How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
These I put in various knick-knacks of china with which the room was sparsely adorned, lit and placed where the shadows had lain deepest, some on the floor, some in the window recesses, until at last my seventeen candles were so arranged that not an inch of the room but had the direct light of at least one of them. It occurred to me that when the ghost came, I could warn him not to trip over them. The room was know quite brightly illuminated. There was something very cheery and reassuring in these little streaming flames, and snuffing them gave me an occupation, and afforded a helpful sense of the passage of time. (35)
For a while, all is well. The narrator appears to have satisfactorily conquered the darkness of the red room – and his own fear – by filling the place with candles. The light is "cheery and reassuring."
Quote #5
Then something happened in the alcove. I did not see the candle go out, I simply turned and saw that the darkness was there, as one might start and see the unexpected presence of a stranger. The black shadow had sprung back to its place. (37)
When the "black shadow" springs into place, it’s as if the force of darkness that was originally in the red room has reasserted itself. It suggestively reappears in exactly the spot that had most disturbed the narrator originally: the alcove opposite the fireplace. You might call that spot the "locus of darkness." That’s where the darkness "comes from," and where it seems strongest.
Quote #6
While I stood gaping, the candle at the foot of the bed went out, and the shadows seemed to take another step towards me. (39)
The darkness, in the form of the shadows, advances. The language here really makes it sound as if a battle is ensuing between the narrator and some living, evil force that’s coming toward him.