Short stories usually have to start well to attract a reader’s attention and keep it throughout. The best way to do this is to begin with an enticing level of tension and keep building up throughout the story. Wells uses literary techniques such as short clauses and good word choice to build up the suspense.
The story is based on three old characters warning a man not to stay in the isolated red room, but him being over confident that nothing haunts the room, he goes and stays there over night.
Talk about connotations of colour in the title!!!!
The characters build the suspense straight away as they do not tell the man their names, which creates a lack of personalisation. It makes the reader feel as if they are hiding something, and that maybe they are subhuman. Also the description of each of the old characters is abnormal. The old man is described with a “withered arm” which is a feature of horror which can create pictures in the reader’s mind of peculiar person.
“Decaying” and “yellow teeth” are both phrases which implies a huge contrast between the man and the old people. The man is young and confident about going to the red room and he is also un-believing in ghost. The old people are awkward to one anther and towards the man,”with their gaunt silences”, “evident unfriendliness”. He will fear these old people and if the narrator feels uneasy so will the reader.
The repetition of warnings is another factor that creates suspense. Each of the characters warns the man repeatedly of the danger in the room. The man with the withered arm repeats several times “it’s your own choosing” The other old man shows his “small and bright and inflamed” eyes. His eyes are portrayed like fire, and fire is a symbol of danger. The young man again sees “another Glance of his red eyes”. The old woman repeats “this night of all nights”. This tells us that there is a back round history of what has happened in the room. These repeated warnings infer that the characters do not want the man to go to the red room and that something has happened in the room that they haven’t told him.
Features of setting play a big part in the build up of tension. The factor of isolation caused by the “baize covered door” and the long corridor. The baized door muffles sound so even if he screams no one will hear him so once he is behind the door he is alone. The long corridor shows the red room is far away from the rest of the house. Isolation causes tension because once you are alone there is no-one there to help you.