Comparison of The Red Room and Farthing House 'The Red Room' and 'Farthing House' are both ghost stories and fit into the Gothic mysteries. Red Room and Farthing House are written by different authors, at different times. Farthing House was written in the 20th centaury and uses more modern language. Red Room was written in the 19th centaury when it was the fashion of Gothic stories. Red Room is also set I n the Victorian times. In this essay I will be comparing how the writers build up suspense in their stories. 'The Red Room' begins straight into the story in contrast with Farthing house, which begins with a prologue to the story where the narrator is revisiting an experience from the past. Both of these stories build up suspense in different ways but successfully. There are some 'strange' and 'bizarre' looking characters in Red Room e.g. old characters that look 'inhuman', 'grotesque', a caretaker with a weathered arm. These bizarre people make the story sound more spooky and mysterious. They create an eerie atmosphere to the story, and add more suspense. It makes the reader anxious. These 'old' looking people make the reader question if they have a history with the castle, what are their secrets and what are they doing there? On the other hand in Farthing house the characters are normal and described as cheerful and friendly by Susan Hill. This shows that the story has a more modern approach rather than the traditional. The people in Farthing House create a secure and friendly atmosphere. The castle has no electricity, just candl... ... middle of paper ... ...he 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.
The way perspectives of composers and the cultural paradigms that they are influenced by are of a peculiar and often hidden nature. Through thorough textual analysis, the possibility of revealing these cultural values is enhanced, allowing the observation and appreciation of the how different ways of thinking have developed over time. Cultural values that deal with topics of gender inequalities, racial and social status prejudices and the result of societal dynamic are often hidden in texts from the Victorian Era, and this is absolutely true of Vanity Fair by William Thackeray as well as Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. The two texts hold many areas of diversification and commonality which provide a basis of characters and their ways of thinking, in turn exposing attitudes towards certain cultural values.
In comparison The Red Room was written only thirty years later in 1894 by HG Wells although it feels more timeless. At that time technology had improved intensely, nevertheless Wells still imitated the old fashion gothic literature style writing, which is ironic, due to the time. Both stories have managed to engage its audience by creating suspense and tension. Besides that both stories have been written in first person, this in sequence makes it sinister, in a way because we get to know the narrator’s impressions and feelings. The authors of both stories have selected discomforting places in which to set their story, they are made more eerie because that in the 19th century time many people believed in ghosts and the supernatural.
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
This is Eleanor’s story. Another interesting point to make would be to address Eleanor’s obvious sexual orientation – and maybe the repressed identity is what causes the disturbances in the haunted house.
...ng up the pebble road so they went outside to see who or what was coming to the plantation. When they went outside no one or thing was there one of the office workers there at the plantation said that they heard something so they went to see what it was and they saw a group of rocking chairs rocking all at the same time. Another one of the workers there said that she saw multiple things move across the desk tops. One of the couple tour guides there was giving a tour when suddenly a candle stick flew across the room. Another one of the staff workers there reported hearing someone crying inside of the mansion. A staff worker Mitchell borne was working alone one night inside of the mansion when he felt someone touching his arm. One of the tour guides was walking around when they did not have a tour and saw a figure sitting upright in one of the beds. ("Ghosts tales”).
The aim of this essay is to explore the way in which the two authors
The old mans bedroom is the only room that is mentioned in the story. The setting and tone is made scarier because the looks of the room are not described. This allows our imagination to run wild. The room is where the narrator watches the old man sleep and ends up taking his life.
The story describes the house as being old and tended by an old man. The house is barely described other than it just being dark (paragraph 4). This adds to the creepy
From the perspective of a ghost story, the narrator makes references to some “creepy” ideas early in the story, noting her first impression of the house is, “it is haunted” (Gilman 746). Beyond the aesthetics of the house, we see a level of fear overcoming the narrator in: “there is something strange about this house-I can feel it” (Gilman). What about the house makes it appear and feel haunted? Not the aesthetics of the home, but what’s inside…..inside the wallpaper. Almost immediately we see the issues...
The story of Woodburn Mansion has been told to residents of Dover, Delaware for many years. A 19-year-old Caucasian male student at the University of Maryland told this particular version of the ghosts of Woodburn Mansion. Now a sophomore architecture major, he grew up in a small town just outside of Dover, where the story of Woodburn is known all too well. The story was first told to him as a young teenager while actually visiting the mansion with his parents.
This unique story of a residence being haunted only until the ghost is asked to leave creates a different image from the typical ghost haunting until the inhabitants are driven crazy. The residents thought the ghost more of an annoyance than a threat, and when they asked him to leave; he did so without a fight. By performing no physical harm to any of the individuals and being mostly just foot steps in the dark, this was not a typical haunting.
1. Rodriguez, Richard. “Late Victorians,” and “The Achievement of Desire.” Encounters: Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. 2nd ed. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 475-492, 493-505
While describing Aswarby Hall, M R James describes it as a "tall, square, red-bricked house." This is done to create curiosity and interest as the description given is of an average looking house that would be similar to others around it as nothing in particular stands out about the home. M R James uses unexpected settings like this. In traditional ghost stories the setting of a house is often of a grand and unusually eerie house which creates a dark and sinister atmosphere, but M R James does the reverse of this. He describes his settings using people’s everyday lives, for example, the description of the house they live in. He does this as he believes it has a scarier impact on the audience as the reader feels connected to characters and settings that are ordinary just like them, and can no longer separate themselves from characters like Mr Abney. Although to create a sinister atm...
Tension and Suspense in The Red Room by H.G. Wells In H.G Wells’ The Red Room tension and suspense are created through the characters, the plot and the setting. The setting is typical of Gothic and Victorian ghost stories. In these times there was no electricity so use of candles for light created an eerie atmosphere. They had no modern technology like televisions for entertainment so they used books and story telling.
A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest were both written in the late nineteenth century at a period in time when gender roles in society were not only significant to the structure of society but were restrictive and oppressive to individuals. This was particularly true in the case of women who were seen as the upholders of morals in polite society and were expected to behave accordingly. A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest challenge society and its inclination to categorise and expect certain behaviour of individuals based on their gender.