Both stories are written in ‘I narration’ which increases tension. It increases because you are reading the story as if you (the reader) are actually there and experiencing what the narrator is experiencing:
“…I was tired, I was cold...”
Farthing House
This also means that you will be more interested in the story as you think it is happening to you, and you become more involved and intrigued. It also allows the narrator to convey his or her emotions and feelings easily.
The two narrators are quite different. There is a young male narrator in the Red Room; however there is an old lady writing about when she was middle aged narrating Farthing House. The man was rather cocky and arrogant; he dismissed the old people as stupid. However the woman (Mrs Flowers) is more respectful to elderly people. She is even writing to her Aunt. On the other hand the man seems cocky and disrespectful:
“I half suspected the old people were trying to enhance the spiritual terrors of their house by their droning insistence.”
Red Room
He also seems very wise, for at the end of the book he realises what haunts the Red Room which no-one had done before. Most guests and the public believed it was form of ghost or spectre, but the man knew it was fear itself:
“…There is neither ghost or earl nor ghost or countess in that room”
Red Room
He then goes on to say:
“The worst of all things that haunt poor mortal man and that is, in all it’s nakedness – Fear.”
The woman is farthing House is someone we know a lot more about, e.g. her appearance and name, but we do not know about her true feelings. This adds to the tension as we are always wondering what her reactions are, and we don’t know enough of her to trust her version of events, like the man in Red Room. We don’t know very much about the man, not even his name, which adds to our tension. Also he doesn’t take much caution, which makes us worry for him, which also adds to our tension.
In the Red Room the old people increase tension because they are very mysterious and foreboding.
“…eight-and-twenty years you have lived and never seen the likes of this house…”
In Farthing House the characters do not provide much tension, only the events of the story. Everyone seems more normal because a residential home is more of a normal setting with more every-day characters instead of eerie old, deformed custodians in a spooky castle. The only tension any characters create is mental – through what they say, like the vicar:
“I see you have been looking at the poor little Farthing House graves”
Farthing House
But it is physical appearances as well as what the characters say that adds tension:
“…said the man with the withered arm…”
Red Room
The characters also have an eerie and mysterious manner:
“This nights of all nights! Said the woman.”
The characters create tension as never know fully what they are talking about. We don’t even know their or the narrator’s name.
There are very big differences in the setting of both stories. Red Room is set in an old castle with a ‘haunted’ room, this instantly implies there will be tension from that, whereas Farthing House is set in a residential Home near a small village, this creates tension because we don’t quite know what to expect and where the tension is going to come from and where. This creates tension in itself.
In the Red Room there seems to be a lot of darkness and the only light is from candles:
“My candle was a little tongue of light in its darkness”
Red Room
The narrator is talking about the vast darkness in the castle. As there are many flickering shadows we wonder what could be lurking in them, which causes a lot of tension. However in Farthing House there is everyday light from electricity from electricity and as most of it is set during the day, light from the sun. The main tension comes at night, in Farthing House and all through the Red Room as it is set at night. So light is linked to tension, the less light, the more tension and if there is more light, there tends to be less tension.
I believe the setting of Red Room is tenser because of the darkness, vastness and emptiness of the castle. Although Farthing House is more interesting the setting was not the main source of tension the characters and their actions and what happened to them was. However in Red Room the setting was a large factor.
Both stories approach displaying tension in different ways, Red Room builds up slowly to a large, predictable climax. But the tension in Farthing House fluctuates with no huge climax at any stage but a few, smaller climaxes that add a lot more tension to the story. We encounter around the same amount of tension from each story but in different ways and from different sources and at different parts of the stories. Farthing House throws in little jolts of tension sporadically which is then followed by a stretch of mundane writing before another jolt of tension occurs. Red Room on the other hand, slowly builds up to a large climax. H.G Wells throws in an extra twist to the plot, or another action e.g. a candle being blown out, which helps increase the tension as the story goes on.
In Farthing House we are constantly wondering where the next bout of tension is going to come from, which keeps us interested in the story. Red Room’s gradual build up of tension keeps us interested, because we are waiting for the big climax to end the tension.
The language in both stories reflects the time they were written. The language in Farthing House is more modern, it doesn’t create much tension as we are familiar with it. Red Room’s language is more dated and some words are a bit unfamiliar so it creates a little tension. The language in Farthing House is very descriptive and displays Mrs. Flower’s thoughts quite deeply but doesn’t describe much of Mrs. Flower’s reactions. The in-depth thought descriptions create a little tension because you feel you know so much about Mrs. Flowers that you become her and start to feel what she does in the story. In Red Room we do not find out much about the main character, we do not even know his name, just his reactions and a few of his thoughts. This causes tension because as we don’t know much about him we do not know what his reactions will be which leaves us guessing and unsure. This is a major source of tension, for as we are getting into his skin and experiencing what he does, we don’t want him/ourselves to come to any harm.
Red Room is tenser then Farthing House. The stereotypical features of the story increase tension. I feel more tension is generated throughout the story. In between the jolts of tension throughout Farthing House, the mundane, slow writing gets a little tedious and takes the tense edge away from the story.
The main source of tension in Farthing House is the fact we do not know where the tension will come from next. The main sources of tension in Red Room are the setting, a dark, castle with a ‘haunted’ room, and the characters, with their odd deformities and mysterious mannerisms.
As Red Room was shorter the tension was much more compressed and the story did not drag on, whereas in Farthing House there was a lot of boring descriptive writing, which had little relevance to tension.
To sum up the stories I would say that The Red Room has the most tension and the whole story is devoted to increasing the tension. Farthing House is less tense as it spends a lot of time waffling about every-day, boring things, which aren’t very interesting to read about.
Therefore Red Room is tenser then Farthing House.
Leo Matlock
