Examining 'The Red Room' by H.G Wells and 'The Signalman' by Charles Dickens, two short stories set in the later 19th century.

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Hassan Daoud Y10A                                  1st of November 2003

Coursework- First Draft

Examine closely two short stories you have studied in this unit and compare the ways in which the writers have created fear and suspense.

`‘The Red Room’ by H.G Wells and ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens are two short stories set in the later 19th century (‘The Red Room’ 1896, ‘The Signalman’ 1860s). ‘The Red Room’ is a Gothic horror story while ‘The Signalman’ is a story containing many elements of Gothic horror from the earlier 19th century. They both mention the supernatural although ‘The Signalman’ is questioning it and ‘The Red Room’ is a story made to prove that there is no such thing as the supernatural.

        H. G Wells created fear and suspense in ‘The Red Room’ in many ways. He raises the suspense level mainly through the personalities of the three old custodians, with language, description and their actions. The man with the withered arm gives aid with increasing the suspense level with his repetitions of the phrase ‘It’s your own choosing.’. It is a warning repeated three times, an effect used in ‘The Signalman as well. The repetitions of a phrase or an action three times is an element used by writers to increase fear and suspense because the number three is believed to be an unlucky number, although at that time when there was superstition and questions of witches and the supernatural, it would have given a much better effect. Wells also raises fear with the old woman always staring at the fire, ‘the old woman sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open.’ And ‘her eyes fixed steadily on the fire.’ I have come to learn that that is because fire was a symbol of security at that time and in some cases today although now the television is the main symbol of security. On top of that, the description of the second old man is very strong and vivid and makes the reader disgusted and fearful, when he says, ‘more bent, more wrinkled, more aged even than the first.’ And also with ‘and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.’ When Wells writes the word ‘more’ before each description and the word ‘even’, it gives the impression that the first old man is pretty compared to this man.  Another phrase that raises questions in the reader’s mind and excites them is when the old woman says ‘This night of all nights!’. This makes the reader think what is so unique about tonight. And the descriptions of the three old people appearances and their actions increases the level of fear, suspense and disgust. One of which was, ‘the old people were trying to enhance the spiritual terrors’. This phrase comes back to whether there are ghosts haunting the house or not. One of the most important descriptions in this story was the word ‘atavistic’ which is a word meaning ancient and as if from another supernatural place, showed that the narrator thought that they might be beings of the supernatural, which also shows he is losing reason. Another part of the story that helped in many ways to make readers at the edge of their seats and frightened was when the narrator was in the Red Room. When the candles start going out increases the fear and suspense level tremendously. The two phrases from that part of the story that helped was when he said ‘as if the wicks had been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb’ and ‘an invisible hand seemed to sweep out the two candles’ makes the reader think that the ghost does really exists which of course makes them very excited and afraid.

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        In ‘The Signalman’, Dickens makes the readers eager to read on and curious and anxious to know what is going to happen next and is not very exciting till half the story, while ‘The Red Room’ is exciting all the way through but just gets more exciting at some parts. An example of a very curious action that became clearer and more exciting towards the middle of the story was when at the very beginning of the story the narrator calls out to the signalman but instead of him looking at the narrator, he looked at the Line. The ...

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