Compare the two short stories

English Coursework 3 – Compare Two Short Stories.

I have been asked to compare two short stories for my English coursework. These two stories are called “The Red room” and “Farthing House”. These stories are considerably different, partly because of the respective eras during which they were written. “Farthing House” was written by a female author, Susan Hill in 1992, while “The Red Room” was written by the famous H G Wells in the late 19th Century. There is almost a century of culture and ideological changes between the two stories. This difference means the language used and settings are almost certainly going to be quite different.

“Farthing House” is a more unhackneyed ghost story where the spectre is not particularly frightening, and there is quite a complex background; on the other hand “The Red Room” is a classical ghost story with an evil ghost set in a stereotypical haunted castle with dark and dingy passages, with occurrences that may be interpreted as frightening. The main character is a young man willing to investigate these hauntings, having been warned against such actions by three strange old people. An obvious difference just from glancing over the stories is that “The Red Room” is told in first person as it happens, whereas the latter story, “Farthing House”, is told in the first person in the past tense.

To start comparing I am going to look at the setting of these two stories. “Farthing House” is set in a nice, cosy and modern old people’s home where everybody seems to be quite contented and happy. This is completely different to the setting in “The Red Room”, which is a large, old, dark and dingy castle, which is inhabited by three very strange and decrepit people. The darker gloomier setting gives a much greater air of fear and apprehension. An added appurtenance of this tale that sets it as a more frightening story is the physical descriptions and apparent fears of these elderly people. They have abnormalities; one has a withered arm, another appears to be unusually old while the third seems to be relatively normal. These characters also tend to bicker and argue with each other. The descriptions and characters outlined contrast completely those in “Farthing House” where similarly aged residents are happy, surrounded by kind and gentle nurses in a warm and cosy environment in beautiful countryside. The initial impressions therefore are a scary setting and characters in one, contrasted by the opposite in Farthing House. “The Red Room” opening has been set up to frighten people. The only slight twist in “Farthing House” is that it is set near a graveyard.

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Now I am going to examine how the atmosphere is created in both stories. In “The Red Room”, the first impression that the young man receives is quite an unsettling one. Although all the way through the first part of the story he tries to show his bravery, creating an atmosphere of bravado. This is to do with the old people having very strange appearances and living in an environment where they are constantly arguing. This creates uneasiness and an underlying tension, as though a deeper darker secret is yet to be revealed. As the character investigates further into the ghost he is given a series of warnings by each of the elderly residents of the castle. They tell of the past exploits of the ghost, and appear terrified by even the thought of this unearthly being; they even give an indication as to the possible identity of the ghost - an old duke or maybe his duchess both of whom perished inside the walls of the castle. In no way does anybody in this story seem quite happy and contented with the situation. When the central character is actually in the room with the spirit, fear is created by a description of the narrator sitting with candles all around him, the fire lit, all the windows firmly bolted and his revolver ready on the table in front of him. This fear is then turned into sheer terror as an unknown wind blows all the candles and the fire out; it could not possibly have come from the windows as they were all locked.

If we now compare this to “Farthing House”, the first atmosphere admittedly is one of mistrust and uncertainty; not fear of a ghost but fear of the old people’s home where she feels uncomfortable, as she thought it would be like a hospital, teeming with sickly people and stinking of anaesthetic. However after she enters she finds a quite different atmosphere, as she smells the pleasant smells of flowers and furniture polish, both of these things would usually be related to nice homely environments. Also the receptionist appears very kind in taking her bags upstairs and explaining that she had been put in a much larger room than expected with a lovely view over the gardens. This all builds up to create a very comfortable environment. The mistrust and tension is eased y the storyline, and the impact is of reversing any apprehension originally created.

However a few hints that had been dropped told her that a person had died in her room. This meant that when she was alone in her room she was almost expecting a nightmare or even to see an apparition. She seems to feel this because of the sheer size of the room and the unknown whereabouts of its previous occupant; however she was perhaps expecting to see the phantom of an old person who had previously inhabited that room. She had also previously heard the sound of a baby crying and had put it down to the television in the matron’s room. As she was going to sleep she had the feeling that there should be someone else in her bedroom because it was too big. Then over the next couple of nights she sees the ghostly figure and once again hears the baby. As she finds out the story behind this wraith, she feels sympathy more than fright of the young mother who had lost her baby, especially having dreamed the first night of her own baby many years before. However when the house appears to change physically she appears very unsettled, but never fearful.

