The audience is made aware of the age of ‘Farthing House’, when ‘Mrs Flower’ is informed that there was ‘a serious leak in the roof…’ This shows that the house must be old as it is in need of maintenance.
‘Cedar Room’, which is the haunted room where ‘Mrs Flower’ sees the ghost, has ‘big bay windows’ which over look the gardens and ‘Aunty Addy’ says it used to be a ‘military convalescent home.’ At the time when the story is taking place, it is a residential home for old women.
The main character of ‘The Red Room’ is not told as being a male or female, but most people assume it is a male due to the character’s ignorant attitude. For example, he speaks in a rather confident manner, ‘It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me…’ This shows us that he believes in what he sees; what can be proved before his eyes. This line adds tension as the audience see it as a line of irony. – Even though, he never ended up seeing anything ‘tangible’, at all. ‘Eight and twenty years I have lived, and never seen a ghost.’ This supports the idea that he only believes in what he can see. It also adds tension, especially when the Old Woman replies with, ‘ah, but eight and twenty years you have lived and never seen the likes of this house…’ He chooses not to reply to the Old Woman when she says this, in an argumentative way, instead, he dwells on thoughts. He has a very arrogant, matter-of-fact tone about him, and the audience want him proved wrong.
During his journey to the Red Room, his nerves start to take over his initial attitude. ‘Satisfied of the absolute silence… I was about to advance and stopped abruptly… gave me the impression of someone crouching to waylay me.’ He is beginning to show his fear; fear of ‘tangible things’ – what he can hear and see. He holds his candle in front when walking, as he is afraid now, of what he cannot see. When he gets to the Room, he keeps peering back over his shoulder to make sure no one or nothing had followed him. When he is in the Room, he ‘forms a barricade before’ himself, and lays down his revolver, as if making the audience aware that he is preparing himself for what is coming.
At the end of the story, when he gains consciousness, he seems to have returned to his original self. He presents his opinions as facts, as he places the blame for his behaviour, on fear. ‘No… it is not,’ he does not us the words ‘I think, reckon, believe’. This, again, strengthens the image of arrogance, as he concludes the theory on his own beliefs, as if he has the power to gain all knowledge and understanding to answer uncertainty and myth.
In ‘Farthing House’, the main character is ‘Mrs Flower’. On her drive to the House, she comes across as if only going to visit because she had not seen her aunt in a long time, and felt guilty. ‘I was worried… I was tired, I would be glad to get there… I began to feel nervous and anxious.’ Her emotions change regularly. The word ‘anxious’ crops up numerous times through the story, even before she has been in the presence of any sort of ghost. Again, like in ‘The Red Room’, this adds irony and tension. Her emotions change as quick as her surroundings and atmosphere. For example, ‘the smells that greeted me were all of a piece with the rest of the welcome… Farthing House was well run, warm and comfortable.’ Her feelings have changed, as her surroundings have changed. This shows the atmosphere can be reflected in her emotions.
She hears she will be staying in a different room than originally expected, ‘how could I have failed? Cedar Room…’ But after being in the room for a while, she decided it is a ‘bit big for one person…’ This also adds irony and tension, notably as she reiterates her negative feelings towards the size of the room; ‘still seemed too big for one person… it was as though someone else ought to be there.’ – Once she was downstairs in the ‘party like atmosphere’ she was fine again and her anxiety had left her. Again, this supports the idea of atmosphere being reflected through feelings.
It is being made certain to the audience that there was someone else in her room. The atmosphere of her surroundings affects her. So, if she thinks ‘someone else has been in my surroundings…’ due to her feeling ‘oppressed’, and a ‘terrible sense of loss… [being] unable to release myself from it,’ comes over her, because of her surroundings, then there must have been someone or something else in her presence. – Tension builds when she gives her emotional state, as we can infer from this what the atmosphere is like. This concept is substantiated throughout the story. ‘The previous night, I had the sensation of someone having just been in my room. Now I saw her.’ So her feelings were correct, making the audience sense tension due to the character’s instincts and emotions.
