Examine the setting and atmosphere in three Gothic Stories: The Red Room by H.G. Wells, The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell, and The Signalman by Charles Dickens.

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Examine the setting and atmosphere in three Gothic Stories:

  • The Red Room by H.G. Wells
  • The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
  • The Signalman by Charles Dickens

Gothic stories are a type of romantic fiction that predominated English Literature in the last third of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th century.  

During the nineteenth century, short stories written in gothic tradition became extremely popular. It was a time when supernatural powers were still believable. These stories, with elements of vengeance, trickery, imprisonment and fear were conceived during the gothic era and are still read today with the power to enthral and chill their audience one hundred years on.

All gothic stories are recognisable, for they all incorporate numerous elements that are unique to the gothic tradition. Gothic stories rely on the atmosphere and setting to create tension. The setting is usually a grand, secluded castle or abbey. Gothic stories emphasise mystery and horror and are filled with ghosts, haunted rooms, underground passages and spiral stairways.

The Red Room, The Old Nurse’s Story and The Signalman are examples of Gothic stories which demonstrate the importance of setting.

The settings in these stories convey how remote and desolate the locations are, which is a typical feature of gothic stories to build mood and atmosphere.

 

The Red Room is set inside an old haunted castle far from civilisation. The haunted castle sets the tension in the scene. The Old Nurse’s Story is set in the black moors of Northumberland. The isolation of such settings results in long journeys over some bleak and dangerous land. The setting and the isolation of Furnivall Manor enhances the atmosphere. It is created by Elizabeth Gaskell to clarify to her reader how defenceless and vulnerable the characters would be if something were to go wrong. The element of imprisonment is exposed, which is typical in a gothic story. Charles Dickens also creates a tense atmosphere in the setting of The Signalman. It is set in a deep cutting adjacent to a tunnel with a railway running through which signifies danger.

The writers’ of the three stories use the element of imprisonment to build up the tense mood and atmosphere.

In The Red Room, the young confident man embarked on a journey that saw him walk through doorways, up enclosed staircases, and along narrow dark corridors by his lit candle. H.G. Wells obviously feels the need to exaggerate every object, shadow and noise.  He wrote, ‘You will go along a passage for a bit until you come to a door, and through that is a spiral staircase, half-way up that is a landing and another door covered with baize. Go through that and down the long corridor to the end, and the red room is on your left up the steps.’  H.G. Wells exaggerates the journey to make the reader aware of how helpless the young confident man would be if he got into trouble as no one would be able to hear him scream. The element of imprisonment and fear positively builds up tension. The same thing happens in The Old Nurse’s Story.  Hester relates, ‘We had left all signs of a town, or even a village, and were then inside the gates of a large wildlife park with rocks, and the noise of running water, gnarled thorn trees, old oaks all white and peeled with age.’ In The Signalman, the setting is also described as ‘extremely deep and unusually precipitate’ and ‘solitary and dismal.’  The place seems very isolated and cut off from the real world, a perfect place for supernatural happenings. Here the element of imprisonment is exposed.

The time at which the climaxes of the stories take place is something they all have in common.

This is usually at night, or when it is dark. You cannot be certain of what you see in the dark, and therefore it increases the sense of tension. In The Signalman the climax is kept almost throughout the story as the man comes back twice to meet with the signalman in the signal box, and each time it is late at night. The climax of The Red Room takes place in the haunted room, which is dark and silent. Candles and flames teasingly go out ‘like the shutting of an eye.’ At the end, the climax of The Old Nurse’s Story takes place in the hall where it is also dark, even as ‘the great bronze chandelier seemed all alight, the hall was dim,’ recalls Hester.

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The atmosphere of mystery and suspense is always present in a gothic story.

Often the plot itself is based around mystery.  For instance, in The Old Nurse’s Story, the east wing is strictly out of bounds, creating an element of animosity which makes the reader wonder why it is off limits.  Also, when the picture of Miss Grace is mysteriously turned around to hide it, ‘I helped Dorothy to turn a great picture, that leaned with its face towards the wall, and was not hung up as the others were,’ said Hester. Mystery and suspense is ...

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