Further on in the story, Wells puts a stress on the word tomorrow, twice, clearly indicating that this is something that we should take heed of. Raut says, ‘But what does it matter? An end comes, an end to all this cruelty …… TO- MORROW.’ This could be a sign that perhaps Raut and Mrs Horrocks were intending to run away the next day, leaving Mr Horrocks behind. If this was the case this could be another romantic element of the story, two lovers running away to be together, but twisted into a gothic genre because they are stopped in their tracks.
The two men in the story offer two opposite ends of the spectrum, one is a romantic and the other a slightly clumsy industry man who thinks only of work. Even their names help to convey this, Horrocks sounds very simple and English whereas Raut sounds European and slightly more upper class.
The story is set in three key places, in a garden, a railway crossing, and an iron works, which all have their individual gothic elements. The garden is portrayed as a dark, still place, with an atmospheric sky looming overhead, the railway crossing is where Raut experiences a near death incident, but oddly enough Horrocks saves him, then the final setting, the iron works, perhaps the most gothic of all. ‘As they came out of the labyrinth of clinker heaps and mounds of coal and ore, the noises of the rolling mill sprang upon them suddenly, loud, near and distinct.’ The iron works was loud, noisy, mechanical and hot, fire was poignant in every description of the building and indications of the plot still to come were being given all the time, ‘temperature near a thousand degrees. If YOU were dropped into it ….. flash into flame like a pinch of gunpowder in a candle.’ At this point I believe that Wells wanted to reveal to the reader what Horrocks’ intentions were, but earlier on little indications were appearing to direct the reader.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph Horrocks actually saves Raut when they passed the railway crossing, this throws the reader off track slightly, if Horrocks is intending to kill Raut why save him on the railway crossing? A possible answer to that is that Horrocks had almost subconsciously planned Raut’s death, throughout the story Horrocks’ intentions always pointed to the iron works, the ending had to be at the iron works. So perhaps when he saw the train coming this was the thought that went through his mind, the thought that this wasn’t how it was meant to be.
Horrocks uses two strategic similes in the story, firstly he says, ‘as white as death,’ and then, ‘as red as sin.’ These are very suggestive, and make Raut uncomfortable. He seems so wrapped up in his hatred that he is not at all leading Raut under false pretences, Raut is almost given enough clues to work out he is in grave danger, but it seems that a part of him is still willing to believe that he has not been caught. This is clearly not the case.
Mrs Horrocks is not really a large part of the story, in a way she is just there to provide the motive, but we don’t find out a lot about her, her purpose is simply as Horrocks’ unfaithful wife. We do find out that she is unhappy from the way that she speaks, ‘peevishly, in an irritated manner, with discontent,’ she also seems to have an underlying sense of fear but appears to be conquering this by planning ahead.
Raut is a very nervous man at the start of the play, especially when Horrocks catches him talking with his wife, ‘every muscle in Raut’s body suddenly became tense.’ He obviously has a guilty conscience and is afraid of Horrocks, this great bulldog of an Englishman, with every right too. Horrocks was a dark shadowy character with patches under his penthouse brows and a very menacing side.
In this story the word cone is mentioned over twenty times and is featured in the title. Therefore I think that Wells really wants us to take notice of this and start speculating on how this affects the end of the story, of course, once read we discover that the cone is actually the piece of machinery that kills Raut, and finishes the story.
At the very end of the story Horrocks’ conscience comes back to him and he says, ‘Oh god! What have I done?’ This shows that he is not a cold-hearted murderer and it shows the reader that perhaps normally he would have been a nice man, but under the circumstances was pushed to do something he wouldn’t have normally done.
In conclusion it appears that Wells uses many gothic styles throughout the story to increase tension. He uses description, long sentences, passion, and betrayal. This creates a very gothic and interesting story.
