How typical of Victorian ghost stories is 'The Red Room'?

How typical of Victorian ghost stories is ‘The Red Room’?

‘The Red Room’ was written in 1896 by Herbert George Wells (1866-1946). Although a short story, it has elements of the Gothic novel, which had been invented predominantly by Horace Walpole in the previous century. This genre has influenced poetry, literature and even filmmaking up to the present day. A Gothic novel is deemed to be: ‘A type of romantic fiction that predominated in English literature in the last third of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th century, the setting for which was usually a ruined Gothic castle or abbey. The Gothic novel, or Gothic romance, emphasised mystery and horror and was filled with ghostly-haunted rooms, underground passages and secret stairways.’ 1

The Victorians themselves seemed to have a particular affinity with idea of death in general, prompting many Victorian ghost stories and Gothic novels to be written at the time of ‘The Red Room’. The obsession is present in much Victorian literature and historical documents. Led by Queen Victoria, elaborate mourning was a common process at the time, especially amongst women. The Queen herself continued fetishistic rituals for four decades after the death of her husband, Albert, even having the servants changing his linens every day after he had died.

Another factor that contributed to this obsession was the alarming death rate in Victorian England. Death was an every day experience for the working classes, and it was represented much differently to the modern day. For instance, last words were valuable to the point that the dying were given narcotics to keep them in a preferred lucid state. From this a fascination with the supernatural and ghost stories developed; making Gothicism a common genre of literature at the time, for example Henry James’ ‘The Turn of The Screw’ (1898).

The actual title of ‘The Red Room’ is significant to its genre. It immediately creates mystery and in a sense, suspense, as the reader does not find out what the Red Room is like until a way into the story. The title creates questions, as the reader does not know why the colour red is significant, only that it is usually associated with danger, and fear. This links directly to the Gothic genre, drawing attention to the supposedly haunted Red Room.

The setting of ‘The Red Room’, ‘Lorraine Castle’, is extremely typical of the Gothic genre. Within the castle H.G Wells employs conventions of the first Gothic story ever written, i.e. ‘The Castle of Otranto’, by Horace Walpole (1764), such as ‘subterranean’ passageways, echoes and draughts. Castles are generally large, dark place, and the reader knows the Red Room to be situated in a castle like this, as the narrator is given a rather long list of directions before he encounters the Red Room. The passageways almost seem to lead him underground, so far into isolation that even if he ...

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The passages leading to the Red Room seem similar to those described in ‘The Castle of Otranto’, when one of the main characters flees through dark halls. The ‘darkness’ of these empty corridors seems to make the idea of a haunting seem feasible, and real.

As the initial room the narrator finds himself in is not described in great detail, much emphasis is put on the Room itself. The description of the interior of the Red Room uses the conventions of a typical Victorian room that could be used in a ghost story. Firstly, there are many niches and ‘black corners’ that create a feeling of mystery. There are ‘sconces’ and a ‘mantelshelf’, that often feature in stories of this genre. H.G Wells’ ‘The Red Room’ is in fact slightly similar to another red room, that is used in Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’ (1847). Again, this room is also known to be haunted, and completely isolated from the rest of the large house in which it is situated.

The narrator is the main character in ‘The Red Room’. This is typical of Gothic novels in particular, although the male characters are usually male heroes. Also, ‘The Red Room’ strays from the usual convention that a female usually suffers some distress in the course of the plot, e.g. a supernatural encounter. This is not the case as the narrator has to enter the Red Room himself, and not for the purpose of rescuing anyone. Instead, he is facing up to a challenge as he claims not to have seen a ghost ‘as yet’. H.G Wells uses the narrator’s arrogance at the beginning to increase tension, and these words set the character up for a frightening a frightening encounter. His character is overly confident, as despite recurrent warnings from the caretakers, he insists that he has ‘an open mind’. His logical reasoning becomes ironic as he enters the Red Room, and we see his previous attitude diminish as he asks: ‘What’s up?’ in hysterical panic. By the end of the story, his character has changed considerably, and he seems much wiser than in the beginning. He now speaks of ‘Fear’ as a real entity, rather than denying he could be touched by Fear as before. A similar effect occurs to the main character of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ (1843).

There are few living characters in ‘The Red Room’, primarily on account of it being a short story. However, other characters from the past are mentioned, such as the ‘young duke’ or the ‘timid wife’. These characters exist to tell the history of the fateful Red Room, and make the possibility of ghostly presences seem credible. The main details about the non-living characters are that they are dead, and that they are known to haunt the Red Room. This is typical of Gothic stories, as mysterious deaths often occur, such as in the ‘Castle of Otranto’, when the young prince dies a tragic, gruesome death. However, in traditional stories of this genre, the ‘ghosts’ may be more generally significant to the story.

