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How Does Hg Wells Create Tension In The Red Room

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The Red Room’ written by H.G.Wells is a short story that breaks from his usual science fiction by choosing a gothic horror for this epical short story.
A narrator, who is without a name, tells of his first hand experiences throughout the story. This is in contrast to ‘Miss Brill’ in which narrative is delivered in the third person, with the use of free indirect speech to depict the story and portray the characters. By Wells selecting a first person narrative he draws the reader closer into the character’s mind set. This gives Wells the ability to convey the primary characters full spectrum of emotional thought, from open mindedness to the conflict and fear within him. First narrative provides the reader insight to thoughts and observations therefore adding suspense of the unknowing into the gothic style.
With the use of short sentences such as ‘you go alone’ Wells, H.G. (p43-50) and ‘he corrected me in one particular’ (p44) Wells builds up tension that keeps the reader engaged and enthralled with unease at the beginning of the story. As with the narrator no names are given to three elderly occupants of the castle, this increases the reader’s suspicions by making it less personal …show more content…

With a low word count and deep sentence structure Wells focuses on a small group and a single plot over a short period of time. It fits to the rules of an epical short story by the use of realism throughout. This is confirmed by Wells ‘through the withholding of a part of the narrative’. (Unknown.2016). ‘The Red Room’ works well as a gothic novel due to the descriptive wording and by not personalising the characters. With the use of psychology Wells tappers into irrational fears a trait everyone has. Therefore, without personalising characters the reader can still draw on identifiable characteristics portrayed by the narrator. This in turn delivers an epical short gothic story that is timeless in its relevancy to

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