Fear is created throughout the story and is build up to a climax toward the end. We learn about the man’s fear through his actions, the description of the castle and the way that H.G. Wells has written the story. At the end we learn that the fear that the man has encountered has really changed him so it must have indeed been genuine fear.
Throughout the story the writer uses many techniques to create and sustain fear and suspense and to make the story as realistic as possible. Wells uses similes, metaphors and personification regularly as well as matching the event with the length of sentences and range of vocabulary.
The main character of the story is not introduced to us in any way, all we know is that he is 28 years old and is at the castle to try and prove his manhood and overcome the enemy which is within him, fear, by staying overnight in a ‘haunted room’. We do not know how he came to be at the house or whom he is trying to prove himself to. He is, at no point in the story given a name but within the first few lines of dialogue we understand that he is a very confident and boastful man:
‘it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’
However brave he says he is, he carries a gun with him. This shows that he is prepared for a possible emergency and it reinforces that he doesn’t believe in ghosts. By the end of the story the man has much changed and the confident boastful man that we knew at the beginning has gone, again, this tells us that he had really experienced authentic fear.
The story begins in the ‘old people’s room’ (housekeeper’s room) and the main plot is brought up straight away, which immediately engages the interest of the reader. This room, like much of the castle, is very dark and dreary, not very welcoming and everything in it is very old. It is typical of a 19th century room; it has a mirror at one end of the room and a fire near to the table. The setting of each room is described extremely acutely so as to make the reader think that they are actually there.
The old people that inhabit the house were left in charge by ‘her ladyship’. They are all elderly and are in some way disabled, one of them has a withered arm, one of them has a whooping cough and the woman is just old and decrepit. The narrator describes them in great detail because he feels them to be a key element in his story. Everything that the old people wear and are surrounded by, was designed and made by someone now dead, this reinforces the image of them being ghosts. They are all afraid of what the young man is about to do and do not take any responsibility for his actions.
The old people repeat phrases like ‘it is of your own choosing’ and ‘this night of all nights’. Again, they do not want any responsibility for anything that might happen to the young man. When the young man leaves the room they all huddle together and none of them look him in the eye. This could be because they know that he is doomed and do not want him to think that they are responsible for him; also it stops them having to say goodbye to him. Lastly it could be a sign to him that he is on his own. Whenever any one of the three old people speaks they leave sentences unfinished and open to interpretation. Everything about the old people is depressing, dismal, drab and dreary.
The young man finds the old people who look after the castle, frightening and depressing. We know this because he refers to them as ‘grotesque custodians’. He also says that he 'will relieve you from the task of entertaining' him, meaning that he feels himself a burden
Once he has left the room he describes his feelings when he was 'in the company of the old people. He calls them odd and the surroundings that they were ‘ghostly’. He then banishes all thoughts of ghosts from his mind so as not to distract him from the long walk through the ‘chilly, echoing passage.’
This ‘chilly, echoing passage’ is a common factor in a ghost story for it is dark, damp, cold and dusty. It is dimly lit, any sound can be heard and any movement made casts greatly magnified, ‘monstrous’ shadows onto the surrounding walls. When walking through the passage you would probably not be able to see to the other end, which means that anything could be lurking there. The passage has a great effect on both the reader and probably, the young man. It creates fear and suspense and is a tension builder; this passage is the start of the growing fear that the young man experiences.
Then he moves onto the corridor in which the ‘Red Room’ is situated. The first thing noted about this corridor is the shock it gave him to see moonlight streaming through a window, illuminating everything and making it look black and silvery. He then notices that it looks untouched and there are thick layers of dust to prove that no one has been there for a long time. As he begins to move around he notices a shadow of what, to him, looked like a figure ‘crouching to waylay’ him. He is very paranoid and is becoming extremely nervous. Once he finds out that it was only a statue his nerve has restored and even when he passed another statue that moved it ‘scarcely startled’ him. When he arrives at the door of ‘The Red Room’ he remembers that it was just outside the door that the young duke had begun to die.
Once inside the ‘Red Room’ he carries out many acts to make himself feel secure and to reassure himself. Once he has locked himself in he describes the room in great detail so that the reader feels involved in the young man’s ‘systematic examination’. Once the examination was complete he says himself to be ‘in a state of considerable nervous tension’. He then barricades the door as a back up for the lock and lights all of the available candles to flood the room with light. He settles down and recites poems to take his mind of the task, this doesn’t work so he looks for others ways to occupy himself and make the room look more comfortable, he even at one point describes the room as ‘very cheery and reassuring’! I believe that he does this to falsely convince himself that there is nothing to be afraid of. The young man fetches candles from outside to add more light to the room so absolutely nothing can be hiding anywhere. Throughout his time in the room there is an alternating pattern of cheeriness and tension of the narrator.
After midnight he said that ‘the candle in the alcove suddenly went out’. If you were looking for a non-superstitious explanation for this event then it could be that the candle had been out for a while but that had simply not noticed it. He then says that ‘a black shadow sprung back to its place’ this is personification that adds effect to the action of the candle. He tries to relight the candle by strolling ‘leisurely’ over to it; he is doing this so that he doesn’t panic. Then two candles go out behind him; again he tries to find a rational explanation for it and blames it on his ‘absentmindedness’. When the next few candles went out he puts the blame on a draught even though there are no open windows or doors around. When the next one goes out he begins to worry, and says that the flame definitely vanished. Again he uses personification when he says that ‘the shadows seemed to take another step towards me.’ He begins to shout out loud and is so nervous that he cannot light a match first time because of his trembling. He manages to think clearly and instead of using matches he uses a candle to relight the others. However, he is unable to keep up with the extinguishing candles and uses imagery for effect:
‘it was like a ragged stormcloud sweeping out the stars.’
Now he is severely beginning to panic and is injuring himself with his clumsiness. He resorts to the warmth and light of the fire when all of the candles are extinguished but that is soon extinguished also, plunging him into darkeness. Still panicking he tries to light the candle from the ashes of the fire; he will not believe that it has gone out. In a last effort to save himself from the darkness he attempts to leave ‘The Red Room’ and enter the moonlit corridor. He has forgotten where the door is and is knocked out.
The paragraphs from when the first candle goes out to when he is knocked out are extremely tense. They involve a lot of short sentences to increase and sustain tension and suspense. The climax of the story is when the last few candles begin to go out.
When he has recovered from his fall he awakens in daylight, which is a sharp contrast to the darkness in the room. He appears to have become a better person from his experience and he tells the old people that it is fear in the room, an emotion, nothing supernatural at all. His final words are among the most powerful in the story, they are also among the most crucial, he says that fear is much worse than anything supernatural for it is inside you and always will be, ‘so long as this house of sin endures.’
As mentioned before, this 19th Century novel contains all the elements of a traditional ghost story. The language throughout is typical of the time genre in which it was written, the Victorian language is used for emotive and figurative effect and adds to the spooky creepy atmosphere that runs throughout. The story is extremely effective in putting the story across and the theme is often reflected in today’s world.