Towards the end of the story, she ‘was not afraid anymore’. Though she still felt the ‘terrible sadness and distress,’ she now thought ‘[the ghost] could do no one harm’ as she was only ‘in search of her baby.’ So, her dominant feeling is not fear anymore, instead, it is a sort of guilt because the ghost is distressed and helpless. ‘Mrs Flower’ says at the beginning of the story, ‘I just wanted to have my conscience cleared so I could bowl off home… with a blithe heart, untroubled by guilt...’ Though, she ‘felt sorry’ for the ghost, and sad for her, in the end.
The two main characters are similar in that they are both curious about the existence of a ghost. In ‘The Red Room’, he visits and searches; in ‘Farthing House’, she follows the ghost. Even thought they are curious, they are still fearful, until they can draw a logical conclusion or have a realisation of the truth. Then they feel it is not their job to question or to fear. This reflects the fear of mystery and the unknown.
The two main characters are different in ways because, in ‘The Red Room’, the narrator is very confident and lectures others, whereas ‘Mrs Flower’ is curious, so she learns by asking, for instance, when she asks ‘Aunt Addy’ about the history of the House.
The minor characters also add tension. For instance, in ‘The Red Room’, there are three other characters, these are the Old People. They are constantly forewarning the main character, ‘it’s your own choosing’. This creates an ominous atmosphere, as if something fatal is guaranteed to happen and so they will be taking no responsibility for the consequences of the main character’s actions. The reason why they have such an impact on tension and atmosphere is because they are the only people living at ‘Lorraine Castle’ so they know the Castle best; they have more knowledge of the truth than anyone else.
The three caretakers, who are all described as old, are perceived by the narrator as also ‘inhuman’ and ghostly. For example, ‘these grotesque custodians… inhuman in senility… crouching and autistic [resembling a remote ancestral type]… gaunt silences… belong to another age… when omens and witches were credible… and ghosts beyond denying.’ They are described as being like spirits, themselves. This means the narrator is the only human in the castle; isolating him.
The old lady keeps repeating, ‘this night of all nights?’ This adds curiosity and tension as the narrator does not ask what is so significant about that specific night. He thinks to himself, ‘the old people were trying to enhance the spiritual terrors of their house by their droning insistence.’
In ‘Farthing House’ it is ‘Mrs Pearson’ who adds to the suspense and tension. She is the matron of the House. She talks as if she hides the truth; there is a ghost. ‘And have you been quite comfortable?’ is like giving an opening for ‘Mrs Flower’ to explain about her eerie sensations of another person’s presence in her room. But ‘Mrs Flower’ does not admit anything, and is left thinking, ‘did she relax just visibly, smile a little too eagerly, was there a touch of relief in her voice when she next spoke?’ These rhetorical questions add tension, as they leave the audience thinking, questioning the actions of ‘Mrs Pearson’.
In ‘The Red Room’, the language seems to describe the setting rather than the narrator’s emotions. But we can infer what his emotions are, from his actions. For example, ‘closed the door behind me at once… candle held aloft… after satisfying myself of the fastening of the door… walk about the room, peering round each corner… tucking up the valances of the bed… looked up the blackness of the wide chimney…’ He also formed ‘a kind of barricade before’ himself, and laid his ‘revolver ready to hand…’ he comes across as being fearful, as he is reassuring himself that there is no ghost. This shows his nerves have started to take over him.
There is an emphasis on dark and light imagery and symbolism throughout the story. ‘The shadows cower and shiver… darkness overhead… vivid black shadow… invisible in the moonlight… hidden from me… looked up the blackness of the wide chimney…’ Darkness, night and shadows represent danger due to the mystery of the unknown, as he cannot see what is ahead; this mysterious atmosphere adds tension.
The fear of darkness can be overcome by light, for example, ‘opened [the window’s] curtains wide… I pulled up the blinds… all these [candles] I lit one after the other… and I lit [the fireplace]… walked with a candle into [the dark alcove]… lit and placed [the candles] where the shadows lain deepest…’ When there is light, there is less tension and the atmosphere seems warm and less frightening.
