The Red Room

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To what extent is ‘The Red Room’ a typical ghost story?

A typical ghost story can contain many different things. This could include the black of the night, an old rusty house, and the full moon lit up in the sky gives an even more spooky effect on the story.

‘The Red Room’ is a certain room in an old, huge castle which is known for being haunted by ghosts. The narrator goes into the castle to investigate whether this is in fact true, or if it is all just a rumour. The three old people outside of the castle try to warn him about what lies ahead of him in the castle, but he doesn’t take any notice of them as of yet.

In ‘The Red Room’ there are only four characters, which begins to show that this is a typical ghost story. Ghost stories tend to only have a small number of characters, the reason being that the reader doesn’t begin to get confused. In this ghost story, the narrator is the main character, who is going to investigate ‘The Red Room’ and discover what is inside it. He ignores whatever rumour he may hear about this room, and he dismisses the fact of a ghost trying to scare him. Although the complete opposite happens; the ghost attacks the narrator because he’s the person that is fearless and that must be stopped. The build up to reaching ‘The Red Room’ and the narrator getting attacked creates suspense throughout the story, which reflects on the question to show it’s a typical ghost story.

There are three more characters in ‘The Red Room’ too. These are called the three custodians. These can be known as the villains of the story, as they are the closest there are to villains. The characters are old and deformed which creates suspension at the start and at the end of the story. The reader will begin to think that something will happen when these characters are around, but not knowing what it is that will happen makes this a typical ghost story.

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“…a second old man entered, more bent, more wrinkled, more aged than the first … his eyes were covered by a shade and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.” The description of the second man will make the reader aware of what the three custodians’ appearance is like and the effect this can have on the story. “They seemed to belong to another age…an age when omens and witches were credible, and ghosts beyond denying” shows us that the three custodians were not from this time and seemed to be quite old ...

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