So to summarise, the author of “The Red Room” creates a much greater sense of fear and worry, whereas the author of “Farthing House” does not; she just explains a completely different atmosphere of sympathy for this haunter who does not intend to frighten anyone, but is just intent on her own business and sad affairs.

Let us consider the two different narrators. The lead character in “The Red Room” shows a distinct amount of bravado, before actually being frightened to death, but employs little intelligence. He is a much more forthcoming and open character, who speaks first rather than considering events around him initially. The woman in “Farthing House” is just looking back on an uncomfortable event, which she had never shared with anyone before. She is writing to make herself feel better but never really tells of any moments when she was truly fearful. She displays no bravado and is much more inquisitive about the unearthly visitor and its past. He appears brave at first but is clearly highly impressionable and vulnerable, with little intellect to think his way around events, where as the heroine of the other story quietly respects what she sees and hears but uses her intellect to disperse any fears by coming to reasonable conclusions concerning events around her.

Let us consider the apparitions. In “The Red Room” no one actually ever sees a ghost; there is just a strange wind and many rumours about the fate of other people who have gone to that room and maybe never returned, or were frightened out of their skin. The fear is created by suggestion, which can be terrifying given the right ingredients. If there is a ghost it would appear to be agitated and seeking to hurt people compared to the phantom in “Farthing House”, which seems much more peaceful. We can see a difference in behaviour of the two ghosts; the girl is just walking around, searching for her lost child, while the spectre in “The Red Room” is very traditionally haunting a particular room. In “Farthing House” the narrator finds out a name of the ghost -Eliza Marie Dolly. The importance of this is that again it takes away an element of fear. The unknown creates fear, and information answers questions and uncertainties, releasing tension, and calming those fears. There are two possible identities for the phantom in “The Red Room”, and this adds the element of lack of knowledge.

The structure of these two stories is completely different. “ The Red Room” takes the form of a traditional nineteenth century ghost story. The character comes across as very brave and daring, however when he starts to head towards the ‘haunted room’ down dark and dingy corridors with strange shadows emerging from behind corners he becomes frightened and starts to regret his decision. He continues to be afraid when he sits in the room and the candles are blown out. The character panics in fear and falls over cracking his head and knocking himself unconscious. The only complication to the plot is that the young man does not actually see any ghost and there is no explanation for the candles being blown out. This is never explained, while he puts not seeing a ghost down to the fear of what might be there, rather than what actually is there.

“Farthing House” on the other hand may have a more complex storyline but it is much clearer in terms of what is happening. It is written by an old woman who is feeling uncomfortable about her past; writing to her daughter makes her feel at ease. She at first is very clear about how she feels in the early part of the story. She is never really scared like the man in “The Red Room”. There are still, however, a couple of similarities. There are two unexplained events; the writer does not explain how or if the building had travelled back in time- or was this just a trick of the mind. The other that is never fully explained is where the baby’s crying was coming from. The lady believes that it is just a T.V but we later learn that the ghost that she sees is searching for a lost child, and maybe it could be that. This adds to the theme of mother and child that runs right the way through the story. Some examples of this are, the narrator is writing to her daughter who is pregnant with her child; when she sees the wraith it is searching presumably for her lost child; then at the end of the story long after “Farthing House” has been demolished, a newspaper report tells of a woman ‘distraught at the loss of her own baby’ stealing another child from its pram outside a shop.

My personal response to these two stories is that I find them both tedious and monotonous. However if I had to choose a preference I would certainly say that ‘Farthing House’ is the better book, as I do not feel that old-fashioned ghost stories are appealing or interesting as they are far too predictable. The more complex storyline of “Farthing House” does appeal to me. I also felt that the feminine perspective added a touch of realism to the character and therefore the storyline.

Created by Richard Smith