The signalman's appearance is quite peculiar as is his behavier. He looks at the bell when I does not ring and talks of a ghost. His eyebrows are thick and his skin tone is odd. Painting a picture of a mysterious looking man who is a little melodramatic, this technique is also used in 'The Red Room'. We too feel, the desperation and distraction of his ordeal. He 'wiped the drops from his forehead' showing his nerves, and so making us feel nervous.
Dickens' portrayal of the tunnel and the cutting is very detailed. The words 'dark' and 'gloomy' get an apparent image of the cutting and this tunnel, resulting in us feeling we are involved in the story.
When we hear the signalman's story, it is one with such a horrific plot that we become drawn in. When the author continually interrupts it, we become more anxious and become desperate to hear the rest of the story. Dicken's use of personification, like 'angry sunset' and 'violent pulsation' contribute to the story's impact. Short sentences and repetition also make us feel tense, this technique is used whenever the stpry has got particularly tense.
There is such a conflict in personalities between the narrator, who is calm and collected, and the agitated and stressed signalman. We end up having to choose sides between the narrator, believing the signalman is mentally unstable and behaving madly. In 'The tell-tale Heart' we are also presented with a protagonist who has a very nervous and indeed mad state of mind.
The spectre also seemed to have warned the Signalman in a way that something would happen to him: before he was cut down by a train, there were two large accidents previously where the spectre had been at the scene giving a warning sign of danger. It seems very strange as if the spectre is not bad, but just wants to warn the Signalman of danger.
Ironically, the one time the signalman chooses to ignore the voice was the one time he should have. The calm scientific reasoning of the narrator was wrong whilst the hysterical ramblings of the signalman were surprisingly correct.
The unexplained ending leaves us in a very tense and unsettled state.
In 'The Red Room', by HG Wells the title immediately attracts the reader's attention; it is symbolic for our association with red and fear and danger.
From this first line, "'I can assure you,' said I, 'that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.'"the reader can assume two pieces of information. Firstly that this story involves a ghost, and secondly that the character is an educated and well-read man. This increases the tension and stops the reader from putting the book down. Also, as it is a short story it gets straight to the point.
The story in the first page introduces four characters. In both stories there are a small number of characters. This is better as you can follow the stories easily and pay more attention to the detail given. You are also able to understand the characters more deeply and get to know the surroundings described better.There is a young man, an old man and his wife, and another old man. We never know their names. The number three is traditional in stories: three old crones represented doom and destruction. for example the three witches in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' and the three muses who are from greek mythology.
The young man is sceptical about the red room being haunted. The three elder people believe that it is haunted and dare not even go there. Opposites build drama and drama builds tension. This is the perfect example of how opposites build tension. Firstly, we have the young against the old, which also symbolises the inexperienced against the wise. There is also the conflict between 'sceptics' and the 'wise'. Although they may be wise, the older people have not ever dared to go to the red room. They have become wise as they have heard the stories about the room but none of them has ever had first hand experience of the room.
Repetition is also a device used by writers to build tension. One of the most obvious examples is on the first page.
"It's your own choosing."
The old man is trying to warn the young man but at the same time he is leaving the 'decision' to him. It is as if the three old people are ridding themselves of their responsibility of the young man. It is their duty, like guardians, to warn the man of what they believe is to be his death.
Another use of repetition is on page two where the old woman keeps on repeating, "this night of all nights." We never find out why that night is important but it gives the reader a 'red herring' question. Although we are going to find out when we read on; we want to have answers and this continues our interest into why that night was important.
In this story, the location is very important. The story is set in a castle. A ghost story in a castle is not a new idea and although it is a rather unoriginal location, it is very appropriate. The old people who inhabit the place cannot use most of it to live in because they are afraid of the 'red room'. This keeps them well away from that section of the castle.
As the story continues, the young man explores the castle on his journey to the red room. On route to the red room, he comes across what looks like a figure in front of him only to find it was an ornament of a Chinaman on a buhl table. Then as he approaches the door to the red room, the tension builds and he enters very quickly closing the door behind him. He finds himself in a huge red walled room. As he continues to arrange the room, the tension is allowed to fall giving the reader a certain release. As he becomes more aware of the shadows in the room the tension rises again:
"The shadow in the alcove at the end in particular had that undefinable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of a lurking, living thing, that comes so easily in silence and solitude."
Again, this shows us how darkness is far more frightening than being able to see and knowing what is there. Tension is built by how the young man expresses his feelings. To conquer his fear of the unknown the man places a candle in an alcove in the corner of the room:
"At last, to reassure myself, I walked with a candle into it, and satisfied myself that there was nothing tangible there. I stood that candle upon the floor of the alcove, and left it in that position."
Here he is referring to the opening line about having to find a very tangible ghost.
Tension mounts as her begins talking to himself, but after listening to the eerie echoes, he gets more frightened than before. The tension increases now all the time. He is getting more nervous and he feels the need for more candles. He has to get some from the corridor and he lights them and places them around the room. His spirits lift but there is also tension created through his black humour. He may be watching what he describes as "cheery and reassuring little streaming flames," but he is getting nervous.
The first candle goes out, casting a black shadow on the wall. The second candle goes out and the tension in the story is boosted as there is uncertainty about why the candle went out. Although the man does not feel any draght, he claims that it was a draght that blew it out. He tries to reassure himself by lying to himself although he has a deeper feeling that he may not be alone. He has to dismiss this from his mind otherwise he would become the victim of his own fears. As he goes over to re-light the candle, it goes out, then another and another. Then one is extinguished in front of him while he is looking at it.
"Shadows seemed to take another step towards me"
If the light goes out he has no way of finding out what is in the red room. The darkness creates the tension and fear. In light, we can see but when it is dark we cannot see and therefore tension and fear is everywhere. When the man says that the shadows take another step towards him, he is saying that fiction is closing in on him and as it does, he is been drawn away from the truth.
Panic comes as the room plunges into shadows with him racing around trying to keep up with the candles as they go out. Then the tension is highlighted, as the sentences become shorter. Clumsily he knocks his thigh against the table. His downfall begins. From here on he loses control. It is as if he is in sinking sand and the rope stopping him from sinking completely snaps. He loses his quest for the truth as he tries to light the fire with the last candle. He runs into something and knocks himself out.
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. This psychological technique is used equally effectively in 'The Tell-Tale Heart'
H.G.Wells uses tension to make the story interesting and keep the readers attention. The method he uses is that he is denying us of information and as a reader it is far more powerful than to know the truth. We are given some vague information but the rest is held from us.
In conclusion, the writers use many ways in which to create suspense in the stories, be they delaying the action, withholding vital pieces of information or even misleading the reader, these all create suspense in their own way. They are used very effectively in both of these short stories, and although the ending of 'The Red Room' is slightly disappointing, it only shows us just how much suspense has been created by Wells, as we are frustrated that this good story has such a disappointing ending. However both writers effectively create suspense in the two stories, compelling us to read the next page.
