How do the writers of ‘Harry’ and ‘The red room’ create suspense and tension in their stories?

Sonia R Singh 10DCH

“How do the writers of ‘Harry’ and ‘The red room’ create suspense and tension in their stories?”

In the following text I am going to explain how the writers of ‘Harry’ and ‘The red room’ create suspense and tension in their stories.

The two stories differ from each other but also have similarties. The main similarity is the genre, both stories are short ghost stories. They are also quite different from each other because of the periods of time they were written in.

The red room is a typical gothic style story written in 1896 by H.G. Wells. Harry, written by Rosemary Timperley in the 1950’s has a modern twist to it and is rather different from the average ghost story.

Firstly, I am going to give a brief summary of what the two stories are about.

Harry is about a family which have an adopted daughter, Christine. Christine came from an unhappy family and was unwanted by her parents. She also had an older brother named Harry, one night Christine’s father tried to kill himself and the family by turning on the gas while they were sleeping. Harry must have smelt the gas during the night so he took Christine and jumped out of the window. When they hit the ground, Harry’s neck broke. He died, but little Christine survived. Christine is found and is adopted. Some years later, Harry’s ghost makes contact with Christine. Christine’s ‘mother’ begins to feel worried when Christine talks to Harry’s ghost. She is told by both her husband and Christine’s doctor that children have vivid imaginations and it is normal for them to have imaginary friends. Christine’s mother makes a trip to the adoption agency and find out about Christine’s past. Later, she realises she is late to pick up Christine from school and is told by a teacher Christine’s brother came to collect her. She will never see Christine again.

The red room is an average 18th century gothic style story but the outcome is susprising. The red room is based on a subterranean room in an old castle in which a young duke met his death. No one dares enter this room at night for they fear their fate will be put into the hands of darkness. But one day a young man comes to spend the night in the red room to see for himself if as they say, the room is haunted. He is warned by the elders of the castle about the room but still chooses to stay the night in that particular room. Strange events start to take place after midnight, with candle beginning to fuse. In the morning the young man discovers that the room is haunted, by fear itself. Our fear haunts us.

In my essay I am going to be looking at the structure, settings, language, and style of the two stories etc... I will also be looking at how and why the writers use such devices to create tension and suspense.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Harry is quite a simple title for a story but from reading the first line, “Such ordinary things make me afraid,” is letting the reader know we should be ready for suspense. In a short story, the reader will be able to have a strong influence from the writer’s first and last lines. This makes them very important and are well thought out. The story starts off quite slowly and in the beginning leaves unanswered questions such as "Who is Harry?” “Where does he come into all of this?” But in a novel, the writer has to structure and create tension building it up and letting it drop and picking it up again. Too much fast paced action kills the essence. The writer has to try and keep the reader attentive and wanting to read on. On the first page the line “The first time Christine mentioned the name (Harry), I felt a premonition of fear,” Tells the reader that Christine’s adopted mother knew something wasn’t right. There is a description of Christine, “The sun burned down on her pale red hair and made her skin look very white. Her big blue eyes were wide with concentration.” This gives the reader a picture of what Christine might look like The first page of the story introduces four characters; Harry, Christine, Christine’s adopted mother and her husband Jim. At this point we do not know that Harry is Christines brother. Christine talking to an ‘imaginary friend’ doesn’t bother Jim in the slightest but Christine’s ‘mother’ is paranoid.

The structure of the story is quite one way and at some points, boring. In my opinion the writer has merely suceeded to please the reader throughout the story.

“My hands were trembling as I put on my hat and gloves. It was chilly in the house nowadays as if there were a cold shadow over it in spite of the sun outside,” shows the emotion of Christine’s mother and how the past few events of the whole Harry situation has affected her.

The ending paragraph, “Such ordinary things make me afraid. Sunshine. Sharp shadows on grass. Children with red hair. And the name – Harry. Such an ordinary name!” is the same as the starting paragraph which I thought was well thought out but I think with all that suspense and tension throughout the story, the reader would expect a more powerful ending. A decent story with a disapointing ending.

