The narrator of “The Signalman” also tries to explain the supernatural by logic; “it was unquestionable that remarkable coincidences did occur” but he doesn’t seem convinced by his own explanation, this helps build the tension
The narrator of “The Telltale Heart” sets up the tension in the opening line,
“Rue! Nervous, very, very dreadful…” Odd characters such as this narrator help build up suspense and are very often used in gothic horror.
“The Monkey’s Paw” uses the same device. The Sergeant Major is very odd, he has just returned from India with an old monkey’s paw. He is described as “beady of eye”, giving him a bird like quality.
The old people in “The Red Room” create an uneasy atmosphere: none of them are given names. The second man is described as “more bent, more wrinkled, and more aged than the first”. Tension is built by such details as his grotesque lip hanging “pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.”
“I must confess that the oddness of these old pensioners affected me in spite of my efforts to keep myself”. “The nameless “man with the withered arm” adds a sinister touch by his repetition of the phrase “it’s your choosing”. This builds up the tension as the pressure builds on the young man to visit the haunted room.
The narrator of “The Red Room” sees himself as mature at “eight and twenty” years, but the old woman highlights his inexperience “there’s many things to see when ones still eight and twenty”. In contrast, the narrator of “The Signalman” is also young and inexperienced, but is patently aware of this “In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits all his life”.
Gothic Horror is often influenced by exotic elements; the Sergeant Major brought back a monkey’s paw from India. The monkey’s paw adds to the suspense by having legends and stories attached to it, “I don’t know what the first two were, but the third was death”. “The Red Room” has many legends attached to it such as the young duke who had “begun his dying” in the red room, and “the tale of a timid wife” which give it such an unsettling atmosphere, and helps cause the protagonist to believe the room is haunted.
“The Red Room” also has off putting exotic ornaments to build suspense “a porcelain Chinaman on a Buhl table, whose head rocked silently as I passed him, scarcely startled me”. The bronze Ganymede and Eagle are transformed by the sinister shadows infusing ordinary things with menace; “gave me the impression of someone crouched to waylay me.” The tension builds but then is eased by the moonlight and candle revealing the true nature of each object.
Light, or lack of it, also helps build tension in the gothic horror genre. There will rarely be day light in any gothic horror story. In “The Monkey’s Paw” “the wintry sun” in the morning encouraged Mr White to “laugh at his fears.” .This also gives the reader a false sense of security, whilst keeping them in suspense.
“I opened my eyes in day light” brings relief to the increasing tension of the night spent in the red room yet we are warned that fear can be felt “even in day time”.
Minimal light is used to a sinister effect, in “The Telltale Heart” a single thin ray, fell upon the vulture eye.” This is a strong image as we are told the room was “black as pitch”, thus the strand of light directed by the murderer is all the more vivid. The ray of light is also described as “like the thread of the spider”. This image is appropriate since the light is shone on its victim.
Hellish imagery is a common element of gothic horror. Colours and fire help add to the demonic atmosphere. The red room contains a lot of “sombre reds and blacks”, these are dark colours which make the lack of light worse. The reds could be associated with blood and death. The death of the “young Duke” and the “timid wife” are a result of their experiences in the red room; we are not told what these experiences are, but they are left to our imagination. “the echoes” and “a sweeping” shadow. Such ghoulish images add to the tension and suspense of the story. “The Cone” uses fire to make an uneasy hellish mood, “full of an incessant turmoil of flames and seething molten iron”. Raut’s violent death is one which flames of “three hundred centigrade heat” turn him into a “charred blackened figure”. His murderer Horrocks is shouting “in the moonlight” what seemed to be incantations “fizzle you fool!... Boil! Boil! Boil!” The murderer’s later cry of “God have mercy upon me!” adds to the impression of the loss of good over evil. There is also an example of this in “The Red Room” “crackling of the fire was no comfort to me”
Irony is often used in gothic horror; it can warn and maintain suspense, “I don’t see the money and I bet I never shall” The irony is that Herbert never does see the money. In “The Red Room” the protagonist at the beginning says “it would take a very tangible ghost to frighten me”, after a night in the red room his statement changes “The worst of all things that haunt poor mortal man… is fear!” He thought that only something he can feel and touch could scare and hurt him. Furthermore, the irony is extended. “My revolver ready to hand”. The protagonist tells himself and the old pensioners that he doesn’t believe any thing is in the red room but he brings a weapon. He also thinks that if anything is in there it can be killed, but he cannot shoot his fear. The protagonist of “The Red Room” analyses the human mind, it doesn’t end with supernatural event. By saying that fear is in the human mind, it would appeal to the middle class readers because they were interested in the mind.
The Victorians were rational thinkers. The idea of ghosts would not appeal to them as much as it would to the readers in previous times. Logic would win over imagination; this is because the Victorians were rational scientifically thinking people.
The use of language in gothic horror stories is a very powerful way to evoke images of fear and claustrophobia. For example in “The Cone” an extended metaphor conveys the image of trains carriages going into a tunnel by words such as “throat”, “swallow”, “gulp”. The use of this metaphor personifies the tunnel and serves to highlight the effects industrialisation was having on the country side. Similarly “men of iron” are said to “have no hearts”. By dehumanising the iron workers and Mr Horrocks in particular “He has not [got a heart]”, the reader is left in suspense wondering what a heartless person is capable of, also, the idear of machines taking over with living qualities is a frightening concept. H.G.Wells increases the tension by making the reader unsure of what Mr Horrocks will do “I wouldn’t have had you run over then for the world”. Horrocks wanted a nastier fate for Raut.
Suspense is maintained in “The Cone” because for much of the story the victim, Raut is unsure as to whether “Horrocks did know- everything”. Tension is built by the description of Raut struggling to escape the furnace which is personified as having a “tongue of flame” and a “throat”. Raut becomes “an inhuman monstrous creature” at this point the suspense is maintained because it is hard to see why he is still alive. Furthermore, the furnace is personified, given a “tongue” and “throat” while Raut is dehumanised “inhuman”. The world is turned on its head in an unnerving way, the machines are more lifelike than people: the unnatural creations gain power.
There is a theme of natural verses unnatural running through “The Cone” in particular but it is common in gothic horror. “This country was all beautiful and fresh once… now it is Gehenna”. Horrocks is an iron works manager and he thinks that unnatural industry is superior to how the country was before all of the rail works and factories, “You see the fine effect of the railway signals towards Burslem,”
In “The Red Room” the candle goes out, the protagonist did not know if he did it or if it was natural or unnatural “did I do that…”
The gothic stories reviewed here have used complex devices to maintain tension and build up suspense. The stories in some ways are very different from each other and their endings are not always predictable. However, it has been shown that the use of strong imagery is a common feature. The characterisation in the gothic horror story includes a modern logical man who aims at scientific explanations, placed among superstitious, odd and unnatural beings. This investigation has found setting to be an important element in many of the stories with a common theme of physical isolation and a dark wet environment. The effect of light and darkness has been found to increase tension by transforming every day objects into sinister shadows. Hellish imagery is common in the gothic stories. Fire is used to convey warnings of impending doom as in “The Monkey’s Paw” or is used as an image of hellfire as in “The Cone”. The colour red also has demonic associations; it is used to indicate a threat, to increase the tension with its association with blood and to create a gloomy atmosphere. The use of irony is another common feature used to continue the suspense of gothic story, it also foreshadows disaster. While it is possible to pick out key ways in which tension and suspense is built up in the five stories analysed above, I found “The Telltale Heart” the most enjoyable, perhaps because it used fewer devices associated with this genre than the other stories.
