The story of 'Farthing House' was written quite recently. The story was written in 1992/93. The story is about a residential home. The place has quite a history through the years.

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Introduction

                       

The story of ‘Farthing House’ was written quite recently. The story was written in 1992/93. The story is about a residential home. The place has quite a history through the years. The story is about a lady who is visiting her aunt who lives in the residential home.

The story of ‘The Red Room’ was written quite along way back. It was written in the 1980’s, which means it is quite an old story. The story is about a brave young man who is in a castle with three old custodians. He is planning to go to a room in the castle, which the three custodians say is haunted.

Genre

       

The two stories both belong in the same genre. They are both ghost stories, but different in a kind of way. The story of ‘Farthing House’ is more of a mysterious story than a ghost story, although there is a ghost sighting in the story.

The author Susan Hill takes a more modern approach to the story. At some points of the story the reader is not told exactly what is going on. This is because the author’s technique is to reveal the story slowly. The author reveals a little and then stops and changes the subject completely. This shows that the story may be about a ghost but also is about tension and mystery.

The story starts in the present and then goes onto the past and near the end comes back to the present. Also several times in the story the writer writes the word ‘you’ but the reader does not know whom this you is. This proves that the story is a little bit of a mystery to. Some parts of the story that are mysterious are when the lady in the story has a flash back.      ‘something that had been drifting on the edge of my conscious blurred and insubstantial, came into focus, and in a rush I remembered….’ At this point the reader does no know what the flash back is about because of the way the story started.

Although most of the story is really mysterious at the beginning the story carry’s on to be quite mysterious. Another example is when the lady was going to enter the house, she felt a sudden shudder ‘ I felt somethig else and it made me hesitate before ringing the bell.’ The writer here is not exactly telling or explaining to the reader what the feeling was and how it made the lady feel. In a sense the writer is playing mind games with the reader.

The story of ‘The Red Room’ is a much more classical type ghost story. The writer takes a ghostly type approach to the story. The story was written in 1986. The story has quite a number of parts where it is all about tension. This has quite an effect on the reader. The story features quite a number of things that a typical ghost story should have e.g. Old deformities ‘ I half suspected the old people were trying to..’ a lonely and isolated place and is in the dark seasons (winter).

The story does not have a sighting of a ghost but has quite a lot of tension. Some parts in the story where there is a lot of tension is when the first candle in the room goes out ‘ it was after midnight the candle in the alcove went out.’ At this point there is quite a lot of tension and suspense. The reader goes on high alert for the next moment in the story.

Another part where there is quite a lot of tension is when all the candles were out except for the fire. When the fire goes out, again there is quite a lot of tension and suspense. ‘ I turned to where the flames were still dancing between the glowing coals, and splashing red reflections over the furniture, made two steps towards the gate, and incontinently the flames dwindled and vanished.’ Again there is quite a lot of tension at that part of the story. The reader now is quite hyped up for the next moment because the reader knows that now the room is pitch black.

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The story is also quite mysterious to but the writer does not leave you out with information. The story does not exactly feature a ghost but yet is more of a ghostly type story than the story that features a ghost (Farthing House).

Both stories have taken place in a room. One room is haunted but the other is not. In both stories the room plays quite a role. The history of the rooms in the both stories is also important.

The author of ‘Farthing House’ takes a modern approach and the author of the ‘The Red Room’, ...

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