‘A Terrible Strange Bed’ also has an effective title that asks the readers why is the bed so terrible and strange.
The protagonist in ‘A Terrible Strange Bed’ is Monsieur Faulkner who goes to a gambling house in France. He meets an old soldier who was described to have ‘goggling blood-shot eyes, mangy mustachios, and a broken nose.’ The wins all the money, he is drunk and decides to go home. The old soldier and the other gamblers offer him coffee, after drinking the coffee he feels ‘completely intoxicated then ever’. At this moment in the story the readers get an inkling that something is going to happen to Monsieur Faulkner. The soldier tells Monsieur Faulkner “way not spend the night here? You might be robbed and killed.” Monsieur Faulkner agrees to spend the night in the gambling house. Monsieur Faulkner can’t get to sleep. He spends his time looking at a picture on the wall of a man with a hat on his head.
During the night something strange happens to the picture, the hat in the picture was missing! Monsieur Faulkner froze with fear. He looked at the bed top, it was moving towards him he just manages to roll of the bed. The attempt to suffocate him had failed. Monsieur Faulkner got his winnings and jumped out of the window and informed the police. The police arrested the people in the gambling house. They can to conclusion that the old soldier was the leader of the house; he had been ‘dumped out of the army as a vagabond years ago.’
‘Farthing House’ has a less effective title as it raises fewer questions. ‘Farthing House’ is the name of the building rather than the precise place or room where the ghost is found. It is because of this that the title attracts the readers less.
The protagonist in ‘Farthing House’ is Mrs Flowers who narrates the story of ‘Farthing House’ to her pregnant daughter.
Aunt Addy lived in an old folk’s home and the narrator hasn’t seen her for a long time. She was now ‘eight-six’. The ‘Farthing House’ was two hundred miles away from the narrator’s home. This clarifies why the narrator hadn’t met Aunt Addy for a long time. The first evening was ‘well spent in Aunt Addy’s company’. Two nights later another bed had appeared in the opposite corner of the room. This is the location where the ghost is seen, and it was expressed as;
“Young with a flowing, embroidered nightgown,
high necked and long sleeved. Her hair was
long too, and as pale as her face.”
She was crying for her baby. The night before the sighting of the ghost the narrator heard a baby crying. She also feels a young mother beside her bed rocking a crib.
The final story I read was ‘The Speckled Band’. The title of the story is the main thing the story is based on.
‘The Speckled Band’ doesn’t have a protagonist but the story is of a famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The story begins when Watson is looking at his notes of his old mysteries. He finds one about a woman who died shouting ‘The Speckled Band’. A woman was waiting for Holmes in the hallway she tell him she has heard of his excellent work and asks him to investigate her sister death. The step farther was a doctor. He had a cheetah and a baboon as pets.
They decide to investigate and tell miss stoner they will soon be at her house. Dr Roylott meets Holmes and tells him to stay away from his daughter. But still they go to Miss stoner’s house they enter the room in which Miss Stoner’s sister had died and wait. The night slowly passes, at half past three they hear a whistle. They lunge at there revolver which were placed beside them. Holmes decided to go in to Dr Stoner’s room upon entering they find Dr Stoner sitting in chair with ‘The Speckled Band’ around his head. When Holmes approaches ‘The Speckled Band’ he notices it was the deadliest snake in India. The authorities said Dr Roylott was killed when playing with dangerous pets.
The ghost featured in ‘Farthing House’ is interesting because most other ghost stories have male ghosts or an unexplainable white ghost with no legs.
This story has tension peaks in which tension rises and falls several times. This keeps the reader interested throughout the story. ‘The Red Room’, ‘The Speckled Band’ and ‘A Terrible Strange Bed’ are stories in which the tension slowly rises and builds up to the main event.
‘The Red Room’, ‘A Terrible Strange Bed’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ are written in old English. The language used makes it difficult to understand, in comparison to ‘Farthing House’ which is written in modern English and the story is very descriptive. There are many scenes in the story in which it is hard to decide if the events which have taken place are surreal (dream or reality).
After the sighting of the ghost in ‘The Red Room’, the duke awakes and tells the old people that there is no ghost. He tells them that it was fear that created all the illusions of the ghost. This raises a question at the end of the story; was there a ghost in the room?
‘Farthing House’ was unlike ‘The Red Room’ in that it did have a real ghost and the ghost was a human soul which was looking for its newborn baby. This is why ‘Farthing House’ was not an average story because in most ghost story the ghost runs after the human.
Below evidence is quoted that the baby that was heard crying was once a real baby.
‘Eliza Maria Dolly
Died January 20 1902. Aged 19 years
And also her infant daughter.’
More support is given at the end when the reader is told ‘Farthing House’ was a ‘home for young women and their illegitimate babies’ and before the last war it was a ‘military convalescent home’. This also symbolizes that there have been many deaths in ‘Farthing House’. There had also been a death in ‘Cedar Room.’ This is the room that the narrator spent the night in whilst she was staying in ‘Farthing House’. The death occurred here just before the narrator moved in and it was an old lady who died. Tension in the story was at its peak here. This was because the reader thinks that the death might be related to ‘Farthing House’.
‘A Terrible Strange Bed’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ were also different because both stories had no ghost, instead of a ghost the story was about an attempted murder or a killing.
Personification is commonly used in ‘The Red Room’;
‘the black shadow sprang back
in to its place’
‘the shadows seemed to take another
step towards me.’
This has the influence that keeps the reader interested throughout the story.
Personally, having read all four stories I conclude; ‘Farthing House’ is the best from all three and is worth reading again. This is because it has a better storyline then the other three. If there was a vote for the best story between all four stories, I think ‘Farthing House’ would win because it is the easier to understand and it keeps the reader interested throughout the story. It is also a much more enjoyable story to read.
‘The Red Room’, ‘A Terrible Strange Bed’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ should have had tension peaks instead of building the tension slowly; this bores the reader if the story doesn’t have an interesting storyline. It would also have been better for ‘The Red Room’ to have a real ghost had been used. This is because it is more effective then a shadow ghost which really turns out to be the fear that the people who visit ‘The Red Room’. But I agree to what the duke says “fear is the main thing that scares people”. ‘The Speckled Band’ was also interesting story but the ending was disappointing because when the reader is told the speckled band is just a snake, he/she think what a waste of time. The speckled band should have been made more interesting.
