The writer goes on to set the scene for the journey to the room. Portraying it as a chilly echoing passage, which sounds very threatening and menacing. He talks about the three old pensioners that occupy the castle coming from an age where there was no science and the existence of omens and witches were creditable. As he goes down the passage he starts to grow anxious about the whole thing. In the corridor on the way to the red room he describes the way the moonlight streams thought the staircase windows creating vivid black shadows and bathing everything in an eerie silvery light. So making the shadows of the ornaments on the landing appear sinister as if they are lying in wait to pounce on him. To portray his fear to the reader he says that he feels in his pocket for his revolver, which is weird because he says at the start that he is not scared of ghosts so he must believe that the thing in the room is living so we realise that his confidence is just a mask that he had put on for the old people.
When he goes into the red room he is very anxious because he remembers the stories about people who had died in the room. The room is very dark and it seemed that the darkness was growing and advancing towards him so he had turned the darkness into a person. This is personification which he does to emphasize the point that he is only scared of living things. He says “his candle was a little tongue of light” this is his way of showing his vulnerability . He goes around the room examining all of the walls , pictures and mirrors he is doing this because he believes that there must be a reasonable explanation to what has been happening in the room. He is trying to find evidence to support his theory that some one can gain access to the room via a secret entrance and create a ghostly apparition . His search proves fruitless so the writer has created more suspension as it supports the claims of the old people. He now seems to think that there is too much darkness in the room so he lights all of the candles and the fire but still the vast room is not fully illuminated , so to reassure himself he places a candle in one of the alcoves as he feels that something lurks in it’s darkness .
After keeping vigil over the room for some time passing the time by talking to himself and examine the rooms décor he decides that his fear of the room comes from it’s darkness, remembering that he saw some candles in the corridor he brings them into the room and lights them all, so that no corner remains unlit. He finds that the candle light cheers him up, however just after midnight one of the candles goes out he says” I simply turned and saw darkness” there was no smoke from the candle so it was as if an unseen person had snuffed it out but the man just says “By Jove that draught ‘s a strong one!” as if to reassure himself that every thing is normal. Then one by one the candles start to go out as if some one unseen is walking round extinguishing them, the narrator tries in vain to relight the candles as they are extinguished too quickly for him. Then the flames in the fire go out leaving him in complete darkness. He feels that the darkness is creeping up on him wrapping him up stifling his senses, stealing his vision and crushing him. This totally disorients him causing him to go back on what everything he said to the old people he tries to get out of the room but he does not succeed in this as in the ponderous darkness swallowed up the room. He ran for the door but he was not correct about the position of the door and he hit the bed.
He wakes up and it is daytime which represents hope and goodness, as there is now no darkness he has got his senses back. The first people he sees are the three old pensioners who are surprisingly warm to him even though he was so rude to them the night before and they did not say I told you so. They infact were asking him question after question. They wanted to know who the ghost who is haunting the room is. Even after a night, which he has just had, he still keeps to this remarks that ghosts aren’t real and says the thing, which haunts the room, is ‘Fear’ he again turns this fear into a person by giving it a capital letter.
The writer creates suspense in the story by mystery, use of time and descriptive writing setting the scene and rekindling the child hood fear of the dark and what may lurk there and his use of time saying that just after midnight the candles go out as this is the hour we associate with witches and ghosts. The narrator also becomes more sympathetic towards the old people in the story as he has experienced the fear they for told of the fear of the unknown that his imagination believed lurked in the darkness of the room.