The characterisations of the caretakers of Lorraine Castle are also conventional of Gothic stories. This is such that the details given about them make them seem sinister and strange at the beginning of the story, such as ‘the man with the withered arm’, a phrase used repetitively to describe one of the caretakers. By using these words to identify this character, the writer is creating a mysterious atmosphere and tension. Not only this, but the caretakers’ dialogue is used to heighten the sense of eeriness. ‘It is your own choosing’ is a particular set of words that are used for this purpose. This implies that the caretakers know something about the Red Room that the narrator does not, again causing tension. However, there is a marked change in the attitudes and descriptions of the caretakers by the end of ‘The Red Room’, as they are now merely curious, and ‘no longer abstracted’. This shows that their strangeness was really used previously to ensure the build-up of tension before the narrator entered the Red Room.

It seems to be significant that the caretakers are not present during the climax of ‘The Red Room’, as this would surely take the focus off the fear of the narrator, who is informed that he must ‘go alone’ to the Red Room. It is typical of Victorian ghost stories for the main character to have to experience a supernatural event alone, although it is usually a woman in distress who is reduced to hysterics as a result. In ‘A Christmas Carol’, Ebenezer Scrooge also faces three spirits alone.

H.G Wells uses many devices typical of Victorian ghost stories to create atmosphere and tension. The delay of information is typical of stories of this genre, such as the fact that the reader does not know what is so terrible and frightening about the Red Room until they are further into the story. Instead, tantalising hints are used, and the main character is told many times that ‘it is [his] own choosing’, as if he would not ordinarily be persuaded to go there at all. This gives the impression that the Red Room holds something fearful or horrible, and the reader does not find out what until the narrator himself has entered the Red Room. This delay of information is also used effectively in the prologue of Henry James’ ‘The Turn of The Screw’, as the character named Douglas holds back information of an eerie event in the presence of others.

Another method that the writer employs the increase tension is rich description, which regularly creates a feeling of mystery. During the first setting of the story, where the narrator converses with the caretakers, description is used to convey them as strange and frightening – Lorraine Castle also. They are deemed as ‘grotesque’ and ‘spectral’, making the possibility of a supernatural or ghostly occurrence seem perfectly plausible. This use of language seems to form questions for the reader, as they do not know what, if anything, has caused the caretakers to be in such a state; their ‘unfriendliness’ is evident. They seem almost surreal, as if there is more to them than there seems, a disconcerting effect.

As ‘The Red Room’ is told in the first person, the reader is able to emphasise with him, increasing the tension further. The reader seems to go on a journey to the Red Room along with the narrator, and his emotions make it all the more chilling. On entering the Red Room, the narrator becomes in a state of ‘nervous tension’, and this fear is expressed to the reader, implying that there is a presence, or a ‘ghost’, as is feared by the narrator, lurking in the shadows. As the main character becomes increasingly hysterical leading to the crisis point of the story, the reader is even surer that something frightening is going to happen.

In conclusion, I think that ‘The Red Room’ is not entirely typical of Victorian ghost stories. There are many elements and conventions that are commonly used in stories of this genre, such as the structure and pace. These are typical of Victorian ghost stories, i.e. the mystery of the Red Room is not solved until the epilogue.

However ‘The Red Room’ strays from these in some respects. The fact that by the end of the story, there has not been a spectral presence at all is rather unconventional of Gothic stories. There is generally a supernatural event of experience by the end of the novel, and yet the only frightening thing the narrator encounters is ‘Fear’. It is possible that Fear could be a character in itself of a fearful sort, as it had certainly terrified the caretakers, judging by their dialogue and actions at the end of the story, and the narrator himself. If so, it would be even more terrible than conventional ghosts, as it is said to be there ‘even in the daytime’, and not just at night, when most ghosts exist. This being true, the ending of ‘The Red Room’ seems to mock conventional gothic novels by teaching the characters and the reader about Fear, almost as a warning, as well as concluding the story properly.

In its context, ‘The Red Room’ is a ghost story reminiscent of Gothic novels, in with the author has effectively used tension to sustain an audience. I think that in the time it was written, it would have been seen by Victorians as an entertaining short story that was much in line with many other Victorian ghost stories of the time. H.G. Wells was a popular and imaginative writer of the Victorian era.

1 Note: This definition was taken from a resource created by Lesely Taylor, from ‘www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/’