“it’s your own choosing”
He uses this repetition to heighten the sense of strangeness in a frightening ways. However, there is something that these custodians know about the red room but the narrator doesn’t, again causing tension which makes the reader wonder what there is in the red room. This is despite the repeated warning given to the narrator by the old woman:
“This night of all nights!” said the old woman.
These short interchanges quickly build tension, as the reader is aware of the sharpness of the conversation. Also, also one of the old people says:
“You go alone.”
The man with withered arm told him to go alone because they didn’t want to go with the narrator as they believe in ghosts. He was given a very long direction by the man with the withered arm towards the red room. The other custodians want to make sure that the narrator is going to the red room
“ And are you really going?”
And this also increases the tension. The way the narrator describes the journey towards the red room makes the reader want to read more. The tension increases as he walks toward the red room making the story even more frightening. The darkness of this empty corridor seems to be even more terrifying. The narrator begins to feel anxious even though there is nothing there. He walks down the chilly, echoing passage in the darkness. H.G Wells uses personification to bring the eerie shadows to life :
“...and a shadow came sweeping up after me and one fled before me into the darkness overhead....” He describes the shadows as if they can also feel a presence along the corridor as: “they quiver and cower”. The tension thus increases and the narrator’s mind is flooded by ghostly thoughts. The atmosphere along the corridor becomes almost tangible, as the shadows are following him into the darkness. The narrator stands still till he feels assured there is no sound and then he opens the door of the haunted red room. This to increase the tension, making the reader wonder what will happen if the narrator enters the supposedly haunted room. Once he enters the room he quickly closes the door just to ensure that he is safe: “I entered, closed the door behind me at once, turned the key....” This is now to proof that he is scared of the whole aspect of visiting the red room and so the reader feels even more tension. This leaves the reader to ask questions and also adds to the weight of the action and tension of the story. The narrator is becoming very tense as he locks all the doors and ventures around the room making sure everything is in place and examining everything is in perfect condition. These things the narrator is doing are not the actions of a confident man. The narrator describes the room as dark so the reader can imagine that when it is dark we cannot see anything “ .....its germinating darkness...” and this creates tension. As the room overflows with darkness, the narrator wants it to be filled will light instead, so he finds some candles and begins to light them. Also, he still has his revolver in his hand, although it is of no use if a ghost is actually present. Then the narrator reveals the essence of the story when he says: “ it’s perfect stillness, too stimulating for the imagination...” he suggests that only your own fear haunts the red room. However, there are still some sounds like the echoes and crackling noises of the fire which still annoy him: “The echoing of the stir and crackling of the fire was no sort of comfort to me” suspense is created as the reader observes the narrator is expecting something to happen. He describes the colour of the red room as:“sombre blacks and red of the red rooms” and this makes him feel uneasy. Again the writer uses personification for the shadows: “the black shadow sprang back to its place there.” He suggests they sound as if they are moving like wild animals. As it turns to midnight, even more tension is suddenly created. The narrator now unexpectedly feels a presence because one of the candle is extinguished, but he thinks it is just a draught:
“by Jove” said I loud “That draught’s a strong one!”
Another use of personification which the writer uses is about the candle: “something seemed to blink on the wall before me.” As you blink it is extremely fast. Are the candles beginning to become an invisible enemy whom the narrator must fight? Are the candles playing a game with him by trying to terrifying him? Or is something unknown putting out the candles and robbing him of light? In any case, the narrator begins to question his own actions; this is not the behaviour of a secure man and we read that quickly, more of the candles start to vanish, and they seem to gang up on the narrator, and he feels claustrophobic. Repeatedly, he talks to himself and this proves to the reader that he is afraid. Now the reader also begins to feel even more afraid. There is an ominous presence in the red room and it is extremely creepy. The narrator creates tension at this point in the story as the pace of the sentences quicken and this builds tension and the structure of the sentences is longer and more complex. The narrator lists the things he has completed to pass the time as he does not know what to do for the best but his confidence is going down as the candles are disappearing. The writer uses a simile to describe how the shadows put out the candles: “it was like a ragged storm-cloud sweeping out of the stars”. A modern reader could compare this to the horror films we watch today as the atmosphere is normally very frightening. The sentence quickens “I leapt panting and dishevelled from candle to candle in a vain struggle against that remorseless advance”. The unknown presence gives him no chance to re- light the candles. The writers uses verbs like ‘ struggle’ ‘feared’ ‘fought’ to show us that the narrator is in a state of sheer panic. Suddenly, all the seventeen candles vanish and he notices that there is a light shining from somewhere in the room. It is the fire and this is his only salvation. Yet it also vanishes. He doesn’t know what to do, what to think, and he then runs in to some furniture and takes a heavy blow on his head and falls down the stairs, at which point he remembers no more and faints away:
“.........But I had forgotten the exact position of the door, and struck myself heavily against the corner of the bed.............of a cramped struggle, and of my own wild crying as I darted to and fro, of a heavy blow at last upon my forehead, a horrible sensation of falling that lasted an age, of my last frantic effort to keep my footing, and then I remember no more”
When the narrator opens his eyes and he finds the three custodians looking at him, he doesn’t remember anything about what has happened to him as he asks:
“Where am I?”
He hardly even remembers the custodians. Then the custodians refresh his memory. However, the custodians are desperate to know what happened in the red room. Yet, the custodians believe that the red room is haunted by ghosts and the narrator said it was haunted but it was not by ghosts. “There is neither ghost of earl nor ghost of countess in that room, there is no ghost there at all; but worse, far worse...”. He makes it explicit that what is in there is fear; he uses a capital letter in ‘Fear’ here as it is feeling, he emphasise and refers to the word as if it was a person. However, the narrator cannot explain to the custodians exactly what has happened. Fear will always win but he cannot explain why. Also, he mentions “a power of darkness”, and with this he implies that the mind plays tricks on people in the dark and that the darkness also haunts the red room.
In my opinion, at the end of the story the narrator has been very successful in maintaining the tension we expect as he uses shorter sentences to keep up the suspense. In this story the writer leaves the reader with questions such as, for example, what exactly haunts the red room?
