Discuss how writers build tension & convey atmosphere.

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Discuss how writers build tension & convey atmosphere

To investigate tension and atmosphere, I have looked at three pre1900 pieces- ‘The Red Room’ H.G.Wells, ‘The Signalman,’ Charles Dickens, & ‘A Withered Arm’ Thomas Hardy. They use a variety of different techniques, each with their own individual style but achieving the same overall effect. They focus on setting, description of characters & use of language.

The Red Room is a tale of a man on a quest to discover the truth about the legend of ‘The Red Room’ in Lorraine Castle, as the young man’s fate unfolds the audience are led with him, they feel his fear, hear his thoughts and experience his terror. ‘The Red Room’ has such a mystery behind it, fear itself nearly leads him to his death. A tale that lacks warmth and everything about it instils terror.

The title of the story has a suggestive air, the word red makes the audience think of blood, danger, and death, in ‘The Signal Man,’ red is also the main focus colour for the same reasons but this time in the form of the danger light in the mouth of the tunnel.

 H.G. Wells writes in the first person so the audience can follow what is happening and believe they are there, ‘I have lived…’ The opening line sets the tone of the story, and the audience is filled with anticipation. The narrator is very confident, which is displayed almost immediately ‘I can assure you, it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ The audience is then effectively led into an early assumption that the narrator will be proved wrong, that there will be a ghost, and it will, most certainly frighten him.

The setting is described in clues hidden throughout the text, therefore the picture is built up slowly for example, there is a fireplace by which they are all gathered ‘As I stood up by the fire… a shambling step on the flags… door creaked…’ I know as I read this story, before I was told, I imagined a large old castle with cold floors and the only source of heat being an old wood fire. Therefore remembering other stories, I recognise this as a typical stereotype for a ghost story, the castle is easy to imagine, therefore the atmosphere surrounding the building becomes heightened.  

Loraine castle was abandoned by its possessor and has a previous reputation for haunting’s leading to deaths. Therefore it becomes wired almost electric (even though the castle has none!) Without electricity the only source of light is candles (which are easily snuffed and are not as reliable as electric lights). The tale is set at near-midnight, there is a full moon (again very stereotypical) and it is the anniversary of a death related to ‘The Red Room’.

At the beginning of the story H.G. Wells uses long paced sentences, without urgency or panic as does the ‘Withered Arm’. All three stories are highly descriptive, lots of shadows, dark corners, and dim light at the points of climax for example, ‘The Red Room’ contains ‘sombre reds and blacks’ The Signal Man’ ‘gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, and ‘A Withered Arm’, ‘veiled mist in front of her eyes’.

In the Red Room the chambers are unwelcoming, large, desolate and lavish but have an unreal air distorted and past their prime, as though they have been less well up kept since some mysterious happening. This helps induce a feeling of unsettle, of silent apprehence and tension. ‘queer old mirror… long, draughty subterranean passage… chilly and dusty’

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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 ...

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