When the third pensioner enters, the narrator begins to be suspicious of all three of them. `A monstrous shadow of him crouched upon the wall and mocked his action as he poured his drink.' The adjective `monstrous' describes how the narrator experiences this fear and indicates he is a little scared. The narrator uses typical Victorian language which suggests the atmosphere. This is shown when the character says `gaunt silences, their bent carriages, their evident unfriendliness towards one another.' `Gaunt silences' suggest it is awkward and unpredictable of what is happening. `Unfriendliness' shows the three old pensioners do not welcome the character into the haunted house. So the narrator is already experiencing fear when he meets the three old pensioners. The descriptive words used by the narrator are also very atmospheric as it gives you a picture of his distorted views and it sets an atmospheric air. It cannot be seen why the three old pensioners make him feel uncomfortable, but the images like `gaunt' and `bent carriages' give a clear picture and therefore indicates an intense ambience.
When the character says he is wanting to be shown in the room, `the old and with the cough jerked his head back so suddenly that it startled' the narrator. This creates suspense, as you are intrigued to know why this made the man jump. The narrator deals with this fear by reminding himself that it is just his imagination. The character says `But with an effort I sent such thoughts to my right about.' This shows that he keeps thinking to be able to put it to one side as he thinks it is silly. The narrator comments on the three pensioners by saying `I half expected the old people were trying to enhance the spiritual terrors of the house.' This indicates the character has a feeling that the pensioners are only trying to frighten him.' It is true that if somebody doubts beliefs, you can start to doubt them also. Therefore, they are placing imaginary thoughts in the characters mind.
Repetitive language is shown when the man with the withered arm says `It is your own choosing.' This is repeated three times by him and it builds up tension. It gives the reader the impression that whatever has been chosen is horrifying. As the man gives him very specific directions, the reader realises that it is indeed a castle, not a house. It also embellishes that the `red room' is situated a long way from the character. `A monstrous shadow of him crouched upon the wall' is emphasised by the author using personification. This is possibly to make the reader feel that the shadows are alive. The shadows create darkness and darkness suggests there is an unknown truth. The man with the shade looks at the character `with that queer unnatural tilting of the face,' and says `Are you really going?' This seems very abnormal to the character and the realisation that he is actually going starts to sink in to the old pensioners. Once again, the old pensioners sustain suspense and atmosphere. Repetition occurs again when the old woman says `This night of all nights.' It is repeated twice by the old woman to hint a strange sense of mystery to the reader. As the narrator is moving towards the door, HG Wells describes the man with the shade, `moving closer to the others.' This suggests there is a building up of tension in the haunted house, and something frightening is going to arise, if three old pensioners who seem to dislike each other are trembling together in front of the fire. As the narrator is leaving to go to the room, he looks back and sees the old people, `and saw they were all close together, dark against the fire light, staring at me over their shoulders, with an impression of ancient faces.' This adds to the atmosphere and suspense as it gives a disturbing image of fear although you want to read on, to discover what happens.
As the narrator leaves, it is shown that he `left and then shut them in.' This illustrates that he is the one who is in charge of the situation, or so he thinks. The fact that he shuts the old pensioners in leads the reader to believe that he does not want to be near them. There is a passage, a spiral case and a very long corridor in the house. The passage is described by the anonymous narrator as a `chilling, echoing passage.' This illustrates the genre, and the tension builds up. The narrator refers to the passage as `long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty.' `Subterranean' suggests darkness, enclosure and a tombstone. As he continues to walk down the passage, it comments on the atmosphere, `the ornaments and conveniences of the room about them were ghostly'. This makes the atmosphere more ghostly as we move nearer to the `haunted' room. `A shadow came sweeping up after me, and one fled before me into the darkness overhead,' this creates great suspense. It enhances the paragraph by making the reader speculate what the shadows are. The shadows exhibit the darkness of the passage to build up the atmosphere.
The narrator describes the pensioners dress sense as `fashions born in dead brains'. This is an example of personification, used by the author. It contributes to the imagery used in the story in addition. `Little tongue of light' also uses poetic language. It is showing personification. `Ocean of mystery' and `like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stars.' uses a metaphor and simile. All of these descriptions of the house use imagery to elucidate the darkness and fear in the red room. The darkness seems to be what the narrator is most fearful of.
The apprehension is created again by the sounds of the spiral staircase, `the echoes rang up the spiral staircase'. `echoes' makes the reader wonder if there is anything lurking about the spiral staircase, it enhances the anxiety also.
