In the Red Room the action is all inside the castle, so the detail is described in the corridor through to the room itself. In the Red Room the visitor is travelling through a corridor and then into a room. The corridor is “shadowy” and the visitor has to move his candle “from side to side” he does this to see what is before him on either side, before actually moving on. This creates an atmosphere of tension even before he reaches the Red Room. When the visitor enters the red room he notices a “shadow in the alcove”, this alarms him and he does not feel quite alone with the presence of the shadow. To “reassure myself” he places candles in various places to block all shadows from forming.
In The Signalman Dickens uses large sentences so the result is therefore trying to create an effect of ongoing images in the mind of the visitor and in the setting of the place. Dickens also uses long sentences in The Signalman, when he is describing the setting. This is because he is trying to create an image in the readers mind; this is achieved by long descriptions. An array of powerful adjectives is utilized by Wells, such as “grand staircase”, “great window” this exaggerates the visitor’s journey down the corridor. The castle seems gargantuan in size and seems to overwhelm the visitor. Also there is not much dialogue in The Red Room. This is mainly because the visitor is on his own with his mind. Therefore the sentences contain a lot of feelings, we know of his fear, and the way he tries to “restore his nerves”. This also helps the reader to understand what is going on in the mind of the character.
In the Signalman both characters are essential to the plot. This is because the visitor is outside the problem and tells us the feelings and actions of the signalman. When the signalman is telling of his feelings and incidences he lays “his hand upon my arm”, this is what the visitor tells us. The signalman is also essential to the plot as he is the character that sees the spectre. The visitor is narrating the story; he gives us a lot of detail about the actual Signalman. We know his thoughts about his job and his fears also; this is a typical example of a rounded character. A lot of details are given on how good the Signalman is and how he has never made a mistake, this adds to the curiosity of his death. However the visitor is not described in as much detail so we do not know much about him, he is an example of a flat character. In The Red Room the visitor to the castle is the narrator and describes the atmosphere in the corridor and room in great detail. We also know his thoughts and feelings; he is “frantic with horror” when he is in the red room, so he is also a round character. In the begging the visitor clearly does not believe in the ghost, in the end he doesn’t change his opinion, but describes something worse than a ghost, fear.
The Signalman has a steady pace throughout the whole story, it has a logical structure, each event is followed by another, but each event is carefully connected. The tension is steadily piled higher and higher until the end where there is an explosion of tension, at the death of the signalman. This adds to the curiosity of the story. In the Red Room however the pace seems to quicken and intensify. The shape of the plot is like a crescendo. The tension is mounted, but its pace is also quickened. The last section has a totally different pace; this gives the effect that the visitor is returning back to the norm. When the pace is fast the mind of the visitor seems to be racing with thoughts, but when the pace is slower the visitor seems to be able to think straight again. This is evident as at the end he describes what haunted him in the room, “Fear! Fear that will have no light”, this is as if he is now able to comprehend what haunted him in the red room.
I enjoyed The Red Room more than The Signalman, because I like the pace of the story. The Signalman is quite difficult to grasp the full meaning of the story, for example the visitors own words “For Gods sake, clear the way!” are used by the train driver. The story meaning is intricate to comprehend as the spectre seen by the signalman is actually showing him his death. That is why every time the spectre was seen by the signalman it was always followed by a death. I also like The Red Room because there is a lot of detail given in the setting of the story. The reader is inevitably waiting to hear of a spectre at the end of the story, but the lacks of a spectre does not give a dull finish. The ending perfectly compliments the rest of the story as the fear is personified and makes the ending very unusual. The story has an unusual twist at the end which gives it a far from cliché conclusion.
