The Red Room by H.G.Wells - How Does H.G.Wells build up an atmosphere of fear and show the young man is reduced from self-assurance to panic and terror?

Wells also creates the atmosphere by not telling you information that you want to know such as, what has made the young man want to stay in the red room, what is in the red room and why it is scary, or what is so special about this night after the old woman says “this night of all nights” the man is staying in the red room. Perhaps it is the anniversary of a death but we cannot confirm this. Wells may not tell us these details because he knows that people are most scared of things they do not understand and if he gave away these details the tension would be lost. The elderly people could be attempting to stop this man seeing the red room for some reason but if they are trying to do this they fail because he goes anyway. The young man may not want to go to the red room but because of his pride he cannot afford to back down from what he said he would do. Wells makes the description of the man’s route to the red room very long and meticulous this makes it seem as though he will be nowhere near the old people or anybody else whilst he is in the red room so he will have no one to help him if he is in danger.

As soon as the man leaves the room he is becoming more fearful this is shown when he is leaving the room because he won’t set off in the dark and waits until the candle is well lit. The atmosphere of fear is built when the young man is reflecting on the abnormal old people he mentions, “their very existence was spectral” this suggests that they are ghosts themselves and the whole castle not just the red room is haunted. He also says they seemed to belong to another age so these old people could have died hundreds of years ago and their spirits have remained in the castle. At the end of page six Wells builds tension with the description of the man’s journey down the corridor talking about the echoes along the corridor and shadows flying past into the darkness. This creates fear because he is supposed to be alone but there are moving shadows and echoes that suggest something is lurking in this castle. Then there is just absolute silence, which is strange because it is very rare that you get absolute silence.

Once the man is in the room it starts to show that he is becoming more fearful and is no longer as arrogant as he was when the story begins. We knows this because he admits, “by this time I was in a state of considerable nervous tension” this shows he is worried now. He is even becoming afraid of darkness because he has to go back and get the candles to light the room.

Wells now starts to bring the story to its climax. The fear in the young man is growing he clearly feels there is a ghost or something else mysterious in the room because when the candle goes out he says he felt like there was an unexpected presence of a stranger. Now that candles are going out for no reason everywhere the man becomes petrified. He speaks as if the candle as alive as a ghost because ‘wink’, the formerly arrogant man is now scared that this ghost coming closer and closer to him he says “the shadows seemed to be taking steps towards him”. The man soon becomes “frantic with the horror or the coming darkness” and is panicking completely. As the man tries to flee the room in his fear he forgets where the door is this shows just how scared he is. He is knocked unconscious because of his panic.

When the petrified young man awakens the spectral elderly people surround him. They start to question him about his experience in the red room and he admits the room is haunted, they assume it is a ghost occupying the red room but the young man disagrees it was neither a ghost or the old earl nor his poor countess but fear itself it what was lurking in there. The young mans experience has made him be arrogant no longer and will forever be afraid of fear. Wells may be suggesting through this story that we are not afraid of the things we understand but the things we don’t and our imagination makes the scenario much worse than it could possibly be, also that we create the fear in our imaginations. Throughout this story Wells has succeeded in creating tension and fear and representing how the young man is reduced to panic and terror. The story will be forever brilliant and gripping.