‘Sound of a stick…Shambling step…door creaked’ theses are all sounds of another old man coming into the room, but they are taken straight out of some horror/spooky movies. The use of creaking gives the reader a more vivid sense of fear. Once the old man walks in there is gross description of him ‘his lower lip, half averted hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.’ Everything about the story so far is quite unpleasant; the graphic description of the old man, chilling statements of the two other characters especially the sentence ‘it’s your own choosing.’ This is repeated several time to create a mysterious atmosphere. Now the author has link all three characters up it has made the presence quite terrifying using words such as ‘grotesque, inhuman, and monstrous. The narrator says that the characters make him feel uncomfortable; this may make him feel uncomfortable in the whole house because they are part of it.
All the characters refuse to show the narrator to the ‘Red Room’ this shows that they are scared and that there must be something wrong with the room (maybe haunted.) The author then uses brackets to make the old women’s speech seem in the back ground but because its content is so important it makes it immissible. ‘This night of all nights’ this makes the reader double take and wonder was so important about tonight. The narrator then leaves the room in such confidence (nothing scares him.)
The language now comes in larger blocks and is denser with description to build up the atmosphere of mystery. The narrator now explores the room and begins to talk to himself, which indicates how alone he is. He gets more and more uncomfortable as he imagines a shadow as a ‘living thing.’ As the tension builds up he tries he hardest to distract himself from what’s going on around him because he is determined not to admit that there is a ghost.
Although ‘Farthing House’ doesn’t start with dialogue in the beginning of the story there is use of statements to build up expectation. ‘I have never told anyone…’ The story is easier to understand because it was written quite recently and our language has simplified slightly. In the Farthing House the narrator is recalling the incident but in the red room the narrator is telling it as it happens. The narrator in farthing house talks directly to the reader and hints that what she is about to tell us maybe unsettling. ‘Now it has come back to me, I do not want to let it go again, I must set it down.’ The author repeats the word ‘vulnerable’ a couple of times, this repetition emphasizes the mystery of what will unfold.
We are then introduced to the scene of action which is described to be beautiful. How ever the author then mentions a ‘drifting wood smoke’ which contrasts with ‘beautiful day, clear and cold and blue.’ This wood smoke could be interpreted a shadow hanging over the day and scene.
