The first page introduces us to the characters in the story, a young man, an old man, an old woman and another old man. This creates a sense of fear because of images like, “his lower lip …..hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth” and “withered arm” conjure up ideas of monsters or ghouls. Also the fact that the old people are closer to death and therefore have nothing to lose, whereas the young man going to the red room has life ahead of him and tension is created about what’s going to happen to him.
The young man is sceptical about the room being haunted and the three old people believe there is something in there although none of them have ever entered the room.
Opposites build drama and drama builds tension, this is a good example of the young sceptical man conflicting the ideas of the three ‘wise’ old people. Although the old people are ‘wise’ they have never been into the room, they get their wisdom from stories so they have no first hand experience of the danger. This makes the reader want to find out if the stories are true about the room as there is no evidence.
Repetition is a technique also used by writers to build tension. The first example of this, on the first page, is ‘it’s your own choosing’. The old man is warning the younger man about what he believes will put the man in great danger, as well as leaving the choice up to him. Another example of this is the old woman when she repetitively tells the young man “this is the night of all nights”. We never know why that night is important but it gives the reader a ‘red herring’ question. This keeps the readers interest because you want to find out why?
The setting of the story is important, it is a castle, a very stereotypical place for a ghost story. They create fear and tension in themselves because of their great size and they’re full of corridors, vast rooms and stairs. As the man explores the subterranean section of the castle, he thinks he sees a figure in front of him, only to discover it’s an ornament of a Chinaman on a table. He says the passages were dark and chilly; he also goes up some spiral stairs and through unknown doorways. All these things add tension because ghosts are associated with chilly or cold rooms and the others are unknown places or things that give an element of fear.
Finally the man reaches the red room and walks in. He sees shadows in the alcove when there’s actually nothing there. Again, this shows us that darkness is more frightening than being able to see what’s there. To overcome his fears the man puts a candle in the alcove.
“At last, to reassure myself, I walked with a candle into it, and satisfied myself that there was nothing tangible there”. This is referring to the opening paragraph about a very tangible ghost.
Tension rises as he begins talking to himself and he feels the need for more candles to remove the darkness. He places seventeen candles about the room to comfort himself and try to calm his nerves. Then one of the candles goes out, followed by another. He feels no draft but makes himself think that it was a draft to reassure him again but deep down he fears that he’s not alone in the room.
“Shadows seemed to take another step towards me”. The light symbolises the truth, without it fear and tension is everywhere. When the man says the shadows seem to take another step towards him, he is saying fiction is closing in on him and he’s being drawn away from the truth.
Then there is a gap in time; tension starts to unwind slowly. He wakes up the next morning after being rescued at dawn by the old people. He personifies fear with the red room. He has had a fight with his fear and in the end his fear wins. For me, the red room symbolizes one's own fear. Nothing is actually in the room except what one believes is there.
The tension in the story is the unknown. Anything relating to the unknown could build tension.
H.G.Wells uses tension to make the story interesting and keep the readers attention. The story has many meanings and has a certain theme:
To be denied of information as a reader is far more powerful than to know the truth.
ADAM BOAKES 11RH