THE RED ROOM

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Mona Ibrahim

Liverpool Community College

English Coursework

Based on your study of a selection of short story explain how the author attempts to create atmosphere/tension

     In this essay, I will explain how the author (H.G Wells) built up atmosphere and tension in “The Red Room “. This short story “The Red Room” was written in 1876. This short story is about a young man who wants to go to the red room to disprove the existence of the ghosts. He wants to stay at night in the haunted red room. At first, he is confident and not scared, but the three custodians give him a repeated warning not to go to the haunted red room. At the end of the story, he ended up panicking, trying to re-light the candles but he couldn’t and he tries to get out from the red room but he had forgotten the exact position of the door. Until finally, he fell and fainted away and next morning when he woke, he found the three custodians looking at him and he couldn’t remember what had happened, so they told him

 “We found you at dawn and there was blood on your forehead and lips....”

At the end of the story, his character has changed dramatically, and he seems much wiser than in the beginning.  He now speaks of fear as a real entity rather than denying he could be touched by fear as before.

      This story is written from this confident young man’s point of view and is therefore written in the first person narrative, and so the reader is able to empathise with him which increases the tension further. An example of this is:

“....with a cry of terror, I dashed at the alcove, then into the corner...”

“I can assure you”

This makes the reader feel as if they were in the scene of dark terror, and keeps them reading and hungry for more.

      Wells creates tension through the way he describes the three custodians, as strange and frightening. For example “the man with withered arm” is a phrase used repeatedly to describe the old custodian. This increases the tension and these words set the character up for the frightening encounter. He seems to think that the three custodians are unfriendly to him. But, there was something wrong with the narrator wanting to go to the red room and the man with the withered arm keeps saying

Join now!

“it’s your own choosing”

He uses this repetition to heighten the sense of strangeness in a frightening ways. However, there is something that these custodians know about the red room but the narrator doesn’t, again causing tension which makes the reader wonder what there is in the red room. This is despite the repeated warning given to the narrator by the old woman:

“This night of all nights!” said the old woman.

These short interchanges quickly build tension, as the reader is aware of the sharpness of the conversation. Also, also one of the old people says:

“You go alone.”

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