preview

Essay on The Red Room and The Cone by H.G. Wells

Good Essays

The Red Room and The Cone by H.G. Wells

Both stories are Gothic mystery stories and were written around the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century. These sorts of stories usually have a setting of a dark, abandoned and scary place. The Red Room is about a young man who visits a castle and feels he must spend a night in a mysterious room that is suspected to be haunted. The Cone is about a woman having an affair with a man called
Raut. The story is based around the husband who is called Horrocks seeing Raut with his wife. However it is not known whether or not
Horrocks knows if his wife is having an affair with Raut.

The opening of all three stories start with dialogue and immediately help to create …show more content…

This is because it gives the reader an idea of the person so they can visualise it for themselves, but at the same time doesn't give the reader enough information which therefore makes the reader feel more involved in the book. For example, in The Cone it reads 'a silent grey, shadowy figure.' This description is vague and so it doesn't give the reader a clear picture of the character, and therefore, this again creates tension because of the lack of description. In the case of 'The Red Room' there is also a description of a man that possesses a 'withered arm.' This is an uncommon feature in any person, even one as old as the one mentioned in the story. The reader would think that there must have been a reason why this old man has this feature and because the reason has not been explained to the reader, he or she will be compelled to read on to find out how the old man achieved this withered arm.

Also I believe that the descriptions of major characters and settings would add to the tension and suspense as well. This is because in giving the reader a small but detailed description of the setting, it involves the reader more, therefore the reader feels more involved with the book and so tension is created a lot easier. In The Red Room the sentence 'chilly echoing passage' and 'long draughty subterranean passage' draws the reader into the story and helps them feel as if they were

Get Access