How Does the Author of The Red Room create tension in his writing?

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Lauren Fernandez

How Does the Author of The Red Room

create tension in his writing?

The Red Room was written in the late 19th century by H.G Wells. During this time the gothic genre was incredibly popular with every type of person as it was a great form of entertainment due to the fact they didn't have a television or a computer back then. The gothic genre started becoming most popular in 1837 and continuing untill 1901 during the Victorian period, they appeared in magazines as short,cliffhanger ending,eerie stories. The most famous examples of gothic stories are "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelly and "Dracula" by Bram Stoker which most people have heard of.

The Red Room is a prime example of a gothic story. It shows typical characteristics that would be included in a story of the gothic genre. Even the title of the book "The Red Room" has a certain  darkness about it. "The" makes it sound unique as though there is only one red room which sounds very different to saying "a" red room and by chosing to do this there is a sense of weirdness before the book has even been read. "Red" makes us think of blood, anger and evil. There is also alliteration in the title with the hard sounding "r" .

The story starts off with a rainy, gloomy,candle light or fire light setting, very typical opening features of a story written in the gothic genre. H.G Wells describes a fire-lightened room and straight away ghosts and the supernatural are mentioned by the main character, this gets the reader involved straight away where it starts with speech. After this the reader meets the strange characters of the story - the old people.When the narrator meets the old people we see his arrogence towards them as he describes them in a sense that he is actually mocking them and their suspicions to do with the red room. When infact the old people are almost trying to help the narrator as they are warning him about the red room. The way in which the old people are described helps hook the reader into the story as it creates tension. The description of the old people creates a supernatural eerie sense in the book, The Red Room. They are described as though they are inhuman creatures. The word "pale" makes the reader think of ghosts as that is the common vision that people have of ghosts and the way they could look.

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The old people also use repitition in their speech. This helps the tension of the story as it makes the reader want to know the meaning of what they are saying and the reasons why they are saying it.  The repitition of the phrase "its your own chosing" leaves a suspision in the readers mind about what the main character will have to chose to do, will he or wont he go in the red room, therefore creating a creepy vibe about the old people and rising the level of tension in the story. However at the begining of the ...

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