Examine how Elizabeth Gaskell and H.G Wells build up tension and
convey fear in two gothic short stories; The Old Nurse’s Tale and
The Red Room.
Gothic fiction emerged in the late eighteenth Century. A Gothic story
is a style of fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote
settings and macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents. In most gothic
stories the writer challenges the intersection of the supernatural and
the rational and inspires dread and horror. In this essay I will
examine how the writers of both ‘The Red Room’ (H.G Wells) and ‘The
Old Nurse’s Tale’ (Elizabeth Gaskell) build up tension and convey
fear. I will compare both stories by examining the similarities and
differences between the two as well as using my personal opinion to
decide the most successful story which builds up the most tension and
most fear.
Changing the mood during a story makes it more exciting and less
predictable which captivates the reader’s interests and builds up a
great amount of tension. Both stories show evidence of significant
mood change, which created a successful amount of suspense when I read
them.
‘The Red Room’ effectively begins in medias-res, which is very
effective as from the very first sentence there is an immediate cause
for concern. It also effectively attracts the immediate attention from
the reader’s interest and from the very beginning we become aware the
story is gothic and are instantaneously caught up in the suspense of
the story. The story begins at a steady climax and rises up into a
state of absolute climax. Throughout the story it has many jumps of
suspense until the reader is left shrouded in it. There are
supernatural occurrences from the very beginning of the story and they...
... middle of paper ...
...se’s Tale’ ends
supernaturally and the ‘Red Room’ ends rationally.
Some parts of each story I did not like, for example, in the ‘Red
Room’ the old withered servants appear very old and extremely
exaggerated beyond the point of seriousness, and I did not like the
long-winded irrelevant points in ‘The Old Nurse’s Tale’. Overall I
think the most effective story for instilling fear, tension and
suspense is ‘The Old Nurse’s Tale’ as it was more easily
understandable and it left a more effective ending as it left the
supernatural occurrences left unexplained whereas the ‘Red Room’
provided a rational explanation for the events. I also found the story
more interesting and I found the supernatural events more intense. I
also found that ‘The Old Nurse’s Tale’ was generally more gothic than
‘The Red Room’ as ‘The Red Room’ was not gothic at the end of the
story.
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theme but The Red Room tells us only of the location not of the time
"The Red Room" is not as scary but the use of red often shows danger
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An Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
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How does the writer create tension and suspense in The Red Room? The writer is able to create tension and suspense through various ways in the short story ‘The Red Room’. The opening sentence in the story immediately mentions the supernatural, which immediately tells us that this is a gothic story. The first sentence is dialogue, but we do not know who is speaking.
I woke up to the pungent smell of hospital disinfect, invading my nostrils. The room was silent apart from my heavy breathing and the beep beep sound you often hear in hospitals that indicates you're alive. I slowly opened my eyes, squinting in attempt to sharpen the blurred images before me. I glanced around and took in the deserted, blue and white colour schemed hospital bedroom. How long have I been here? I shut my eyes, trying to remember what had exactly happened. Then it all hits me with a bang. The memory of it all starts to occupy my thoughts.