1. The Red Room
By H.G. Wells
(1896)

2. The Narrator Old Woman 28 years old Male Never seen a ghost Arrogant
Boastful
Open minded
Suspects the old people of making more of the ghosts.
Pale Eyes
Wise
Lives in the house
Old woman stares into the fire
Thinks the young man has a lot to learn
Ignores the old man with the shade.

3. The Old Men Old man with a withered arm Wrinkled
Positively dislikes the other old man
Old man walks with a crutch
Very wrinkled and old
His eyes are covered by a shade
His lower lip hangs down
His teeth are yellow and decaying
He has a nasty cough

4. The narrator’s attitude towards the old people
Look at pages 3-6
Use the resource sheet to list the physical description of these old people
Write a paragraph on their behaviour towards each other
Write a paragraph on their behaviour towards the young man

5. Vocabulary Choices Read the first four pages again
In pairs list all the words which add to the spooky atmosphere
Try to list these according to the word type:
Nouns (the names of things)
Adjectives (describing words)
Verbs (doing or being words)

6. The Narrator’s attitude
On page 3, he starts very confidently - “it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me”
By page 6 he is showing that he is becoming afraid – “I left the door wide open until the candle was well alight”
Trace the narrator’s increasing stress levels – use quotations to support your opinions.

7. Read the story as far as page 10.
Make a list in pairs showing
at least seven ways in which the young man seems confident and
at least seven ways in which he seems afraid.

8. How effective is ‘The Red Room’ by H.G. Wells as a ghost story?

9. Introduction Briefly introduce, mentioning the following: Title Author
When it was written
First person narrative
Who the narrator is

10. Write a brief summary of the story:
Who is telling the story
Where he is – Lorraine Castle
What he is there for – and what he’s told
What happens to him
What he concludes following his experience

12. Analyse the successful ghost story elements (using quotations from the text to support your points)
The old people – describe
who they are
what they look like
How they speak
How they make the young man feel

13. The Castle Looking at descriptions of: the rooms the corridor mirrors
lighting – fire/candles
the colours in the Red Room
any other relevant description

14. The ‘scary’ details Tonight of all nights
What happened to the young Duke
The character of the old Duke and his Wife
Vocabulary choices – ‘scary’ nouns, verbs, adjectives

15. The way the young man changed
From confident – not believing in ghosts
To terrified
Again, use quotation to support your points

16. Conclusion
Your own opinion on the effectiveness of the text as a ghost story