In Your Opinion what is in the Red Room?

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In Your Opinion what is in the Red Room?

   In The Red Room by H.G Wells there are a lot of clues as to whether there is a ghost in the room or whether it is just the character’s own fear that appears to cause mysterious things to happen. Stories of the haunted room and unexplained events could give the impression of a ghostly presence, but in my opinion the only presence in the room was fear itself.

   There is a possibility of a ghost in The Red Room as a young duke had died in there many years a go whose spirit could be haunting the room and there are tales of another horrible spirit who caused the young Duke’s death. There are also sad stories of tragic deaths that have taken place in there, “a tale of a timid wife and the tragic end that came to her husband’s jest of frightening her” which could give the impression that he or she may also be haunting the room. Moreover there is the “coincidence” that both the character and the Duke both fell down the same stairs, after tying to complete a vigil trying to find out whether or not the ghost does exist, makes it look like there is a ghost that does not want to be discovered.

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Also the character is very sceptical about the supernatural, “It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me” but still manages to become worried about a spirit in the room, “in a state of considerable nervous tension”. This could mean that there is something in the Red Room because even someone as disbelieving as him becomes nervous in there.

     The idea of a ghost being in the room, in my opinion, is probably due to the character’s over-active imagination which tales of the haunted room add to. At the beginning of the story the old people in ...

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