Suspense is built up in section one through repeated phrases. One being, ‘It is your own choosing’. This builds suspense as it makes you wonder, what is his own choosing? It gives you the impression that whatever has been chosen, is bad. The phrase is repeated three times in this section. The atmosphere is built up through description. A good use of atmospheric description is, ‘The old woman sat staring into the fire, her pale eyes wide open.’ This shows that there is fear in her. So something bad is associated with the ‘Red Room’. The first line of this story has both atmosphere and suspense in it., ‘I can assure you, said I, that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’ This tells you that whoever it is that is speaking, is going to have an encounter with a ghost. It has atmosphere as it sets the scene, but it also has suspense because you then want to read on to know what he is going to see. You don’t know what is going to happen. So suspense and tension are already there in just the first sentence. More atmosphere is ‘The three of them made me feel uncomfortable, with their gaunt silences, their bent carriages, their evident unfriendliness towards me and one another.’ This is very atmospheric as it gives you a picture with distorted views. It sets an atmospheric air. You don’t know why they make him feel uncomfortable, but the pictures that words like ‘gaunt’ and ‘bent carriage’, give a vivid picture, which to me, is an eerie atmosphere. When the narrator says he is wanting to be shown to the room, The old man with the cough jerked his head back so suddenly that it startled,’ the narrator. This gives suspense, as you want to know why this made the old man jump. What is wrong with wanting to be escorted to the room? The narrator is in a strange house, he doesn’t know where to go, he would need showing around. But it seems as though that is out of the question. But why? You then want to read on.
As the narrator is being told where to go, the old woman suddenly says, ‘This night of all nights!’ What is wrong with this night? What has happened to make this a bad night? These are all questions you find yourself asking. So you read on, to find out. The phrase is then repeated near the end of the section.
Just as the narrator is leaving for the room, he looks back and sees the old people, ‘and saw they were all close together, dark against the firelight, staring at me over their shoulders, with an intent expression on their ancient faces.’ This quote has both atmosphere and suspense as it gives an eerie picture of fear but you want to read on, to find out what happens. Just before he leaves the old man repeats, ‘It is your own choosing,’
In section two, atmosphere is set in the first line, ‘I left the door wide open until the candle was well alight, and then I shut them in and walked down the chilly, echoing passage,’ This sets the scene as being scary and intimidating. It shows a slight fear in the narrator when all the rest of the time, he has been seemingly calm.
As he carries on down the passage it comments on the surroundings, ‘The ornaments and conveniences of the room about them were ghostly-,’ This makes it more eerie as we get closer to the ‘haunted’ room. ‘A shadow came sweeping up after me, and one fled before me into the darkness overhead,’ This is good suspense. It enhances the paragraph by making you wonder what the shadows are. Are they ghosts? You don’t know. It only describes them as shadows and shadows are eerie anyway.
A good piece of imagery sets atmosphere. An example in this section is, ‘the moonlight coming in by the great window on the grand staircase picked out everything in vivid black shadow or silvery illumination.’ This gives you a clear mental image. It comes across as ghostly, which is what the story how the story is meant to be. As the narrator is walking he sees shadows and ornaments, which make him more on edge. He sees a group of statues in a corner and he gripped his revolver. The fact that he had a revolver with him shows that he is not as calm as he first seemed. What could he possibly be going to meet which he’d need a revolver as protection?
The third section is set in the ‘Red Room’. It is dark in the room, and the narrator needs to light some candles. This quote gives atmosphere, ‘My candle was a little tongue of light in its vastness, that failed to pierce the opposite end of the room, and left an ocean of mystery and suggestion beyond its island of light,’ This gives the impression that the room is extremely large and dark. Anything could be lurking in this dark. After all, the room is said to be haunted.
Suspense is held in this quote, ‘The one in the alcove flared in a draught, and the fire’s flickering kept the shadows and penumbra perpetually shifting and stirring,’ This makes you wonder, was it the draught that made them flicker or was it something else? This room is supposed to be haunted. In section one it seemed as though the narrator didn’t believe the room would be haunted, but now he seems to be thinking it is, as he has a revolver and has lit so many candles.
Haunting is said to start at midnight. In this story it does, ‘It was after midnight that the candle in the alcove suddenly went out, and the black shadows sprang back into its place there.’ The rest this section is full of suspense where all the candles keep being put out. It makes you want to read on when you read this, ‘While I stood gaping, the candle at the foot of the bed went out, and the shadows seemed to step towards me.’ This makes you think that there is something in the shadows trying to get to the narrator. Because he is nervous, it makes the reader nervous. The tension, suspense and atmosphere is quite high at this point, ‘my candle rolled away from me, and I snatched another as I rose. Abruptly this was blown out,’ The narrator is very scared at this point. The atmosphere lets you know this.
As the narrator is trying to get out of the room, the pace is sped up. The sentences become shorter and you find yourself wanting to read on. ‘But I had forgotten the exact position of the door, and struck myself heavily against the corner of the bed.’ ’Will the narrator get out of the room? The sentence is suspense it gives you a question to ask, you read on and you find the answer. ‘A horrible sensation of falling that lasted an age, of my last frantic effort to keep my footing, and then I remember no more.’ This is where the narrator is knocked out. You never know what has knocked him out but you can guess that he was so scared that he fell over and struck his head.
The last section is where the narrator wakes up in the morning. The old people are standing over him. This is atmospheric because at the beginning of the story, the old people seemed cold towards him, and now they are caring for him. In this the narrator tells that the room is not haunted by a ‘ghost of earl nor ghost of countess in that room, there is no ghost there at all; but worse, far worse-‘ Suspense is here because you want to know what is worse than a ghost? What is haunting the room? ‘The worst of all the things that haunt poor mortal man, and that is in all its nakedness-fear!’ The story is brought to a close with this sentence, ‘black fear, and there will be – so long as this house of sin endures.’ This gives suspense even though it is the last line! It leaves you wondering what will happen to all the people who live in the house? Will they come to an end like the others and turn into the fear, which haunts the room?
So from this you can see that yes, the suspense and atmosphere enhance the power of the narrative. It enhances it by using words of description and words of tension. Without these words the story would not be worth reading. It would be dull and lifeless.