As the narrator enters the corridor, he describes the window, `vivid black shadow or silvery illumination.' This is strangely unusual because everything else is described as shadowy and black. It helps to create an unnatural atmosphere once again. As the character is moving towards the door, he comes across what looks like a figure in front of him only to find it is an ornament on a buhl table. This indicates that although he is pretending to be impassive, he is actually afraid. This adds to the tension build up. The character enters the door to the red room very quickly, closing the door behind him. `Shadowy corner' emphasises the darkness again and extents the atmosphere. The character inspects the room immediately and creates a form of barricade in front of the fire which insinuates that he is planning to fight whatever may disturb him tonight. `The shadow in the alcove at the end in particular had that indefinable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of a lurking, living thing.' This demonstrates HG Wells' language. He is conveying the different states of fear by close detail. It illustrates to the reader how darkness is far more frightening than being able to visualise and know what is there. HG Wells is also conveying the experience that the character is jumping to conclusions and he thinks there is a terrifying presence. The character is becoming suspicious so he checks to see is there is something there by lighting candles. `I walked with a candlestick into it and satisfied myself that there was nothing there.' The adjective `tangible' reveals how afraid the character is. It also brings us back to the beginning line about him having to have a very `tangible' ghost to frighten him. It is evident at this time that the tension is noticeably escalating. He deals with his fear by calmly stringing together some rhymes, `I began to string some rhymes together'. HG Wells clarifies that there is a nervous tension growing in him and he is becoming more intimidated of his fears. The character may have strung rhymes to give him an illusion that he is not isolated.
To overcome his fear of the unidentified, he relights some candles from the corridor as he is getting increasingly nervous. His emotional state lifts, but he is still edgy. The character might be inspecting what he describes as `cheery and reassuring little streaming flames', but he is becoming more unconfident and tries to joke about warning any ghost to trip over a candle. This implies that the tension is alternating in the red room, which contributes to the structure. The narrator has to relight many candles because of the vast darkness, `two candles on the little table by the fire place were extinguished.' The candles are going out so rapidly that he fails to relight all of them. Even though there is no draft in the red room, he claims that the candles were blew out by the daft, `that draughts a strong one!' This shows that the narrator is trying to reassure himself there are no ghosts. He relights the candle but it blows out again repeatedly, `I walked back, relit one'. This builds up the structure to generate fear and suspense. One candle suddenly extinguishes in front of him as he is looking at it, `The shadows seemed to take another step towards me.' The light signifies the truth and there is no truth without light. If the light disappears, he has no way of finding out what is in the red room. The light is also there to protect him from the darkness and evil. It is the darkness that establishes the tension and fear in the red room. Everything is shown in the light but the dark disguises what is there, for that reason we cannot see as the tension and fear is surrounded by him. As lies and evil are drawn towards him, he is being secreted from the truth. More candles are starting to vanish which builds up the tension in the character, `my hands trembles' suggests he is in a sate of panic and he is loosing control of the situation.
The character sees an invisible hand and Wells justifies how he reacts to the fear. He is intensely panicky and in a state, `I was now almost frantic with horror of coming darkness.' HG Wells is hinting his state of mind by the adjective `frantic', which is extremely sinister and makes the reader think that there is a ghost in the room. As the author is demonstrating how the narrator is experiencing more horrific fears, the character is becoming so flustered that he trips up. `I staggered back, turned, and was either struck or struck myself against some other bulky furniture.' The adverb `staggered' indicates that he must not have known where he was going. The tension is further being emphasised as the sentences become shorter. The narrator awkwardly knocks his thigh against the table, `I bruised myself on the thigh against the table.' From then on, he is really beginning to loose control. It is like the narrator is sinking in the sand and the rope stopping him from sinking has utterly snapped. Many people deal with fear by speaking allowed. The character speaks allowed `By Jove!' This is how he deals with the fear that there could be a presence in the room. Speaking allowed could suggest he is pretending he is not alone in the room and has a friend with him. This makes him feel more secure. The tension has collapsed when the narrator wakes up and we realise it is day time, `I opened my eyes in the daylight.' The light reveals the truth and the old pensioners abnormalities diminish, as the light shines on them. It is the invisible hand that really defeats the narrator, as he thought he saw a real ghost. After seeing the hand, there is nothing he can do to restore his confidence.
At the end of the story, the character is changed by realising that it was his mind playing tricks on him. It is his own fears that make him believe the room is haunted. He imagined the most terrifying things that were delusional, which led to the panicking reaction. He says `fear that will not have light nor sound, that will not bear with reason, that deafens and darkens and overwhelms. It followed me through the corridor; it fought against me in the room.' This is how the character describes what fear really is and shows that he realises the fear of his own fears encouraged him to imagine phantasmal thoughts. The character becomes aware of how powerful the mind is and what imagination can do to you, it can play tricks on one.
Fear is conveyed effectively through the plot, characterisation, the language to describe the shadows, the genre and the setting. It could be said that darkness is the most important part of the red room, as darkness seems to what the narrator is most afraid of, `closed upon me like the shutting of an eye,' `wrapped about me in a stiffing embrace.' and `sealed my vision'