What makes a haunted house ‘scary? ‘ Is it the mystery, the unknown suspense of what is inside? Is it the feeling people have when inside that environment? These characteristics of being in this setting are known are known as the gothic elements, which are the factors contributing to the eerie scenery. Similar to a haunted house, the red room from chapter two of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is seen as a spooky setting, causing people to feel anxiety and fear while inside.
The characteristics and mysteries the red room holds as well as Jane’s severe distress throughout the scenery are the gothic elements that significantly contribute to the spooky atmosphere of the setting. The element of a mysterious, suspenseful atmosphere is enhanced through the red room’s overwhelming use of the color red, as well as being the place of Mr. Reed’s death. As the red room’s characteristics are being described, Jane states, “A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask… he carpet was red; the table out at the food of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a sort fawn colour with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet table, the chairs were darkly polished old mahogany,” (Bronte 29-30). Due to the color red being seen as a symbol of death, blood, and violence, a sense of mystery arises on why the entire room is covered in this color. This mystery conjures a feeling of fear as well, causing the red room to have a spooky affect on others.
In addition to the red room’s Dempsey 2 physical characteristics, another frightening contribution to the red room is shown through the uncertainty of Mr. Reed’s death. While Jane explains Mr. Reed’s significance to the red room, she describes, “… her deceased husband; and those last words lies the secret of the red-room, the spell which kept it so lonely in spite of its grandeur. Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the under-taker’s men, and since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from from frequent intrusion,” (Bronte 31).
Mr. Reed’s death in the room res up a fear of the unknown, as well as a feeling of his presence in the room. The death is a characteristic of the room’s past, creating a sense of uncertainty and fear as well as enhancing the eerie mood of the setting. Through its pure red characteristics, as well as the past death that lingers in the room, the frightfulness of the red room is significantly demonstrated. The overwrought emotions and anxiety Jane experiences from being in the red room are the gothic elements that contribute to the room’s creepy setting.
As Jane describes her feelings after seeing a streak of light in the red room, she states, “I thought the swift darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears… I was oppressed, suffocated; endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort,” (Bronte 39). Jane’s distress is evidently revealed during her frantic movements in response to seeing the mysterious streak of light. In addition, the desperate attempt Jane makes to escape the room demonstrates how the red room triggers Jane’s serious anxiety.
As Jane’s overwhelming stress is shown through the scene, her emotions of the room cause the reader to have feelings of suspense and terror relating to the setting. Through an Dempsey 3 additional event of Jane’s extreme distress in the red room, the enhanced eerie effect of this scenery is shown. As a scene of dramatic stress and reaction is being described, Jane explains, “Bessie and Abbot having retreated, Mrs. Reed, impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me in, without farther parley.
I heard her sweeping away; and soon after she was gone, I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene,” (Bronte 42). Jane’s mental suffering of sobs and stress leading her to faint at the end of the chapter is a mysterious element of horror. The unknown of why she suspiciously passes out in the room is a gothic element of Jane’s overwrought emotion, demonstrating the eerie effect throughout the red room scenery. Due to the extreme anxiety and feelings that Jane encounters while in the room, the feeling of mystery and horror from Jane’s reactions enhances the spooky atmosphere of this setting.
