Comparing The Red Room by H.G. Wells and The Signalman by Charles Dickens

Comparing The Red Room by H.G. Wells and The Signalman by Charles Dickens

The aim of this essay is to explore the way in which the two authors

respectively create a feeling of suspense and tension in their works.

I will be discussing The Red Room, by HG Wells, and The Signalman, By

Charles Dickens. The convincing portrayal of suspense and the

effective build up of fear, drama and anticipation are the central

features or aspects of any piece of work from this genre. I will focus

on how the presentation of language, setting, atmosphere achieves

this.

The setting of the Red Room shares many of the themes which are

expressed by the Gothic/Victorian genre. For example if we look at the

setting we find that Wells made use of a deserted house in which one

room has particular meaning, this reflects the tendency of writers of

this style to make use of rundown, dilapidated houses. The structure

of the story is again based on tension being created. The discomfort

of the narrator has played a vital role in thrilling out the story.

When the candles going out panic builds up to the final paragraph of

story.

The atmosphere of the story gets very uncomfortable as the story goes

on. It is filled with tension and linguistic devices have been used to

convey the feelings. For example H.G. Wells have used words such as;

pale eyes, monstrous shadow, door creaked, etc. Similes,

Personification and Metaphors have also been used in the context, for

example: fashions born in dead brains', 'little tongue of light',

'ocean of mystery', 'like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the

stars'.

On the other hand the signal man is a story about a man who lived in a

very lonesome place and believes in supernatural illusions, but there

weren't any. Supernatural in both the stories said to be about ghosts

and scary illusions. Again in this story linguistic devices have

heavily been used

In The Signal Man the signal man believes in supernatural illusions