the time of day (‘angry sunset’) helped this along. However, he was unnerved and ‘jumpy’ right through the story ‘he cast a most curious look… his attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness… not removing his eyes from mine…you look at me, as if you had a dread of me’. The narrator commented on how there was some ‘inexplicable air… without being able to define,’ although this is not described directly, from the other features of the man, and his habitat, the audience are led to feeling the same unease or awaiting expectation of him. We know that something will happen to this man from the beginning although we do not know what exactly. All of this causes heightened atmosphere and uncomfortable tension, although this doesn’t pick up fully until we are told of his unfortunate ‘visions’, unlike in ‘The Red Room’ where we are ‘thrown straight in’ to it fully. Therefore the tension does not have to be sustained right throughout the story, which is also the case in ‘A Withered Arm’, when it climaxes at the point of their journey. In both theses two stories the tension is then withheld through till the end.
This story obviously is based around the dramatic conclusion. By ending this so quickly and with so much impact the tension is cut off at the end, without leaving time for the climaxed tension and atmosphere to diminish. It takes merely a few sentences after we discover the signalman’s death before the story ends. The outcome is horrific, therefore the audience are shocked as this is an unexpected twist to the tale. The way he is killed is eerie and disturbing, the narrator’s overwhelming feelings, move the audience with the same correlating effect ‘nameless horror that oppressed me’. Even the fact that, as the narrator approached the railway before he knew of the man’s death, he was so adamant that it was an illusion of his overworked mind that he had decided to ask the signalman to go to a doctor with him, ’to the wisest medical practitioner’, this makes the signal man’s death all the more unexpected, that it was ‘a lovely evening’ and the irony that he made his journey longer so he could enjoy it more. Therefore this raises questions in the audiences mind, if only he had gone straight there, he may of saved the poor man’s life, if only, he had believed him. Finally, that it now looked incredibly doubtful that it was coincidence what the signalman had ‘imagined’, the words, gesture and even the appearance of the train driver that had ‘cut him down’. Pity is also a great factor in the conclusion; it makes the story have a more memorable and sad atmosphere. Finally the way that the narrator, whom had written the story after it had happened, finished of by giving the audience yet more to think about, reminding us of its obscurities, unbelievable coincidences and in turn reinforcing the mournful atmosphere.
‘… close at the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his right arm.’