‘It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ The quote shows that he was not scared at all in the beginning but as the story goes on he realizes the fear. The narrator wanted to visit the red room to prove that it was not hunted and that all the conference of ghost was in the residents’ imagination. He considered himself to be courageous since it would take a ‘tangible ghost’ to scare him.
The author, H G Wells, to create a spooky atmosphere, used repetitive techniques. So that mystery sticks in the readers mind and the readers are intrigued to read on. For example ‘It’s your own choosing,’ said the man with the withered arm once more. This quote is used five times by the narrator. This demonstrates that there is definitely something not so correct in the room the narrator is about to visit. The man with the withered arm warns he narrator but he still decides to go.
The author creates a mystery by giving all the characters no names. The reader becomes anxious. No names are mentioned because fear happens to everyone, so that the reader can identify more what’s happened in the story, as they can correspond to anyone of us! We can relate to the story and its theme of fear. A man ‘with a withered arm’ warned the visitor that he if he were to visit the Red Room he would ‘go alone. The writer describes the people at the house with physical defects they seem strange. It creates an eerie in the story. It shows that there is something erroneous with the people. This is a technique used by the writer to create an atmosphere of trepidation in the story.
H G Wells has written the story ‘The Red Room’ as if the author is in the first person narrative. This is so that the reader can imagine that they are part of the action of the story. Example: ‘I can assure you,’ said I,’ that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ In this quote the author, H G Wells has written the words as if the person, who said these lines, is not petrified of anything at all. It seems as if he is extremely brave. He was showing no fear of danger in daunting matters. He also expresses this character to be courageous and ignorant as he does not take any notice of the cautions he has been informed of.
H G Wells uses short clauses to show that he is panicking in his thoughts. Example: ‘The door creaked, on its hinges, as a second old man entered, more bent, more wrinkled, more aged, even that the first’. H G Wells writes these small phases deliberately so that as the readers are reading the story in their minds can go though the action quickly. ‘My candles was a little tongue of life,’ once again the author is trying to create a spooky atmosphere. He exploits characterization to show fear. He brings the candle to life to add an overall frightening environment.
He also uses many adjectives to convey an eerie, spooky atmosphere such as, ‘decaying, yellow teeth’ ‘withered’, ‘creaked.’
‘My hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox.’ Why did his hands tremble? Why was he acting so terrified? He was catching nerves and was beginning to tremble because he was too scared. It now starts to show that he was not so brave after all and it really did not take a tangible ghost to frighten him.
H G Wells is trying to tell the readers that the visitor was scared by his action. ‘…On this lay my revolver ready to my hands…’ He had to feel that he had to defend his self, when he said that he was not scared of anything in the red room. He thought that he has to feel safe with keeping a revolver with him. Soon further on in the story he gets incredibly terrified and starts to believe that there is some thing in the red room but it was all in his mind. The conversation he had with the people down stairs started to create an imagination within his mind, this caused him to act in such a way.
The author has shown that, in fear, your imagination runs wild as the visitor thought that a ‘shadow came sweeping up after him and one fled before him’. Embodiment is used once more to create a daunting atmosphere. He completely changed the way he felt from the beginning till the end. At first he went in the red room very secure but comes out with a shocking feeling, his imagination takes over his body. It was all in his mind. Fear is always everywhere. Everyone is petrified of something.
H G Wells uses certain terminology to arise fear in the reader’s mind, as he says how the visitor experiences a ‘sudden twinge of apprehension’. This shows that the visitor’s attitude and viewpoints have changed significantly. Further on in the story the visitor starts to act ‘hastily’ and ‘abruptly’. The visitor is now losing his patience as he undergoes a ‘considerable nervous tension’.
At the beginning of the story the visitor states publicly that it would only take a ‘tangible ghost’ to frighten him. And he admits that the room that he was so concerned and inquisitive to visit was ‘haunted’.
Fear is everywhere and is in every human person. Even some animals have fear for other animals. Fear is inside every person. Fear is natural. Fear brings out what a person feels, his feelings. Obviously no one actually likes to show that they fear of something or their weaknesses. No one can hide fear even if they act as if they are so courageous and fearless. In my judgment H G Wells has done extremely well to generate fear in ‘The Red Room.’ In such a short story he has conveyed fear in a very superior technique.
