Another way in which the author helps build up the strangeness of the old people, is by the disconcerting way the woman stares into the fire, not even to glance at anyone’s arrival. The way the old man keeps repeating the words, “It’s your own choosing”, builds up the tension in the atmosphere and are said to make the young man change his mind and stop him from going to the Red Room. It is said to try and break down his wall of confidence and protect him from the horror within the Red Room.
This first section takes place in the caretakers’ quarters in a castle, there was a fire the woman constantly stares into and a “queer old mirror”, in which he saw a strange reflection, “abbreviated and broadened to an impossible sturdiness.” It seems quite an old room as the door creaked before the man entered and there are flags outside. Finally there was a deal table that the old man splashed his drink over. The passage led deeper into the castle and the Red Room. The author helps build up tension using the old people and the setting, but at the beginning the young man is over-confident and seemingly fearless.
The young man walks away from the gathering of old people, “dark against the firelight,” something he will be significantly missing later on in his journey.
The passage he walked down was “chilly,” “echoing” and “dust,” it is also described as a “ long, draughty, subterranean passage.” This helps explain the surroundings and build up the atmosphere.
The man walks down the corridor, aware of the echoes and shadows, “the echoes rang up and down the spiral staircase.” The author makes the young man try to believe the shadows are following him, “sweeping up after me.”
He has suspicions that someone is “crouching to waylay” him, but then he realises it was just a statue. This is his mind beginning to play tricks on him.
Inside the room, he locked the door “at once”, preventing anyone/anything from getting in or out. There were many “shadowy” corners, window bays and alcoves. He decides to make a “systematic examination” of the place to re-assure himself. He lit the fire and many candles in the room and then pulled up an armchair and a table to form a kind of “barricade” before him. The writer describes the shadows as having a life of their own, this is achieved by the personification he uses, “shadows cover and quiver.” Personification is like a metaphor and the author uses it to make the shadows sound almost alive. This is because personification is where human qualities are attributed to an object, in this case it is the shadows. The darkness is described as “germinating,” it is as though the darkness is fighting the light and slowly taking over.
The author builds up tension by just the fact there is a young man away from any other people in a haunted room in a castle at night.
The man seems to be put off because “everything was in its place,” with all the “candles in the sockets of the sconces.” This is clearly strange because you would expect things to be a bit less perfect in a haunted castle. The dust must have been spread extremely evenly as it seemed to be invisible in the moonlight upon the carpets and polished floors. This all seems out of place, you would not expect it not to have been seen for some time, gathering dust. This contributes to the sinister atmosphere and building up of the supposedly supernatural surroundings.
The man is made to seem more afraid now than in the beginning pages of the story as slowly he is being made to feel less certain of himself and more afraid, for instance the way he thinks someone is waiting to waylay him, when really it was only a statue. After this he says it restored his nerve, he admits he felt a sense of nervousness. The surroundings are slowly attacking his confidence and the fact he is talking to himself and admits he does not find the echoes pleasant reveals his fear.
The young man’s feelings are different to that in the beginning of the story, now I feel he is in a considerable more amount of nervous tension and his confidence shown before has now deteriorated.
The first thing in the Red Room that “troubled” him, were “the sombre reds and blacks.” Also the dimness of the room bothered him. The author continues to write about the shadows, describing them using
Personification, “shifting and stirring.” Also the quote shadows “sprang” continuously moving, gives the impression the shadows are following him. The candles are used as a remedy for the darkness. The young man lights up as many corners of the room as possible, in order to help fight the darkness. The author helps illustrate the man’s fear by his jokes, “when the ghost came I could warn him not to trip over them,” he says these to try and reassure himself and reduce his levels of panic. The young man describes the flames as “very cheery and reassuring,” these flames are the pillars of his confidence, without them he would be a lot more fearful. When the first candle in the alcove goes out, he says aloud “By Jove,” and results to the conclusion it must have been blown out by a draught, “that draught’s a strong one!” Just after re-lighting the candle he turned his head “involuntarily,” without the control of his will and saw that two more candles had extinguished. He then says “Did I do that myself in a flash of absent-mindedness?” He is trying to give a valid explanation for the extinguished candles, but admits to himself it is odd. The candles seem to have been extinguished as though being “nipped” by finger and thumb, consequently hinting a presence is in the room with him. The author uses personification by saying the candles “wink,” as though the candles are alive and taunting him. The author also explains how the darkness seems to be taking a step towards the man, as though it is really alive and trying to close him in. From this point onwards is where his fear and panic begins to show more clearly. A high note got into his voice showing he’s frightened. When more start to go out, he tries to re-assure himself again by talking and trying to make a joke, “Steady on,” “these candles are wanted.” His hands begin to tremble, missing striking the matches and he begins to try and re-light the candles in a “quivering haste,” showing the speed at which he is attempting to get back more light and the panic he feels inside the room. Now the young man is at his most scared and terrified time, he cries with terror, dashing to re-light more candles. He fears the shadows and believes thy are trying to trap him, “and crept in upon me.” This is his mind playing tricks on him in the darkness, making him believe things he wouldn’t ordinarily believe. The terror in him now is at its peak and he is “frantic with the horror of the coming darkness.” His “self-possession” has deserted him leaving him not in control of himself and not knowing what to do. He leaps around terrified still trying to light candles, “in a vain struggle against that remorseless advance.” The darkness is fighting the light and winning. Then he remembers about the fire and how he could “thrust” the candles between the bars to re-light them. The word thrust is emphasising the speed at which he does it. The fire then is also extinguish and the darkness closed upon him like the “shutting of an eye.” The young man loses his vision, drops the candle and screams numerous times in terror. He tried to escape out of the door but forget its exact position; as a result he hits his forehead and felt a horrible sensation of falling, when finally he could remember no more. His fear reaches its maximum in this section of the story and the man’s actions are extreme now that he faces the terrors of the Red Room.
At the end of the story after the young man awakes from the fall he took. The old man and woman are there giving him some medicine and they explained how they found him at dawn with bloody on his forehead and lips. He explains to them about the haunted room and that there are no ghosts inside but just plain fear and that fear cannot be reasoned, it follows you and exists in the room in daytime and at night.
Now that the young man’s ordeal is over the old people are a lot nicer to the young man, probably because he experienced the Red Room and they hadn’t and because he actually had the courage to go in. They talk a lot more than they first did at the start of the story, probably due to the fact they wanted to ask questions etc and tell him what happened and how he got there. There is a lot less tension in the atmosphere now mainly due to their respect for the young man and because it is now the morning. The man has learnt to not be so self-confident and to respect other people’s views more than he used to. The old woman is no longer staring into a trance into the fire; the old people seem less ghostly and more human. It used to be he asking questions but now they are the one’s asking him the questions, due to the fact he now has more knowledge of the Red Room than they do.
I can conclude that the author H.G Wells is successful in building up an atmosphere of fear and reducing the young man from self-assurance to panic and terror. I think it is clever the way H.G. Wells used fear to haunt the room instead of maybe a ghost, this way it is more realistic. The young man walked in very self-confident and sure of himself, he left the castle as a better person, aware of his experience in the Red Room and more able to accept other people’s thoughts and views.
