This technique of personification turns the candles from innocent lumps of wax to a thing with malicious intent.
and the shadows I feared and fought against returned, and crept in upon me, first a step gained on this side of me and then on that. It was like a ragged storm-cloud sweeping out the stars.
In the Ostler, candles are also used, but this time for their frailty. At the point of haunting, when the ghost/illusion of Rebecca Murdoch appears, the candles snuff and go out. Also, when the ghost/illusion appears to Isaac, the candle, being near its end is guttering and flickering. This gives the atmosphere a since of fragility and vulnerability as Isaac feels that the ghost will not “attack” until the light has gone out.
Moonlight is used in many horror/mystery stories too. It is associated with madness and evil – Werewolves and lunatics (lunar being the Latin for Moon). It the Red Room, the moonlight is used to create an eerie atmosphere in the hallway outside the Room. As the main protagonist character is walking down the hall, the moonlight plays upon the bronze stature scaring him.
“for the moonlight coming in by the great window on the grand staircase picked out everything in vivid black shadows or silvery illumination…. A bronze group stood upon the landing, hidden from me by the corner of the wall, but its shadow fell with marvelous distinctness upon the white paneling and gave me the impression of someone crouching to waylay me.”
In the Speckled Band, when Holmes and Watson are making their way to the house at night, the Author uses the darkness of night to create a surrealistic atmosphere.
A moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us through the gloom to guide us on our somber errand.
Firelight is very popular in horror stories. Like candles, firelight flickers and changes, casting shadows. This can be very homely and welcoming but the flickering uncertainty of a weak fire can add to an atmosphere of fear. In the Red Room, when he is in the Room, the fire is said to give out a red glow, this compares with the blackness of the shadows. Red and black are also colours that we associate with danger and death.
Candles and firelight, as I have explained already, give off shadows. Another way of using shadows is to use them to signify something. The author uses this in the Ostler when Isaac’s mother confronts Rebecca Murdoch, and she leaves. It is seen as the start of the bad events. The Author emphasizes this point by saying that a shadow fell across the window and over the Skatchard family.
Location
In the Ostler, location is important. When Isaac goes for the job and stays away over night, he sleeps at a very isolated and vulnerable Inn. It is whilst he is at the Inn that the “Haunting” happens. The idea that they are miles from nowhere is emphasized by the fact that the Landlord goes round to lock up, and Isaac sees the huge bolts on the door.
In the Red Room, the story is set in a large deserted castle, and there are only three old people guarding it. This gives the reader/main character an idea that if anything goes wrong there is no one to help him.
In the Speckled Band, the story is set in an old ruined mansion that is said to date back to Saxon Times. This gives the house a history – an unknowing/shady past - and the mansion is set far away from the village. This gives the reader an idea of mysterious things that might have happened there.
Pathetic Fallacy
Pathetic fallacy is a technique used by many Authors and filmmakers alike. It is when the environment is used to make a point in the story.
In the Ostler, pathetic fallacy is used to describe the moment of haunting.
“The bleak autumn wind was still blowing, and the solemn monotonous surging moan of it in the wood was dreary and awful to hear through the night silence”.
In the Red Room the contrast is made between the warmth and comfort, and hence safety of the parlour, to the chill, damp and therefore threatening atmosphere of the passage.
Legends
Legends are used in horror stories because they give the house/room/person a history. This gives the reader/character/victim the idea that something that has happened may happen again.
In the Speckled Band the Author makes the story scarier by bringing into the story line the idetical happening so that the reader anticipates that the evil that has happened in the past will happen again.
In the Ostler, even though it is known as “The Point of Haunting” it is a prequel to when Isaac and Rebecca meet in later life.
Prophetic Utterances
Prophetic Utterances are used in the same way as legends; to add an air if uncertainty. In the Red Room the Author uses this in the beginning when the main protagonist character is speaking to the keepers of the Castle.
“There is a candle on the slab outside the door,” said the may with the withered arm. looking at my feet as he addressed me. “But if you go to the Red Room tonight – “
(“This night of all nights! said the old woman)
“You go alone”
Again in the Speckled Band, when Julia dies, she shouts out “Oh my God, Helen! It was the band, the speckled band!
Transfer of Fear from the Character to the Reader
This technique makes the reader more involved in the plot and thus scares them further. In the Speckled Band, when Holmes and Watson are traveling to the House and the baboon runs out in front of them Conan Doyle describes this very well.
“My God,” I whispered, “Did you see it?” Holmes was for the moment as startled as I, his hand closed like a vice upon my wrist in his agitation.
Again in the Red Room H. G. Wells does this with great effect as he describes the moment of haunting.
“Steady on!” I said. “These candles are wanted”, speaking with a half-hysterical facetiousness, and scratching away at a match the while for the mantle candlesticks. My hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox
Grotesques and Frightening People
Misshapen people are used in horror stories because they are not normal. It is human nature to fear the unknown and any aberration from normal.
In the Speckled Band Sir Grimsby Roylott is depicted as being “A man of great strength and uncontrollable anger”. This gives the reader fear for Helen. In addition the Author uses the Baboon to make the house seem more evil. Watson at first makes the assumption that what he has seen is not in fact an animal but a deformed child that evidences wild and evil behaviour.
In the Red Room, the Author uses Grotesques a great deal. At the beginning, the protagonist meets the Castle Keepers who are all abnormal. An old woman with pale eyes who stares into the fire all the time, an old man with a withered arm, and an even older man who walks with a crutch.
Again, in his description of these people he describes their clothes as the ‘fashion of dead brains’, making sure the reader does not forget that the story is meant to scare.
Descriptive Ability
Lastly, to make a good ghost story, a writer has to describe the events very well. The three Authors we have looked at are very good at this:
- In the Red Room, H. G. Wells describes the people and the journey brilliantly
I heard the sound of a stick and a shambling step on the flags in the passage outside, and the door creaked on its hinges as a second old man entered, more ben,, more wrinkled, more aged even than the first. He supported himself by a single crutch, his eyes were covered by a shade, and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.
- In the Speckled Band Arthur Conan Doyle uses Holmes’ interview with Helen as a chance to show his descriptive power. This makes the story seem much more real. His observation of a train ticket and mud on the jacket of Helen leads him to deduce that she has had an early start, a journey by dog-cart and a train journey to London to see him.
- In the Ostler, Wilkie Collins describes Rebecca whilst Isaac is talking to his mother. He speaks of a beauty, but an evil beauty. A drooping lip that conveys a suggestion of deformity or abnormality and the fine lady-like hand which is seems totally inappropriate to hold the labourer’s knife that is intended to kill him
CONCLUSIONS
Today, as a result of easier access to information through advances in world technology, communication and education, there is, unfortunately far less respect for books, and hence they have less power than in the 19th Centuary. However, in these stories we have seen the masters at work, and to explore how their talent would entertain us today would be fascinating. For example: H G Well’s consummate ability to invent and describe terrifying events, combined with today’s cinematic technology would make the ultimate depiction of evil.
The fact that a 21st C teenager, in a bustling classroom, can feel the hair prickle on the back of his neck through the magnificent use of the techniques described above, shows that despite familiarity with special effect, science and the space age, writers such as these can scare 150 years into the future. One wonders whether today’s equivalents, King and Spielberg to name but two will be remembered in such a way in 2152.
Reviews: Amid the foggy streets of sinister London and the even more sinister smiling countryside, Holmes and Watson once more solve the unsolvable.
Penguin Books
A handsome story of spooks, plenty of flesh-creeping matter here
The Times
Read at your peril, especially alone on a windy night!
Oxford Press
Danny J. White
March 2002
