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"How do the writers of 'The Red Room' and 'Harry' create suspense and tension in their stories"

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Introduction

'HARRY' & 'THE RED ROOM' "How do the writers of 'The Red Room' and 'Harry' create suspense and tension in their stories" In my essay I am looking at two horror stories, one which is a traditional gothic horror called "The Red Room" written by H.G Wells and it is a 19th century horror. The other is a modern horror called "Harry" which was written by Rosemary Timperley in the 20th century. The genres for both these stories are horror but one is gothic whereas the other is modern. In my assignment I will be discussing and comparing the structure, setting, language, style, character description, atmosphere and how each writer uses each of these aspects to create tension and suspense throughout both the stories. "Harry" is a story about a five year old girl called Christine, who has foster parents and she lives in a house with no brothers and sisters. The foster mother is telling the story about her daughter and in the story Christine and the teacher are the characters that can see the ghost which is known as Harry. Harry is the brother of Christine and he is dead throughout the story as he died saving Christine's life. "The Red Room" is about a group of old people living in a house and they believe that there is an evil spiritual ghost in a room because a man had died in there. ...read more.

Middle

There is no description given about them. Most of the suspense is created when the repetition of the following words "children with red hair", the name "Harry" and "white roses". Christine, the five year old girl with pale red hair and big blue eyes and her teacher "A pleasant young girl with fair hair and white linen dress" creates tension and suspense because they are the only ones that can see the ghost. "Harry" was a fourteen year old boy, skinny and all with red hair too and he is the real brother of Christine's who is dead throughout the story because he had dies saving her life. The old women who lives near Christine's old house where she was with her real parents and her brother sounded scary as she was described as having yellowish, blood shot eyes. The rest of the characters don't really create any type of suspense because they are not involved in the story much. There is a lot of description about her real parents called the "Jones". Their description was given because the reader won't know anything about them and the history of Harry and how he died and why. There are not a lot of characters in "The Red Room" because the whole story is located in the house and not anywhere else. ...read more.

Conclusion

The atmosphere of 'The Red Room' is cold because the fire place is lit and the other characters are drinking something hot. "Harry" is not a gothic horror story because it doesn't have the traditional ingredients like it starts off with a dull atmosphere like rain, thunder, dark and cold. It's not situated in a big castle or a mansion but in a house with a family in the garden. It doesn't have long sentences but they are shortened down. "Harry" has the main character which is the ghost "Harry" who is the central character. "The Red Room" is situated in a big castle at night in a cold atmosphere. It has the central character and the use of language and individual words that create suspense and tension. It has long sentences to create a good effect depending on context and the main event which takes place at night. The story I preferred was "Harry" because it was a modern gothic horror and I understood the use of language and words as they were not difficult to understand. "The Red Room" had long sentences and lots of words that were difficult to understand first time. I thought that both the stories were successful at creating suspense and tension in both the stories. The only difference is nowadays people do not like to read gothic horrors, they prefer to read the modern stories which is the one I prefer. 1 Sohail Bhamjee ...read more.

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