Comparing The Red Room and The Landlady Essay -- GCSE English Literat

Which is the better suspense story, "The Red Room" or "The Landlady"? The Red Room is a short story which is written by H.G Wells. It is a story about a young man who decides to go into a room which is believed to be haunted. The old people who live in the house which has the haunted room believe that is haunted but the man himself does not believe that it is haunted. As the story continues, we find that the man does go into the haunted room. He takes some candles and matches into the room with him to feel more safe and also because then he can see the room in the darkness. When he reaches inside the room, he lights up many candles which he palces around the room, and he also lights up the fireplace. Soon he starts to find that the candles that he has lit are beginning to blow out in all directions of the room and feels as if soeone is blowinig then out. He can not see anyone and he starts to relight the candles. He also begins to feel as if there are shadows behind him. Soon the candles start to blow out very quickly and then the fireplace also is blown out. He is left in the room with no light and he can not see anything. He bangs into the furniture in the darkness and collapses. The next day, the man wakes up to find that he is downstaires and out of the haunted room. He realises that the old people were right and that there are ghots in the room. He admits that he was vary scared and also realises that he was wrong and that the old people were right. The Landlady is a story written by Roald Dahl. It is about a seventeen year old boy called Billy Weaver who needs a place to stay in for one night in Bath. He looks around at many places to stay such as a pub but he chooses to stay at a simple ... ...w beginning builds up the tension of the story. The reader is more aware of what is happeninig and also able to predict what is going to happen next in the story. However, the story "The Landlady" begins with narrator of the story describing the weather and the main character. The narrator describes the setting of the story as being a very cold, dark winter night. "The air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks" The narrator also describes the main character, Billy Weaver as being a teenager all alone in Bath. Also, as Billy walks around the town, the narrator describes as being deserted. "There were no shops on this wide street". This also builds up the tension of the story. The Landlady, has a smaller, less completecated and confusing opening which keeps the reader following the story and does not confuse or bore it.