HG Wells Sustaining Tension Essay, Research Paper
How H. G. Wells,
Builds and sustains tension In "The Red
Room". ??????????? The title "The Red Room"
immediately attracts the reader’s attention; it is symbolic but leaves
unanswered questions.? "What is the
red room?"? "Why is it
red?"? We associate red with fear
and danger.? Is this room
dangerous?? Overall, the title raises so
much curiosity that it has an overwhelming effect, wanting us to read on and
find answers to our questions.??????????? The short story writer has to
attract the reader and keep their attention throughout.? In order for any story to work, tension has
to be built in the text, to keep it interesting.? In a novel, the writer has to structure and create tension
building it up and letting it drop and picking it up again.? Too much fast-paced action in a film kills
the essence of it and for the viewer, it can become almost funny to watch.? For a short story, however, it is able to
build tension and sustain it without completely dropping down to the original
level.? The best way of building tension
is to increase the tension then drop down slightly but not as low as at the
outset.? In adding more drama, little by
little, the story gains tension but the reader is also reminded of the
excitement as he is released from the drama from time to time.??????????? In a short story, the reader will be
able to have a strong influence from the writer’s first and last lines.? This makes them very important and are well
thought out.? This is the first line:"’I can assure
you,’ said I, ‘that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’"From this first line, the reader can assume two pieces of
information.? Firstly that this story
involves a ghost, and secondly that the character is an educated and well-read
man. This peak of
interest increases the tension and stops the reader from putting the book
down.? Also, as it is a short story it
gets straight to the point.??????????? The story in the first page
introduces four characters.? A young
man, an old man and his wife, and another old man.? We never know their names.?
The young man is skeptical about the red room being haunted.? The three elder people believe that it is
haunted and dare not even go there.?
Opposites build drama and drama builds tension.? This is the perfect example of how opposites
build tension.? Firstly, we have the young
against the old, which also symbolizes the inexperienced against the wise.? There is also the conflict between
’skeptics’ and the ‘wise’.? Although
they may be wise, the older people have not ever dared to go to the red
room.? They have become wise as they
have heard the stories about the room but none of them has ever had first hand
experience of the room.??????????? Repetition is also a device used by
writers to build tension.? One of the
most obvious examples is on the first page."It’s your own choosing."The old man is
trying to warn the young man but at the same time he is leaving the ‘decision’
to him.? It is as if the three old
people are ridding themselves of their responsibility of the young man.? It is their duty, like guardians, to warn
the man of what they believe is to be his death. Another use of
repetition is on page two where the old woman keeps on repeating, "this
night of all nights."? We never
find out why that night is important but it gives the reader a ‘red herring’
question.? Although we are going to find
out when we read on; we want to have answers and this continues our interest
into – "why was that night important?"??????????? The location is critical to the
short story.? The writer needs to give
his story a carefully considered and appropriate backdrop.? A short story works through its location,
characters, and setting in time and language.?
These are the ingredients that tie it together and make the mixture
complete.? In this story, the location
is very important.? The story is set in
a castle.? A ghost story in a castle is
not a new idea and although it is a rather unoriginal location, it is very
appropriate.? The old people who inhabit
the place cannot use most of it to live in because they are afraid of the ‘red
room’.? This keeps them well away from
that section of the castle.? A castle is
such an appropriate location and here what we do not know is far more
frightening than what we do know.? A
castle is a perfect example of what we do not know!? It is full of rooms, corridors and stairs.? As the story continues, the young man
explores the castle on his journey to the red room.? On route to the red room, he comes across what looks like a
figure in front of him only to find it was an ornament of a Chinaman on a buhl
table.? Then as he approaches the door
to the red room, the tension builds and he enters very quickly closing the door
behind him.? He finds himself in a huge
red walled room.? As he continues to
arrange the room, the tension is allowed to fall giving the reader a certain
release.? As he becomes more aware of
the shadows in the room the tension rises again:"The shadow in the alcove at the end in particular had
that undefinable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of a lurking,
living thing, that comes so easily in silence and solitude."Again, this
shows us how darkness is far more frightening than being able to see and
knowing what is there.? Tension is built
by how the young man expresses his feelings.?
To conquer his fear of the unknown the man places a candle in an alcove
in the corner of the room:"At last, to reassure myself, I walked with a candle
into it, and satisfied myself that there was nothing tangible there.? I stood that candle upon the floor of the
alcove, and left it in that position."Here he is
referring to the opening line about having to find a very tangible ghost.??????????? Tension mounts as her begins talking
to himself, but after listening to the eerie echoes, he gets more frightened
than before.? The tension increases now
all the time.? He is getting more nervous
and he feels the need for more candles.?
He has to get some from the corridor and he lights them and places them
around the room.? His spirits lift but
there is also tension created through his black humour.? He may be watching what he describes as? "cheery and reassuring little streaming
flames," but he is getting nervous and he jokes about how he should warn
any ghost about tripping over a candle on the floor. ??????????? Then it happens.? The first candle goes out, casting a black
shadow on the wall.? The second candle
goes out and the tension in the story is boosted as there is uncertainty about
why the candle went out.? Although the
man does not feel any draft, he claims that it was a draft that blew it out.? He tries to reassure himself by lying to
himself although he has a deeper feeling that he may not be alone.? He has to dismiss this from his mind
otherwise he would become the victim of his own fears.? As he goes over to re-light the candle, it
goes out, then another and another.?
Then one is extinguished in front of him while he is looking at it."Shadows seemed to take another step towards me"The light symbolizes the truth.? Without light, there is no truth.? If the light goes out he has no way of finding out what is in the
red room.? The darkness creates the
tension and fear.? In light, we can see
but when it is dark we cannot see and therefore tension and fear is
everywhere.? When the man says that the
shadows take another step towards him, he is saying that fiction is closing in
on him and as it does, he is been drawn away from the truth.In the story, the man has a revolver.? This symbolizes violence, which leads to
conflict, and conflict builds tension.?
Fire symbolizes warmth and wards off evil.? The old people with disabilities symbolize the fear inside him
and how he would not like to end his life.?
However, at the end, he does become like them, talking in their style
about what had happened.? Panic comes as the room plunges into shadows with him racing
around trying to keep up with the candles as they go out.? Approaching the epiphany, the tension is
further highlighted, as the sentences become shorter.? Clumsily he knocks his thigh against the table.? His downfall begins.? From here on he loses control.? It is as if he is in sinking sand and the
rope stopping him from sinking completely snaps.? He loses his quest for the truth as he tries to light the fire
with the last candle.? He runs into
something and knocks himself out.? For
me this is the epiphany.Then there is a gap in time; tension starts to unwind
slowly.? He wakes up the next morning
after being rescued at dawn by the old people.?
He personifies fear with the red room.?
He has had a fight with his fear and in the end his fear wins.? For me, the red room symbolizes one’s own
fear.? Nothing is actually in the room
except what one believes is there. The tension in the story is the unknown.? Any passage relating to the unknown could
build tension.Language plays an important part and changes with
characters.? The old people have an old English
vocabulary, whereas the young man is given a very upper class and stylish
vocabulary.? Around the epiphany of the
story, the language relating to the young man’s experience is described in very
short sentences with a lot of punctuation.?
H.G.Wells uses tension to make the story interesting and
keep the readers attention.? The story
has many meanings and has a certain theme:To
be denied of information as a reader is far more powerful than to know the
truth.