He is said to have had a “morbid pleasure” upon seeing the cholera, “devouring it with his eyes” even.
The visitor has done well in keeping his identity secret, the bacteriologist sees him merely as a queer stranger, interested in bacteria, rather than a danger or a threat. “these anarchist- rascals are fools, blind fools”, says the anarchist, because anarchists at that time did not cause widespread chaos quickly, they did not venture into biological or chemical warfare. He calls them “rascals” though this is ironic, if slightly humorous, for him perhaps.
The anarchist’s plan of going down as the most famous anarchist in history is destroyed, though humorously for the readers at least. During this last leg of the story, Wells gives the view of the anarchist’s mind, what he thinks while carrying out his plan, and how he thinks of how “all those people who had sneered at him, neglected him, preferred other people to him, found his company undesirable, should consider him at last”. From here it can be seen that he is an oddball, and outcast from society, perhaps even pathetic, a worthy candidate for self pity. The ending shows him to be a “blind fool”, though this could have been through the bacteriologist lying to him.
This story shows that, the idea of terrorism in not a new one, H.G. Wells has the idea, for a story at least, that releasing bacteria and disease can cause much damage. This is an act of terrorism, on a widespread scale.
The ending of the story is important, as the storyline on theme has developed. At first it is seemingly ordinary, but with the thievery of the test tube, and the horse carriage chase, the storyline changes into an extraordinary one. Suddenly, with the realisation of the folly of the anarchist, everything is back to normal, for the bacteriologist anyway. The anarchist is promptly forgotten.
Whilst The Stolen Bacillus gives an account of an almost unknown character defying society, Napoleon and the Spectre is told from the point of view of the great military leader. This contrasts starkly with the former, as now, the person with the high social standing is the outsider.
Within this story, Napoleon is exhibited as an ordinary person, with ordinary dreads, insecure and fearful.
Beginning the story, Napoleon gives an order to his servant, ‘Let down those windows-curtains, and shut the casement before you leave the room’, this shows how he is expected to be obeyed when he gives an order, he gives short and curt commands, and obviously makes full use of his station. He says ‘Pooh! It was merely an ocular delusion’, convincing himself that it was nothing, but his imagination, though even this, he does not wish to admit to, not even to himself. Bronte conveys a mood of uncertainty to the reader.
The spectre uses commands such as ‘Forward’ and ‘Silence’. This is something which Napoleon would normally do, and this gives him a feeling of “rising indignation which almost choked him”.
Upon entering the ballroom, Napoleon sees all the other people wearing masks, and now he is the outsider, as he does not have a mask. This is a feeling of isolation, as everyone is the same, except him. Furthermore, he cannot talk to them, as they are just faceless, masked people.
As the story unfolds, the surrounding gradually appear to become more realistic, and the people are not masked, but real living people. This would suggest that he is waking up from his daze. “where am I?” he says, regaining consciousness. It becomes quite obvious, therefore, that napoleon was sleepwalking, and then fell into a bout of catalepsy, a result of being woken up in a shocked manner. This could lead us to believe that Napoleon had been drugged, in a bid to kill him, but the poison merely made him hallucinate.
Napoleon and the Spectre is quite similar to The Red Room, in the way that fear controls the actions of the main characters. In the Red Room, the outsider is just a normal person, who when confronted by three elderly people, has become isolated. The three people are similar in that they are old and eccentric, and this makes them different to the man, who on his own is the minority.
The very title of the story is quite odd, and gives to ideas of a scarlet red room, with blood and gore. Red is usually associated with blood, fire and devilry.
The three housekeepers seem to be able to read each others minds, speaking simultaneously, the same words, and finishing off each others sentences. This obviously quite scares the young man, who wishes to get on with looking around the red room. He demonstrates this when he says “If you will show me to this haunted room of yours, I will relieve you from the task of entertaining me”
The young man is seemingly quite confident in going to inspect the Red Room. He says, with much arrogance towards the housekeepers, “It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me”, it is seemingly strange therefore, that in the end, it is something completely untouchable which scares him.
Once inside the Red Room, the reader, indeed, the young man finds out about what the house is about. The man soaks up the atmosphere, and judges whether the stories really could be true, or just unfounded myths. Now the stories seem more real, the young man feeling slightly scared, even thinking that “One could well understand the legends that had sprouted in its black corners”
As the young man spends more time within the Red Room, he gets more and more scared. He then starts to talk to himself, frantically. Wells calls it “half hysterical”. Suddenly, after much scrambling and movement, the young man is knocked unconscious.
When the young man wakes up, he realises what happened, and is now much less confident, and not as sure of himself, especially when talking to the housekeepers and when of talking of the Red Room.
This story looks at how there is danger and the feeling of a threat of fear. The story, Napoleon and the Spectre, shows how Napoleon, is scared of what he does not know. He blames the hallucinations on his imagination, but in reality, he does not understand them, and is scared, and he looks for something to blame. The Red Room illustrates the feeling of unknowing being the cause of fear.
People in general are scared of what they do not understand; the sum of all fears is in mis-understanding.
