The next morning, he wakes up to find the old man with the withered arm watching his face. The old woman pouring out some medicine. In the morning his memory continues to be forgetful as he cannot remember their faces remarkably well. ‘I seem to remember you, and yet I cannot remember who you are.’ They then explained about the room and his memory came into place, slowly. He then claims the room is haunted but by fear, ‘fear that will not have light or sound, that will not bear with reason, that deafens and darkens and overwhelms.’
In this story there are four characters, the central character/narrator, an old woman, an old man with a withered arm and an old man with the shade. The elderly people’s appearance is a normal, natural and common display; all were bent, wrinkled and aged.
The old man with the withered arm, old, obviously had a withered arm and was bent. He approached the central character with calmness, kindness and low-key, he repeats him self calmly with the words ‘it is your own choosing’ so that he is trying to warn the central character and trying verbally not to make the point come across that the central character is, by his own choosing, entering the ‘Red Room’. he believes that the central character is nervous and to calm his nerves down he offers him a drink. ‘“Why don’t you drink?” Said the old man pushing a pint into my direction’. Is clearly has fear him self of the room as he claims he has never been there and he also sternly says a point ‘if you enter the Red Room tonight, you go Alone!’ The old man and woman have convinced themselves that something, some ghost, has possessed the Red Room.
The old woman seems more barmy, crazy and strange than the other two elderly people. She is sat by the fire, bent and with pale wide eyes, constantly staring into the fire. Her knowledge of the room is apprehensive, she knows everything needs to know, and that is why she appears a little mad. More than the old man with the withered arm, she repeats herself a lot by saying ‘this is the night of all nights’ this meaning that is it the same night that all three people died in the Red Room and she is extremely worried about the fact the central character is sleeping in the room. She doesn’t say that much but when she does speak she speaks with wisdom. Near the end of the story she says that she is convinced that the countess haunts the room, ‘it is the poor young countess who was frightened-’ she also seems caring to worry about a soul that she doesn’t know and to provide medicine for him.
The old man with the shade, he looks more ill and matured than the other two, by being more bent, more wrinkled and more aged. “He has yellow decaying teeth,’ his eyes were covered with shade, ‘appearing below his lower lip appearing averted, a yellow and pale face glooms as his raises his head and he also holds a single crutch in his hand.” Like the old woman, he doesn’t talk all that much but he is wiser than them and only speaks when necessary. The old man questions the central character once throughout the first part of the story, ‘And are you really going?’ questioning him like he cannot believe he is going to the Red Room. I think the old man might be superstitious but not as much and, unlike the other two as he doesn’t seem to panic so much. At the end of the story, the old man claims to have known the answer to the Red Room, and claims he knew all along that it wasn’t haunted. By this he shows that he is wise and insightful. The old man must be ill because throughout the whole of the first section of the story he continuously coughs and splutters. He also doesn’t like the other old man, with the withered arm, I know this because the text says ‘the old man with the withered arm gave this newcomer a short glance of positive dislike’ the newcomer being the old man with the shade. Possible the old man is religious as he says ‘House of sin’ in one of his ending sentences.
As a whole these three elderly people, no matter that there trying to warn him, the central character feels uncomfortable around them. I know this from when the central character says ‘The three of them made me feel uncomfortable, with their gaunt silences, their bent carriage and their evident unfriendliness to me and one another.’ In other words, this means that he feel uncomfortable because of the awkward silences, strange old silhouette and the fact that they don’t like each other. Toward the end of the Victorian error, there were two genres of people. The first type being the younger generation, who have to see something to believe it, to be sceptical, the young central character representing this genre. The second type of person within the Victorian error is the more superstitious genre. More often than not, these are more elderly generation and believing in ghosts and other unanswerable questions, without having to see proof. The three elderly people of the story represent this by being old fashioned.
Around the period of time that his story was written, the last 19th century, there was a particular type of story writing known as ‘the gothic’. ‘Gothic’ attempts to terrify the reader and mainly involves the supernatural. As most Victorians believed in the supernatural this type of writing who more certainly scare them. ‘The Red Room’ is in “Loraine Castle” which is dark and isolated. The spiral staircases, large windows, long corridors, door covered in baize and statues makes the place more and typically a gothic story setting. To name some the gothic elements in this story there are Lorraine Castle haunted rooms, ghosts, superstition, darkness and previous deaths. All these elements make the story sound ‘creepy’ as they are elements of a horror story. I know that Lorraine castle is dark because the central character as he mentions several times, for example ‘... closed upon me like the shutting of an eye’. H.G. Wells uses chilling words, phrases and language to keep the story scary and interesting for example ‘… a shadow came sweeping up after me, and one fled before me into the darkness overhead.’
In this story the narrator is neither confident nor fearful. Throughout he shows a mixture of the two feelings. Firstly, he is brave and has the courage to go in that room on the “night of all nights” but then he also say that he doesn’t believe in ghosts so it would not bother him as it would somebody who is superstitious. And despite of being warned about the rumours, deaths and curses of this room he is still confident and determined to go to prove his point. ‘I will make myself comfortable there.’ To be comfortable within a room you must feel relaxed and fearless so he must be confident. He says ‘there was nothing tangible there’ the opening line of the story is ‘that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me’ so by saying ‘that there was nothing tangible there’ he has proven his opening point and that shows his confidence. After leaving the room with the old people and on the journey to the room and when the central character is in the room, he begins to show his fear. His fear in the story is his imagination and hallucination, for example ‘Shadows came sweeping up after me.’ And ‘The indefinable quality of a presence’. He has the rumours of the Castle in mind and they play with his thoughts. This is why he gets scared in the story despite that he is confident as well. For example, after the candle go out he has to relight them again to assure himself that there wasn’t a ghost there. And when he narrates at one point he talks as if he will come across a ghost and expects one to come by saying, ‘when the ghost will come’. And he also claims he has to ‘reassure himself’; if he was confident at that point there would be no need to reassure himself.
In conclusion, the effectiveness of ‘The Red Room’ as a ghost story varies depending on the reader. If the reader was Victorian within the late 19th century and very early 20th century the impact would be alarming and bloodcurdling as the gothic genre was new, as were novels, and the reality of ghost and the other supernatural is brought to life within the first person narrative. However, now, the story would not have such a terrifying impact as novels, the first person narrative and gothic genre have been used many times before and I am familiar with the style of writing. As a whole I think ‘The Red Room’ is a good ghost story and is effective as it has all the equipment to produce a great ghost story novel even though it conclude without having a real, existent ghost haunting ‘The Red Room.’