The old women, ‘sat staring hard into the fire’, with ‘pale wide eyes’ evokes and conveys a eerie sense of foreboding. The person may well be deeply troubled and implies a sense of fearful expectation? Her saying is, ‘this night of all nights?’ which unnerves the reader aswell as the narrator, making us wonder what is different about this night? It encourages us to jump to conclusions and we feel ‘uncomfortable around these weird people’, including the second old man with shades, ‘who entered more bent, more wrinkled and more aged’. There is a use of repetition, which is used to exaggerate and create an image of the man. Questions about the native of these strange and distorted people arise in the reader’s mind, and slowly build up a sense of apprehension and expectation. When he visits the house, his reactions aren’t instant but soon become at unease. They all seemed to live in ‘an age where people believe in spectrums, ghosts and spirits’. The writer’s reactions towards these ‘grotesque’ people become clear through his vivid descriptions, which build up a sense of fearfulness.
The mention of the haunted room engages the interest of the reader and descriptions and use of language are used to describe different objects observed to the room. The narrator’s journey to the Red Room maintains suspense throughout. We also move away from the ‘distorted people downstairs’ and are travelling through to the next stages of suspense.
Everything the man in the story sees either has an impact on him or makes him feel fear and nervousness. ‘The long draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty’, suggests a dark and sinister place. It draws an image in our minds of the darkness and surrounding atmosphere. One of the last things he hears is ‘the echoes’ which ‘rang up and down he spiral staircase’. These sounds startle the narrator and we can sense the fear and tension build as we approach the Red Room.
The narrator feels apprehensive and uncomfortable as a ‘shadow came sweeping up’ after him and fled before him in the ‘darkness overhead’. The shadow id personified as fleeing off in the darkness. It is given human qualities, creating a menacing presence.
The descriptions of the journey prepare the moods about to be experienced in the Red Room, creating a feeling of expectation. As the man enters the Red Room, the moods and atmosphere change. The narrator is no longer in a calm and rational state, but in a form of ‘considerable nervous tension’. He soon admits to the reader that he is unsettled and fearful, and also oscillates between fear and calmness. The alternating moods of the narrator in the bedroom create suspense as he finds, ‘the remoter darkness of the place, and its perfect stillness’. Despite this, the darkness preys on his mind and, ‘ the sombre reds and blacks of the room’ trouble him. These dark colours don’t encourage the narrator to think rationally and optimistically as they add to the sense of darkness and apprehension.
The use of similes and metaphors in the description increases tension, aswell as comparing objects indirectly or directly. ‘The effect was scarcely what I expected, for the moonlight coming in by the great window…picked out everything in vivid black or silvery illuminations’. Once the light disappears, the shadows obtain a sinister presence, as does darkness.
Everything is dimly lit and a sense of foreboding parades the air. As the pace is heightened and picked up, the tension builds when each flame lit, vanishes as if, ‘the wicks had been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb’. This is an example of personification, as if an evil spirit or presence has deliberately put out the flames. The moment the candles go out, the sense of panic is built up.
Within the room, darkness is portrayed as a human, and physical presence, which almost wraps around the man in a ‘stifling embrace’. Darkness also has a sinister presence, which feels both threatening and tangible. The darkness is described as an ‘ocean of mystery’. This metaphor is used as though darkness is a surrounding field of suspense. We can’t see the end. It is a vast, cold and deep mystery which has appeared as the ‘shutting of an eye’.
Short, sharp sentences also help to create a sense of panic, and also quicken the pace aswell as increase the tension. The narrator lights each candle, but then soon realises they are going out. He ‘dashes into the alcove, then the corner, and then into the window, relighting three, as two more vanished…’
We as the reader are always aware of what lies ahead of the man, as there are many clues which raise our expectations. The passage successfully establishes a sense of fear in the narrator and so we understand the concepts behind each event. We are always kept wondering about what is going to happen next and the language used helps to maintain suspense through vividly drawn descriptions. These create images which bring the story alive in the mind of the reader.
The rational narrator tries to prove throughout the story that there is a logical and scientifical meaning to everything and so investigates the room, but later on realises that it is neither, ‘ghost of earl nor ghost of countess’ that surrounds the room in deep reverence, but something far worst-fear itself!
