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Gothic Stories

In this essay I will be discussing a number of things.  Firstly, I will be discussing what Gothic writing is and then I will move the discussion towards the subject, which my essay consists of,  ‘in the novels “The Red Room” and “The Signalman” how do the authors create tension and an atmosphere of fear?’

Gothic writing is a style of writing, which was extremely popular in the nineteenth century.  It is a story set with the theme of horror in a supernatural way.  All gothic writers followed the same concept when writing a novel.  They all consisted of a large, dark, abandoned place (for example a castle or mansion) where a man of the modern age would encounter many ‘supernatural’ obstacles (for example a ghost or spectre).  The character would never die for the story was told in a first person perspective (which is when the story is told from his point of view) and therefore when he dies, the story dies with him.

If we were to look at “The Red Room” (written by H G Wells) you will notice that it is written in Gothic writing.  All of the characteristics of a Gothic story (which I mentioned before) are there.

        If you were to go to the opening of the story you would see that tension is starting to build even from the foundations of the tale.  The author opens with the modern man saying, “’I can assure you’, said I, ‘that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me’”.  This sentence raises a few questions in your mind such as “why does the author start with this sentence for it is a very peculiar one indeed?’ and ‘is this sentence foreseeing the future?’  The sentence, in fact, is there to open the scene.  It shows the man a courageous man and it shows the fact that he is from a modern age for he obviously doesn’t believe in ghosts.  The sentence is also put there to foretell the future.  In a scary thriller novel it is common for the main character to encounter ghosts and other fears so to show his bravery, he mocks the ghosts.  The person who does do so is guaranteeing that they will be the next to encounter these fears.  Therefore this sentence shows that this character will see his fears next.

        The next tension-building sentence, which the author uses, is his constant use of the fire, “And I stood up before the fire”.  The man is standing up to the fire, which gives the fire a sense of judgement for when he stands before the fire; it is like he is being judged.  The author uses this technique to make the fire seem as a place of evil as fire is frequently associated with hell.

        He builds up further tension by leaving the characters nameless.  The author only names them by their presentation, for example, one of the people is known as, “The man with the withered arm” and the main character is known as “me” or “I” (however this is because the story is told in the first person perspective).  This technique gives the sense of mystery, as we are not sure of whom these people are.  Therefore, they are strangers.  The author uses this technique to give these people a mystery to their name and to give them a sense of tension because, as I mentioned before, these people (to the audience) are strangers.

        These strangers are also very old (as that is what it mentions next) and old people give a sense of tension as they will soon die (and death is a form of tension) and they are much wiser about everything.  This gives tension because these people know more than the modern man so therefore they make perfect fortunetellers.  The author takes advantage of this and uses it when he says, “(This night of all nights)”.  These people are wiser so know more so therefore their judgement cannot possibly be incorrect.

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        The author then mentions, in his attempt to build tension, the size of this mansion.  It is huge and it is shown when the man with the withered arm gives directions to the red room.  He says the directions, but when the man attempts to repeat the directions back to him, he makes mistakes and so the man with the withered arm “corrected in one particular”.  This shows that the directions to the red room are so long that a normal mind couldn’t possibly remember them all.  The author uses this technique of making the mansion big to make it ...

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