“As I stood undecided, an invisible hand seemed to sweep out the two candles on the table. With a cry of terror, I dashed at the alcove, then into the corner, and then into the window, relighting three, as two more vanished by the fireplace; then, perceiving a better way…..”
The repetition is used to give RR a fast pace and this demonstrates fear, the short words give short sentences therefore also giving it a fast pace.
In the TSM a speech
There is also repetition in TTH:
"It grew louder—louder—louder!...and now—again!—hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!"
in the description of the heart getting louder that there is a lot of repetition. Poe could have written once, "The beating heart grew louder" and then moved on, but that is not very intense at all.
Saying it over and over like that makes the situation seem much more dismal, fearful, and helps the reader to feel the narrator's distress.
In RR and TTH both of the main characters are arrogant and this relates to the text of the story yet they lose it at different points:
"I can assure you," said I, "that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me." And I stood up before the fire with my glass in my hand.
"Eight-and-twenty years," said I, "I have lived, and never a ghost have I seen as yet."
Arrogance was key in RR as he was sure that he did not believe in ghosts or the occult and was sure of it, but later in the story he was in fear because he had came in contact with one and at the end of the story he changed his ways.
In TTH the narrator is also very arrogant:
“I turned the latch of his door and opened it oh, so gently!”
Arrogance proved that the main character was insane as he believed that he was being haunted by a old man’s eye in the household of which we don’t know what relation he has to the character, even though the man had cataracts which today is a very common and treatable disease.
So he then explains how cunningly he murdered the old man but the narrator begins to hear a faint noise. As the noise grows louder, the narrator comes to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards instead of the possibility that it is his own nervous heartbeat. The sound increases steadily, though the officers seem to pay no attention to it. Shocked by the constant beating of the heart and a feeling that not only are the officers aware of the sound, but that they also suspect him, the narrator confesses to killing the old man and tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal the body.
Unlike TSM TTH and RR both start straight into the story with the narrator speaking , this is because in TTH the narrator wants to tell the audience his story calmly yet it is quite obvious that he is insane.
“TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.”
The narrator is obviously deranged, readers learn during his telling of his tale, even though he declares at the start that he is sane.
In RR, Charles Dickens deliberately started the story straight in to prove that the main character is arrogant
"I can assure you," said I, "that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me." And I stood up before the fire with my glass in my hand.”
Another thing that RR TTH and TSM have in common is that they all have tension build up in their stories .There are many different ways in which the narrator builds up tension and suspense in 'The Red Room'. One way in which he does this is through the use of language. One of the main effective uses of language in 'The Red Room' is the use of personification;
"Made the shadows cower and quiver".
The shadow embeds fear into the reader, as they wonder if the shadow is alive, which creates tension as the reader wonders what will happen next. Furthermore, the fact that the phrase makes it seem that the shadows are scared of something and the reader would normally associate shadows with blackness and fear, makes the reader feel anxious and heightens tension.
Another way in which the narrator creates tension and suspense is by withholding information. Immediately, we can see that the story begins mid-scene which creates suspense as it is unclear and leaves the reader wanting to find out more; "I can assure you,". We can also see this in the ending of the story. The ending of this story is an setback as it does not provide all of the answers that are put in the readers mind throughout the story, which leaves the ending of the story open to guesswork.
In TSM tension is created though lots of speculation and confusion because the story leaves the reader with many unanswered questions,
For example: In the story the signalman seems like a eerie person as he rarely speaks, is he a ghost, or is he a misogynist.
In TTH tension is created in the story when the policemen come. They kind of makes the antagonist guilty. Tension starts to build up after the committing of crime. But the tension only builds in the antagonist heart and head. You have to compare the outer peace of the room, the cool tea sipping by the policemen with the rage and thunderstorm building in the heart of the antagonist.
In the heart of the antagonist the builds up after he hides the body. Even though he doesn't worry about it, his heart does worry.
Additionally TTH and in TSM the Main characters are insane or have lost their mind.
The narrator in TTH is rather obviously insane as he believed that he was being haunted by a harmless old mans eye, after the narrator has killed the old man he thinks he can hear his beating heart .
“it haunted me day and night”
“I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.”
“I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! -- and now -- again -- hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER! –
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!”
In TSM the Signalman seems like a weird character as he does not seem to talk much in the fisrt part of the story yet he also has some fear of the narrator, this might be because he is been alone for such a long time he is scared of socialising.
"Halloa! Below!"
"Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?"
"You look at me," I said, forcing a smile, "as if you had a dread of me."
“He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question.”
The Decent into Insanity is a quite often a key part in Gothic genre because characters become fearful of the unknown and this leads into insanity
RR, TSM and TTH all use literal language that promote the gothic genre, as I had described earlier they use tension build-up and repetition in their story’s .The writers also match the setting and the background to the story, to give it a spooky feel ,writers use unearthly settings, in RR Charles Dickens uses a castle, he has chosen a big opposing structure to make it look majestic and scary, he promotes the Gothic genre by using pathetic fallacy by describing intimate objects in a way to make it seem like they are alive, he does this in a eerie manner
“That large sombre room with its shadowy window bays, it recesses and alcoves”
The wording indicates the emptiness of the room as if nobody is there but himself.
Not only in RR but in gothic horror stories, writers describe the narrators senses (sight/ smell/ touch / sound ) to emphasise the atmosphere.
“I heard the sound of a stick and a shambling step on the flags…..and the door creaked on its hinges.”
The writer is sharing sounds with the reader, “stick” stressing old age , “flags” emphasising cold noise of flooring, “door creaked”, conveying a eerie noise
. In TSM Dickens has set the story on a railway line. He promotes this by over describing the setting:
“On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of
sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this
great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction
terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a
black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous,
depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its
way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much
cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had
left the natural world.”
This extract from the story gives the story a very eerie feel through very literal language which emphasises decay , this paragraph gives the impression of being stuck and isolated, furthermore this is how Dickens demonstrates the setting. Dickens also Describes the senses:
“Through clammy stone that becomes oozier and wetter as I went down”
Repellent, dark and wet, thermal and tactile images create a discomforting impression.
In TTH Poe uses Personification to enhance the supernatural, in this case it was old mans eye, because yet it was a perfectly harmless disease known as cataracts, the narrator thought that it was possessing him so he gave it evil attributes.
“I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights, every night just at midnight, but I found the eye always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work, for it was not the old man who vexed me but his Evil Eye.”
As you have seen in this essay there are many attributes that have enhanced the supernatural in these stories: such as repetition, of which gives the story a fast pace and in some cases to help the reader understand the narrators strife. Another is Tension build up which is created through the use of personification for example:
"Made the shadows cower and quiver".
The shadow embeds fear into the reader, as they wonder if the shadow is alive, which creates tension as the reader wonders what will happen next. Furthermore, the fact that the phrase makes it seem that the shadows are scared of something and the reader would normally associate shadows with blackness and fear, makes the reader feel anxious and heightens tension.
Another method of tension build up is by withholding information. We can see that some stories begin mid-scene which creates suspense as it is unclear and leaves the reader wanting to find out more.
Lastly Writers use literal language in a spooky manner .The writers also match the setting and the background to the story, to give it a spooky feel ,writers use unearthly settings.
Furthermore, in gothic horror stories, writers describe the narrators senses (sight/ smell/ touch / sound ) to emphasise the atmosphere.
