Comparing and contrasting features of 5 short stories.

The Red Room by H.G. Wells is another tale with a subplot which is a lesson to the reader but told in a different way, in the fact that the narrator is the main character. In this story a young man has decided to stay in a supposedly haunted room in a home inhabited by 3 old people who believe in the ghost and its terror, but he does not accept the existence of spirits even with the warnings from the old people. The atmosphere is immediately tense from the very beginning with the first character described as having a withered arm and saying, ‘it is at your own choosing,’ as though he thinks the main character that is taking on the task to be delusional or mad. But, the character is not put off and so takes it upon himself to show himself to his ‘haunted’ room. Tension is created when the old woman says, ‘this night of all nights,’ as though this night has some kind of link with the reason for the haunting. Still the young man is not off-put and continues in his quest with a repeat of the previous outburst from the old woman. When the character leaves the room there is a great tension, created not only by what the others are saying, but the way they are looking and the room in which they are in. The fire leaves them silhouetted staring at him as he leaves. He bides them goodnight and goes, leaving a great many questions unanswered and an air of expectancy ahead of him and the reader. Only once he has left the room is it admitted that the pensioners affected him, ‘in spite of my efforts to keep myself at a matter-of-fact phase.’ With this he tries to convince himself in the fact that the pensioners belong to a different age in which ghosts and the like are credible, yet paradoxically builds the tension with his thoughts when he is trying to release it. The writing is very descriptive of his surroundings so as to create a picture in the reader’s mind of what the place looks like and what he is confronting, or rather what is confronting him and as he continues down the passage the first encounter of fear – which is essential to the story – is introduced in the form of a statue which the character first believes to be ‘someone crouching to waylay me.’ This leaves the reader in doubt as to the existence of spirits or not within the confines of the story. The tension is further released when what could be another scare is passed by with barely a mention. When he reaches the door to the room anxiety is created again, but only in the character, as with the final few steps he is nervous with his face half turned to behind him so as to make sure he was safe as you often feel vulnerable from the back in darkness. The character is aiming once again to reassure himself, as the room, it is revealed, is the one that a young duke had died in which adds to the question of existence of spirits. By dong so it also relieves the tense atmosphere created. The curtains are opened and many a candle is lit as light is representative of safety in the story and often in general day-to-day life which makes the reader feel at ease. The style of writing also changes with this feeling of safety as no longer do things, such as the fire now and previously the statue, pose a threatening presence but as a sort of comfort, yet the character still feels it necessary to keep his revolver close at hand, almost like a child’s safety blanket. The time of the writing of the story is reflected in the characters recital of rhymes by Ingoldsby who was a prominent and popular poet of the time. But as time moves on the character becomes considerably nervous once again, for no reason, other than possibly solitary confinement in this room which, even without the ghost, is a intimidating place with its ‘sombre reds and blacks,’ which are connected with blood and death respectively. Yet again light is used as a tension releaser as more candles are lit, but which is paradoxical in the fact that the lit candles create a fear later on when they begin to go out. At first one candle goes out and the character puts it down, a little dramatically, to a strong draught. But, as he relights the extinguished candle another two have gone out and this continues. The character is now terrified that the ghost does exist and any previous scepticism is gone. The way the candles are going out is personified, by the character, as though they have ‘been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb,’ which just makes him even more worried and even as far as to go half-hysterical. He proceeds to try to relight the candles so as the safety that is light surrounds him once more but only in vain. He seems very worried and intimidated by the events in the room and is not reasonable in his thoughts or actions. He often stumbles upon the furniture in the room and does not realise for a good while that it would be faster to use a lit candle to light others which seems obvious to the reader. But, he prevails, eventually to be surrounded by complete darkness in which he is now completely hysterical, stumbling around trying to find the door – an exit to the terrors that seemingly occupy this room. He continually falls and screams his fears in his panic. He falls a final time in which he has a ‘frantic effort to keep his footing’ and then he remembers no more. This, in a strange way, relieves tension as there is no longer the fear that surrounds both reader and character and the next paragraph gives both hope. With the character opening his eyes to daylight with his head bandaged, there is no longer any danger left with the daylight presenting safety and the old man with a withered arm who refused to go to the room means that the character is no longer in this haunted room. A conversation proceeds in which the character, slightly deliriously, asks what happened and the old people are insistent now that he must believe them that the room is haunted. Surprisingly, for the subplot, he agrees with them that it is haunted. But, it is not haunted by some spirit as they seem to think, neither countess nor duke, but by a human feeling – fear. It is explained that fear is the reason for strange happenings – purely because the people made these things happen with their fear. It is even said that fear is a power of darkness – in relation to the candles going out bringing about no light.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a completely different style of story in the language used and the problem it presents. The language in the previous stories has been fairly easy to read, even many years after it was written, but this writing is very typical of upper-class narrative, using words that could easily be replaced by more commonplace and understandable phrases but are not due to the writer’s vanity. There are also foreign phrases, mainly in French which are often understood by 19th Century upper-classes but are not to the modern day readers or to middle or lower-classes of the time. This is probably because at the time most people were uneducated and could not read particularly well and so the writer was only aiming at others of his status in society who would understand this dialect. There are also Christian references to society and people, such as the ‘best player in Christendom.’ The story is making comparisons between normal life and the card-player with reference to the player, how they look ahead and make decisions based on how others look by comparing each player’s reaction to the cards they are dealt to see what their chances of success are. The introduction ends when the narrator announces what is to happen and begins with the description of his residence in Paris which makes sense with the oft used French phrases. Another character is introduced who is portrayed as a typical upper-class type from a respectable French family. He is referred to as Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin which, as there is no reference to his first name other than ‘C.’ suggests that he probably rich or of high standing within society’s confines. Indeed their first meeting is at a place of education – a library – which holds an air of importance and authority. When their daily life is described it is seen as gay – in the old sense of the word – and with a routine to it. They hold a great many intellectual conversations until darkness falls when they ‘sally forth into the streets, arm in arm, continuing the topics of the day,’ and so a clear picture of a typical upper-class English man is created - monocle, moustache, probably says ‘what’ after each sentence – walking arm in arm, with a typical French man of similar standing in the society hierarchy, down the streets of Paris amongst the normal people of the city who somehow manage to entertain themselves with drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. All of this adds up to a very calm atmosphere with no sense of danger, either imminent or otherwise until they begin on a walk down a street in which Dupin announces, ‘here is a very little fellow, that’s true and would do better for the Theatre des Varietes,’ (another intellectual reference) whilst the narrator replies, ‘there can be no doubt of that,’ half-knowingly as he watches his reflection in vanity. This gives a perfect overall picture of the characters – immensely intelligent, high status, rich and they know it. From then on the conversation continues in which the narrator is astonished of what Dupin is telling him of a fruiterer knocking him down deliberately. The fact that Dupin can recall the event down to the exact position of the narrator’s eyes is unnerving and creates a tension about what this means. When the paper is read later on it announces murders in the house in the Rue Morgue. The paper describes the scene in great detail, giving the reader a picture of exactly what might have happened so as they can draw their own conclusions when, at the end, they can either be pleasantly surprised or pleased with their guess. The story of the murder is continued, yet with no clue as to who may have committed the crime as all the paper reports is feelings of affection towards the two deceased.