The title The red room immediately attracts the reader’s attention. Why is the room red? We usually associate red with fear and danger, but is the room really dangerous? The title raises much curiosity that it has an overwhelming affect, wanting us to read on and find answers to our questions.

The first line of the story “I can assure you,” said I, “that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.” The reader can assume two pieces of information. Firstly that this story involves a ghost, and secondly that the character is an educated and well read man.

The peak of intrest consists right throught the story, and unlike Harry, the story is short and gets straight to the point. We are introduced to four chracters on the first page. A young man, an old man with a withered arm, an old woman and another old man. We never discover their names. The young man is skeptical about the room being haunted. The three old people believe that it is haunted and dare not even go in it. They only know from what they have been told.

Opposites build drama and drama builds tension. Firstly, we have young against old, which can also be seen as the inexperienced against the wise. Conflict can also be seen between skeptics and wise. Although the elders may be wise, they have never dared to go to the red room themselves. They have become wise through the stories they have heard about the room but none of them have actually had first hand experience.

Repetition is also a device used by writers to build tension. One of the most obvious examples is on the first page. “It’s your own choosing.” The man with the withered arm is trying to warn the young man but at the same time he is leaving the ‘decision’ to him. Its as if the three old people are trying to rid themselves of their responsibility of the young man. It is their duty, like guardians, to warn the young man of what they believe is to be his death.

Another use of repetition is on the second page where the old woman keeps saying, “This night of all nights?!” We don’t find out why that night is so important but it leaves the reader in question.

The structure of this story is simple but extremely effective, the ending of the story leaves the reader with a certain feeling of satisfaction.

“There is neither ghost of earl nor ghost of countes in that room, there is no ghost at all; but worse, far worse-“

“Well?” They said.

“The worst of all things that haunt poor mortal man,” said I; “and that is, in all its nakedness- Fear! Fear that will not have light nor sound, that will not bear with reason, that deafens and darkens and overwhelms.” Endings like this leaves the reader with a smile of their face.

The writer created tremendous suspense and left us with an explosive ending.

The writer of Harry made a good start but as we got to the middle of the story things began to slow down. Too much talk, not enough action. Most of the story was taken up by Christine’s mother’s worrying and nothing else. The red room had a constant flow of tension from beginning to end, not too much tension though, a good amount. When reading Harry the reader might have wanted to put it down after a while because it became abit of a bore.

Settings are critical for any story. A short story works through its location, characters, and setting in time and language. The writer of Harry used a number of places for the story such as the garden, the home, doctor’s surgery. The story was also set in the day which is unusual for a ghost story. The places that the writer used aren’t described in detail. The location of The red room is an old castle, even though this idea is unoriginal it is very appropriate. The old people who live in the castle don’t use most of it because they are afraid of ‘The red room’. This keeps them well away from this section of the castle. The castle is appropriate because here what we do not know is more frightening then what we do know. A castle is a perfect example of what we do not know! It is full of rooms corridors and stairs. This story is set at night.

Language plays an important part and changes with characters. In Harry the language is just as you would expect it to be. Christine has child like vocabulary. E.g. “Mummy and daddy.” While her parents sound like typical modern day adults. Typically, the writer has made the old woman who tells Christine’s mother about her past sound crazy. In The red room the old people have an old English vocabulary, whereas the young man is given a very upper class and stylish vocabulary.

Character description also plays a big part, it allows the reader to envision the characters appearence. The only descriptions in Harry were of Christine and Harry, both had red hair. The red room wasn’t very descriptive, the writer described the chracters like ‘ the man with the withered arm’ or ‘the old woman’.

The writers use suspense and tension to make the story interesting and keep the readers attention. The storys have different outcomes but the similar themes: To be denied information as a reader is far more powerful than to know the truth.