Moving onto Farthing house, this story is set in an olds’ people home. It may not have a typical background to a ghost story but is still very successful in creating tension and suspense. Tension is created already knowing that the house stands alone in the countryside. There are no other houses of buildings, no other source of ‘life’ except this building. A house standing alone in the middle of nowhere seems quite frightening and with the potential for suspense. When the woman gets to farthing the atmosphere is very lively and happy. After when she is told that she has to stay in the Cedar room she feels anxious and uneasy. This builds up suspense for the reader. Later in the evening she hears cries of a baby but there are no babies in Farthing House this builds up tension and suspense. She doesn’t feel comfortable and is uneasy. She tries to put her mind at rest and forget the events. She sleeps with still a doubt at the back of her mind. She dreams about the day her child was born. This maybe links in with the incident previously of hearing a baby cry.
She startles and wakes up suddenly, and hears the cries of a baby again. She also feels a strange presence in the room. She imagines a bed next to hers with someone lying in it but in reality there was no bed there. She is very nervous and confused and turns the lamp on ‘that sensation, that atmosphere was still there’. This helps build up more suspense and confusion. These feelings don’t just come for any reason; there must be a myth or a legend with this room. These are obvious explanations and create an unusual atmosphere. As she leaves the house she decides to visit the church nearby ‘and its overgrown little graveyard’ this builds up terror. Graveyard – dead people. Walking into a graveyard you expect something ‘bad’ to happen. Her mysterious encounters seem to come to sense slowly but not all explained. She discovers some gravestones, graves of babies. They somehow fit in with the event that had taken place in Farthing House. Suspense is incredibly high at this time. Everyone wants answers. All the graves are of young families. It makes the woman think that there may have been a disease that spread at the time.
‘Dreadful epidemic in the village?’ There is a lot of confusion and mystery, both creating tension.
She learns that the house was for young women and their illegitimate babies. Many mother and babies were killed – that explained the gravestones and explained the ‘encounter’ she had back at the house. She remembers the woman ‘again that terrible sadness and distress’. The tension in the story slowly starts to sink now that the woman and the reader know the true reason why the woman (ghost) was there.
In the epilogue it’s mentioned Farthing House had been demolished for a new development. She feels sad. And carries on to read that a young woman had stole a baby, eventually it was found safe well. The woman was sent to a medical centre. Her address was given as Farthing House Close, Little Domford. This creates mystery and suspense. Maybe it was the same woman she had seen there?
The language used in Red Room is old compared to Farthing House, which uses modern language. This is because the Farthing House is more modern. Red Room has the language used at the time. Both these stories are set in similar places. The Red Room starts of as a ghost story and builds up tension quickly where as Farthing House begins of normal and turns out to be a ghost story. In the prologue of Farthing House the narrator describes this past event but doesn’t tell what it is.
This technique is effective because it makes the reader wanting to find out what happened which makes the reader want to read on. The narrator starts of her story “I have never told you any of this before”
This use of language straight away builds up suspense. In Red Room the ghost is mentioned right In the beginning the narrator says “that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.” This technique is used so the reader knows what the story is about and reads on.
The Red Room has a very stereo typical of what background i.e. set in a haunted abbey or castle. Both these stories are set in similar places. Red Room is set in Lorraine castle and is described as an old building. Farthing House is set in Victorian type building.
In both stories these stories the narrators describe the haunted rooms as large and empty. In Farthing House the narrator says, “I was in a large, high ceilinged room.” In Red Room the narrator says “large somber room.” I think views on ghost stories haven’t changed much from the Victorian readers. Farthing House is set a long time after Red Room but has a similar setting to it.
Later in Farthing House we find out that there is a graveyard close by. The way that the atmosphere is described affects the setting in Farthing House the narrator says “I had seen no car since leaving the cathedral town seven miles back on the main road.”
The language used in each story is the general language of its time. Red Room is harder to understand because it contains words, which are not used anymore. This is displayed when the narrator says, “Mocked his custodians” which means mocked his caretakers. Farthing house uses modern language. Both stories use language to build up tension and suspense. Both narrators describe everything in detail so the reader can imagine what is happening and be able to picture the scene at the end of farthing house there is an epilogue that the narrator uses to explain how things were after this and what happened to farthing house.
The common theme running through both of these stories is that of fear. Both stories were about ghosts. At the end of The Red Room we find out that there is no ghost and it was a setup to scare the person. In Farthing House Mrs. Flower believes that she did see a ghost and revisits the event to rationalize her experience of Farthing House. Both writers use language to create suspense through the stories. Also the use of unusual characters like in Red Room the man with the withered arm. The settings of the stories create suspense. Red Room is set in a old castle which is a typical setting for ghosts stories and Farthing House is set in a old Victorian building. In conclusion, both authors have been very successful in building up suspense. They both took different approaches but they got what they set out to achieve. They both have elements, which help make a good ghost story. I think Red Room is more effective and successful in creating suspense than Farthing House but Farthing house sounds more believable.