what they do, rather than by their names. The contrast between the narrator and the old people is very striking and in describing them Wells introduces the idea if fear into the story for the first time.
In the first few lines of the story we see that the narrator is a confident and strong-minded person, who is at the same time fair and, although it is difficult in this situation, he tries to be patient and polite to the others. The story is written in the first person, which helps to draw the reader close to the narrator because it gives the sense that he is speaking directly to the reader. This is important for later in the story when Wells needs to make sure that the reader believes in the narrator. He shows his confidence in the first line when he says, “I can assure you that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.” He appears defiant when he stands up in front of the fire with his glass in his hand.
Thus the story begins in a positive mood with no indication of fear. However, as soon as we meet the man with the withered arm, an uneasy atmosphere takes over, with furtive looks from the man and a very unwelcoming attitude from the old woman as she is introduced for the first time. She is described as “staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open” and “her head swaying from side to side,” typical behaviour of a distressed or worried person. Then she gives words of warning to the young narrator, that at twenty-eight years of age he has “A many thing to see and to sorrow for.” In this way Wells is building up an atmosphere that is becoming gradually more and more uncomfortable for the narrator.
At this point the narrator is feeling more threatened, but is making a conscious effort to stay in control. He indicates this when he says,
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“I half suspected the old people were trying to enhance the spiritual terrors of their house by their droning insistence.” Even the view of himself all misshapen in the “queer old mirror at the end of the room” does not deflect him from what he sees as the ‘business’ of meeting the ghost in the red room. He remains very matter of fact about what he will experience and he seems confident that not even a ghost will disturb him.
This is indicated in his words, “Well, if I see anything tonight, I shall be so much the wiser.”
The arrival of the third old person in the room has a greater effect upon the narrator because he finds him even more repulsive than the other two characters. Wells gives a lengthy description of the second man, who is “more bent, more wrinkled, more aged even than the first.
He is hunched and crippled, mean and threatening, as is conveyed in this description, “his eyes were covered by a shade, and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth,” and “I caught a momentary glimpse of his eyes, small and bright and inflamed.”
His reaction to the sight of this man shows us for the first time that the narrator can be shocked and is sensitive to unpleasant sights. Here Wells is preparing the reader for the changes that will happen to the narrator when he is in the red room. He tells us, “I must confess I had scarce expected these grotesque custodians.” He goes on to describe how
he feels about old age, and in his opinion there is nothing good or appealing in growing old. He says, “There is to my mind something inhuman in senility, something crouching and atavistic.” In creating the characters of the old people in this way Wells has developed a very tense atmosphere in this story. They are very real to the narrator, but at the same time they could also be seen as ghostlike. Within a very short time his confidence is beginning to break and he says, “The three of them made me feel uncomfortable, with their gaunt silences, their bent carriage, their evident unfriendliness to me and to one another.”
There is a slight feeling of relief when he thinks that it will be better for him when he is in the red room and he even says, “I will make
myself comfortable there.”