-This is why tension builds when the candles start going out… or as the narrator thinks, put out. ‘Two candles on the little table by the fireplace were extinguished… the flame vanished, as if the wicks had been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb, leaving the wick neither glowing nor smoking, but black… the shadows seemed to take another step towards me… there vanished four lights at once in different corners of the room… an invisible hand seemed to sweep out the two candles on the table… the shadows I feared and fought against returned, and crept in upon me, first a step gained on this side of me and then on that… horror of the coming darkness… darkness closed upon me like the shutting of an eye… wrapped about me in a stifling embrace… I flung out my arms in a vain effort to thrust that ponderous blackness away from me…’ A dark atmosphere is a frightening atmosphere. The darkness is personified by the character’s fear. The fear and darkness isolate and suffocate him by taking over his senses. However, I think the dark atmosphere would raise more tension if adjectives such as ‘seemed… as if… like…’ were not used. The personification and imagery would have been more effective, thus raising more tension. I also think, the fact that the narrator starts using words that show he is expressing his opinions instead of presenting them as facts, shows he is not as confident as he was; he is now ‘frightened’.
In ‘Farthing House’, there is repetition of the words that describe the narrator’s emotions. For example, ‘melancholy… distressed…anxious… wretched… inconsolably sad.’ These all contrast with ‘warm… comfortable.’ She feels warm and comfortable when she is not in Cedar Room; when she can take her ‘mind off’ the fear, as does also by reading a book whilst in the room.
Like in ‘The Red Room’, darkness depicts fear and mystery. ‘Below it was pitch dark… I was too frightened to go any further.’ So she turns to back to her room. However, she then thinks, ‘as I turned, I saw that the… light had faded and the landing was in darkness too… I felt my way, trembling…’ The darkness creates a scary atmosphere; you cannot rely on sight, so there is no prior warning of danger.
Again, like in ‘The Red Room’, the light relieves the tension and fear. For instance, she switches ‘on the lamp… all was normal… [she] did not sleep… but sat in the chair… with the lamp on…’ It is as if being in a dark room is like being in a previously unknown place, like a foreign place. When ‘Mrs Flower’ switches her lamp on, all the ludicrous fear is drained away from her.
The structure of ‘The Red Room’ is very simple. There is a starting point, a journey, the destination being reached, the time spent there, then the morning after, which is like the conclusion to the story. As the story progresses, the tension mounts and escalates. It builds and builds, until it reaches its one climax, then it breaks abruptly and dramatically. With the tension, his fear also builds. We are seeing the account through his eyes, and so the audience experience his fear.
Darkness, as fear, plays a very significant part to the climax: the more darkness there is, the more tension there is. The ‘darkness closed upon’ him; embracing him. This is the highest point in tension, when his fear takes over his matter-of-fact mind.
‘Farthing House’ is a longer story than ‘The Red Room’ and has numerous climaxes. There are two main climaxes. The first is during ‘Mrs Flower’s’ first night in ‘Cedar Room’, when she is left curious over her eerie sensation of someone being in her room. The second is the next night, when she actually sees the ghost. It is within reason to say there is a third climax, which is when she is at the graveyard, but in my opinion, this is more of a conclusion. – This notion is similar to ‘The Red Room’ in that her understanding is the conclusion, and her fear leaves her.
There are smaller climaxes, more to say, points in tension, for instance, when ‘Mrs Pearson’ talks to ‘Mrs Flower’ about her stay so far, and when she questions ‘Aunt Addy’ about the history of the House.
It is as if there is a pattern to the building up of tension. – Her second talk with the matron is tenser than the first, and her second night in ‘Cedar Room’ is tenser than the first. The structure of this story is more complex than the structure of ‘The Red Room’, sort of more spontaneous, unexpected and twisted. – There is a twist at the end of the story; there is a twisted and unexpected final conclusion. Perhaps this shows, linking structure to language, that we cannot rely on senses, or even daylight, as we cannot make certain what can and cannot happen.
In conclusion, I feel ‘The Red Room’ is more effective in building tension, because it mounts and mounts to one climax, whereas ‘Farthing House’ builds up your tension, then breaks it down again. I feel they are both effective in creating and building atmosphere, in their own ways.
‘The Red Room’ is exploring the unknown; similar to what people were facing at the time at which it was written. I feel ‘Farthing House’ is more of a mimic, being a more modern story. – Though you could argue, being more modern, it is reflecting the fear of the people of the new age; fear of the past, and what we have left behind. Especially as at the end of the story, the House is knocked down and being built over again.
