Another of the three characters is an old woman. The narrator says ‘the old women sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open’. ‘The old woman’ repeatedly says ‘this night of all nights’. This may imply that something will happen tonight, something evil and sinister. Again it makes the reader wonder about what is so mysterious about the ‘Red Room’.
The mention of the haunted room engages the reader’s attention from the outset and helps to add a sense of apprehension and expectation. As the narrator walks to ‘The Red Room’, he remembers the three old people that unnerved him. This shows that he is still feeling uneasy. His journey to the room is illuminated by moonlight.
The narrator walks down ‘the long, draughty, subterranean passage’. The passage is long and narrow and the narrator may feel like things are closing up on him. There are many doors and it makes the reader feel as if someone may jump out at any moment. Then he walks up the spiral staircase, and hears echoes, which ‘rang up and down the staircase’. This suggests that an evil presence may be lurking and that something is going to happen.
In ‘The Red Room’, suspense is created by the alternating moods of the narrator. Once he enters the room, he takes a close look at the room. He says ‘I began to walk about the room, peering round each article of furniture’. This shows he is nervous and he is wary of what might happen. Eventually, reassured, he admits, ‘my precise examination had done me good’. This shows that his examination of the room has calmed him down and that he is happy with the contents of the room. After this he goes back into a nervous state. He says ‘the echoing of the stair and crackling of the fire was no sort of comfort to me’. This shows that noises are starting to frighten him and he is ‘in a state of considerable nervous tension’.
The dying of the candles creates a sense of panic and tension. H.G. Wells uses similes and metaphors to create vivid pictures in the mind of the reader. We picture darkness as a physical presence- a sinister presence. The narrator says ‘(darkness) wrapped about me in a stifling embrace’. He feels that darkness is strangling him. He thinks that evil spirits are taking out the candles ‘like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stars’.
Suspense is created by the descriptions of the characters and setting. The characters create tension by making the reader and narrator feel as if the room is evil and sinister. The grotesque and distorted characters make the story more believable. On the narrator’s journey to the room everything is set in dim light or dull surroundings. This creates tension as darkness is given a sinister presence. The reader is always kept wondering about why things are like what they are. The behaviour of the old people when the narrator mentions ‘The Red Room’ makes us wonder about the secrecy of the room and it make us jump to conclusions. The use of descriptive language evokes dramatic images, which build up a sense of fear and expectation
There was nothing eerie about the room. The fright and the terror of the room were all in the narrator’s mind. The story tells us that if you let fear into your mind it will control you.