‘You go along the passage for a bit…until you come to a door, and through that is a spiral staircase…to the end, and the red room is on your left up the staircase.’
This long direction to The Red Room is like a maze. It builds suspense and tension because the room is hidden and isolated away from all other sources of humanity. It makes the reader ask questions such as, what is inside that room, and why is it hidden lyk this. This description to The Red Room gets the reader involved as the reader intends to follow the directions leading to the room.
Many objects in room appear unusual.
‘The queer old mirror at the end of the room’
The mirror distorts the narrator’s appearance and makes it unusual. This adds a sense of fear and terror in the reader’s mind.
There are many descriptions of The Red Room.
‘That large sombre room, with its shadowy window bays, its recesses and alcoves.’
This quotation illustrates that the room is depressing and the use of the word ‘alcoves’ portrays that there are little spaces in the room, which could have ghosts hiding in them.
Now I have explored how the setting in The Red Room creates tension and suspense, next I will study how the setting in The Signalman written by Charles Dickens and The Monkey’s Paw written by W.W Jacobs creates tension and suspense.
In The Signalman it proves that tension is created through the use isolation.
‘A long lamenting wail.’
The use of the personification and the alliteration expresses strange sounds and fierce winds and both alliteration and personification combined together makes it even more effective as the imagery can be imagined in the reader’s mind.
The Monkey’s Paw is also isolated.
‘Of all the beauty, slushy, out-of-the-way places to live in, this is the worst.’
This illustrates that there are no neighbours around and if anything was to happen to the characters in this story then know one will know about it. This is very gloomy and links The Red Room.
There are many hidden mysteries. This can be identified in Desiree’s Baby written by Kate Choppin.
The settings of this story are hidden and therefore automatically appear mysterious.
The house in this story is surrounded by
‘Big solemn oaks’ whose ‘thick leaved, for reaching branches shadowed it like a pall.’
The use of the word ‘solemn’ for the trees conveys an air of sadness and misery. This is developed further by the simile, ‘shadowed it like a pall’ which the reader immediately associates with death, depression and despair.
The description given for the nighttime in Clubfooted Grocer, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Monkey’s Paw also links with The Red Room.
‘It was quite dark outside, with heavy black clouds drifting slowly across the sky.’
This is a use of pathetic fallacy, it is ominous, and it establishes that danger is coming.
Another use of pathetic fallacy can be identified in The Monkey’s Paw.
‘Without, the night was cold and wet’
This is typical of gothic horror. It proposes that something dreadful is going to happen. Both these stories can be linked with The Red Room
‘Even with seven candles the place was merely dim.’
This suggests that The Red Room is very dark, murky and gloomy. This creates tension and suspense amongst the reader.
Now I have learned how the setting created tension and suspense next I will look at how the characters create tension and suspense.
Most characters in these 19th century stories are often nameless. This can be observed in The Red Room and The Monkey’s Paw.
In The Red Room the reader immediately identifies that the characters are nameless.
‘I can assure’
This adds suspense and mystery because the reader was not able to know the character properly makes the reader feel what is it that these characters could be hiding and also the fact that the gender of these characters was not given also makes the reader wonder. By doing this it adds tension and suspense.
Another story, which also adds tension and suspense like The Red Room, is The Monkey’s Paw. In this story tension and suspense is added on the name.
‘Mr White’
This verifies innocence. It associates with purity, calm and peaceful and therefore the reader feels compassion for the characters.
Suspense and tension is also created through mysteries. This is viewed in The Monkey’s Paw.
Many of the characters in this story are mysterious. For example the sergeant in this story
‘Spoke of wild scenes and droughty deeds: of wars and plagues and strange people.’
This portrays that the sergeant has had some extraordinary experiences; this demonstrates a huge contrast between the White family whose life is simple and ordinary. Furthermore all of the sergeants experiences are linked with death violence and destruction, this gives the reader a hint that the sergeant is dangerous.
The reader gets to see the story through the eyes of the character.
‘I was almost frantic with the horror of the coming darkness and my self possession deserted me.’
This reveals that the character is in a panic and desperate state and has lost all control. This makes the reader feel uncomfortable just like the character may be feeling.
Many of the characters are very strange and unusual. For example in The Red Room.
‘More bent, more wrinkled, more aged even than the first.
The repetition of ‘more’ emphasises the old age and creates a terrifying image in the reader’s mind. But some readers may feel sympathy for these characters because they are old and all alone in this big castle. This adds tension and suspense because it makes the reader speculate why these old people may be in this castle.
‘His lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pint from his decaying yellow teeth.’
This tells the reader that this person is just too old and the word ‘lower’ emphasises that it looks like a corpse associated with death and also the word ‘decaying’ is associated with death. Both these words combined together create a creepy image.
Now I have looked at how the characters created tension and suspense, next I will analyse how the hints given keeps the reader interested in the story
The writers of these stories keep their readers in suspense by giving hints. In Desiree’s Baby the mother exclaims on pg 52.
‘This is not the baby!’
This quotation automatically alerts the reader to the fact that there is something unusual and mysterious about the baby as an exclamation mark is used to convey the mother’s shock and out burst in emotion. However, the writer does reveal what it is that shocked the mother until pg 54, therefore ensuring that the reader is kept interested until the end of the story.
In The Red Room, they’re also many different hints.
‘Never seen the likes of this house’
The reader instantly starts wondering what is special about this house and what differentiates this house from all houses. This makes the reader curious about the house; at the same it also keeps the reader interested.
In The Signalman the reader is uncertain and doubtful.
‘I should have set this man down as one of the safest men to be employed in that capacity.’
This quote displays the narrator’s uncertainty towards The Signalman’s character and the fact that ‘should’ is a modal verb also expresses his doubtfulness.
Now I have analysed how the hints created tension and suspense, next I will discuss how time delay has kept the reader engaged in the text.
In the last paragraph of The Monkey’s paw, the author uses various techniques such as the constant knocking. This repetition makes the reader tense. It reminds the reader that evil is behind that door as Herbert has returned and he is disfigured. Similarly in The Red Room the author holds back what is inside The Red Room until the last paragraph. The reader is tensed by the incomplete sentence.
In Desiree’s Baby, the author reveals the truth about Armand’s background in the last paragraph. This makes the reader evaluate the whole story. Desiree’s suffering and pain was all unnecessary. This ending comes as a shock to the reader and makes it an effective twist.
In conclusion, the techniques that have been used to create tension and suspense are: setting, character, hints and time delay. All these four main features where really effective in creating tension and suspense as they all kept the reader engaged to the stories.
Overall I think that the story that may have been the most successful in achieving this is Desiree’s Baby. I think this because the ending of this story was a shock and surprise to the reader; moreover the reader felt sympathy for Desiree as she suffered needless pain from her husband.
