Literary Devices in The Red Room
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
It’s a Gothic standard to contrast "the light" and "the darkness" or "the shadow." The whole work is supposed to seem "dark," foreboding, threatening, and mysterious. This usually means that...
Setting
The story takes place at night in creepy Lorraine Castle, which has presumably been around for quite a while. These days it’s abandoned, and has been for eighteen months, although we don̵...
Narrator Point of View
A nameless narrator tells us of his own experiences in the red room firsthand. The first person narrative is actually indispensable for the story, since Wells’s main interest is exploring the...
Genre
"The Red Room" has all the basics of a work of horror: a plot revolving around the supernatural, an atmosphere of looming threat, a terror-filled narrator (whose case of the creeps is supposed to c...
Tone
As "The Red Room" is told in the first person, the tone reflects the attitude of the main character. The narrator's determination to be "rational" comes across in the ordered, detailed, analytical,...
Writing Style
Wells’s writing is certainly well ordered. His sentences and paragraphs are always neatly divided and structured in a point-by-point way fashion that complements the narrator’s analytic...
What’s Up With the Title?
The title is pretty straightforward: the haunted locale around which the story revolves is "The Red Room." That title grabs you, doesn’t it? And not just because it’s short and allitera...
What’s Up With the Ending?
The ending of "The Red Room" is classic. What turns out to haunt the room? Drum roll…fear itself. And that killer last quote: "There is Fear in that room of hers – black Fear, and there...
Tough-o-Meter
(4) Base Camp. For the most part, "The Red Room" is quite readable. Plus, it’s a horror story, which should keep you turning pages. It’s also very short. The main difficulty the story p...
Plot Analysis
He’s sure going to show that ghost…The narrator begins the story by boldly announcing his disbelief in ghosts and his intention to stay in the haunted red room. His determination to pro...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
The narrator confidently announces he intends to stay in the red room to the old custodians; he is unfazed by their warnings.By the beginning of the story, the narrator has already been "called." H...
Three Act Plot Analysis
We meet the narrator, who proclaims confidently that ghosts don’t scare him, because he doesn't believe in them. We meet the foreboding older custodians of the castle, who add to the general...
Trivia
H.G. Wells’s first published book was a biology textbook (in 1893). (Source)Wells also wrote two concise works on the history of the world: An Outline of World History (1920) and A Short Hist...
Steaminess Rating
Unlike many recent horror movies and novels, there is not any sex at all in this story.