Friday, March 20, 2020

How does H G Wells convey fear in The Red Room Essay Example

How does H G Wells convey fear in The Red Room Essay Example How does H G Wells convey fear in The Red Room Paper How does H G Wells convey fear in The Red Room Paper Essay Topic: Literature What is fear? Fear is an emotion caused by threat of some form of harm, it is something manifested in bravado or symptoms of anxiety, and is prompting a decision to fight the threat of escape from it. People fear the unanticipated and are concurrently captivated with it. Fear is an emotion that horror movies play on to frighten viewers making them anxious of things that do not even exist. Fear is danger and danger is harm. Fear can be envisioned through the colour red, a symbol for danger. By using the word red in the title the author, H G Wells, shows some sort of danger or fear in the story. Red is usually associated with fear and danger. He shows fear by showing the narrator to be a very cocky and confident person. He gradually changes his mood when he experiences fear. The title The red room gives a creepy feeling to the reader, the red obviously stands for danger and the room creates an imagination in the readers minds, telling them it is a haunted room and may also create an imagination of what it looks like. H G Wells has conveyed fear logically is the depiction of the surroundings. This castle is very spooky and has an eerie atmosphere: chilly, echoing passages, pallid silence, old fashioned furniture and germinating darkness. H G Wells in this sense creates the perfect horror movie atmosphere and environment. The author uses the imagery technique within his writing. It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me. The quote shows that he was not scared at all in the beginning but as the story goes on he realizes the fear. The narrator wanted to visit the red room to prove that it was not hunted and that all the conference of ghost was in the residents imagination. He considered himself to be courageous since it would take a tangible ghost to scare him. The author, H G Wells, to create a spooky atmosphere, used repetitive techniques. So that mystery sticks in the readers mind and the readers are intrigued to read on. For example Its your own choosing, said the man with the withered arm once more. This quote is used five times by the narrator. This demonstrates that there is definitely something not so correct in the room the narrator is about to visit. The man with the withered arm warns he narrator but he still decides to go. The author creates a mystery by giving all the characters no names. The reader becomes anxious. No names are mentioned because fear happens to everyone, so that the reader can identify more whats happened in the story, as they can correspond to anyone of us! We can relate to the story and its theme of fear. A man with a withered arm warned the visitor that he if he were to visit the Red Room he would go alone. The writer describes the people at the house with physical defects they seem strange. It creates an eerie in the story. It shows that there is something erroneous with the people. This is a technique used by the writer to create an atmosphere of trepidation in the story. H G Wells has written the story The Red Room as if the author is in the first person narrative. This is so that the reader can imagine that they are part of the action of the story. Example: I can assure you, said I, that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me. In this quote the author, H G Wells has written the words as if the person, who said these lines, is not petrified of anything at all. It seems as if he is extremely brave. He was showing no fear of danger in daunting matters. He also expresses this character to be courageous and ignorant as he does not take any notice of the cautions he has been informed of. H G Wells uses short clauses to show that he is panicking in his thoughts. Example: The door creaked, on its hinges, as a second old man entered, more bent, more wrinkled, more aged, even that the first. H G Wells writes these small phases deliberately so that as the readers are reading the story in their minds can go though the action quickly. My candles was a little tongue of life, once again the author is trying to create a spooky atmosphere. He exploits characterization to show fear. He brings the candle to life to add an overall frightening environment. He also uses many adjectives to convey an eerie, spooky atmosphere such as, decaying, yellow teeth withered, creaked. My hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox. Why did his hands tremble? Why was he acting so terrified? He was catching nerves and was beginning to tremble because he was too scared. It now starts to show that he was not so brave after all and it really did not take a tangible ghost to frighten him. H G Wells is trying to tell the readers that the visitor was scared by his action. On this lay my revolver ready to my hands He had to feel that he had to defend his self, when he said that he was not scared of anything in the red room. He thought that he has to feel safe with keeping a revolver with him. Soon further on in the story he gets incredibly terrified and starts to believe that there is some thing in the red room but it was all in his mind. The conversation he had with the people down stairs started to create an imagination within his mind, this caused him to act in such a way. The author has shown that, in fear, your imagination runs wild as the visitor thought that a shadow came sweeping up after him and one fled before him. Embodiment is used once more to create a daunting atmosphere. He completely changed the way he felt from the beginning till the end. At first he went in the red room very secure but comes out with a shocking feeling, his imagination takes over his body. It was all in his mind. Fear is always everywhere. Everyone is petrified of something. H G Wells uses certain terminology to arise fear in the readers mind, as he says how the visitor experiences a sudden twinge of apprehension. This shows that the visitors attitude and viewpoints have changed significantly. Further on in the story the visitor starts to act hastily and abruptly. The visitor is now losing his patience as he undergoes a considerable nervous tension. At the beginning of the story the visitor states publicly that it would only take a tangible ghost to frighten him. And he admits that the room that he was so concerned and inquisitive to visit was haunted. Fear is everywhere and is in every human person. Even some animals have fear for other animals. Fear is inside every person. Fear is natural. Fear brings out what a person feels, his feelings. Obviously no one actually likes to show that they fear of something or their weaknesses. No one can hide fear even if they act as if they are so courageous and fearless. In my judgment H G Wells has done extremely well to generate fear in The Red Room. In such a short story he has conveyed fear in a very superior technique.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Biography of Samuel Morse, Inventor of the Telegraph

Biography of Samuel Morse, Inventor of the Telegraph Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791–April 2, 1872) is famous as the inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code, but what he really wanted to do was paint. He was a well-established artist when his youthful interest in electronics resurfaced, leading to the communications invention that changed humanity until it was overshadowed by the telephone, radio, television, and, finally, the internet. Fast Facts: Samuel F.B. Morse Known For: Inventor of the telegraphBorn: April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, MassachusettsParents: Jedidiah Morse, Elizabeth Ann Finley BreeseDied: April 2, 1872 in New York, New YorkEducation: Yale College (now Yale University)Spouse(s): Lucretia Pickering Walker, Sarah Elizabeth GriswoldChildren: Susan, Charles, James, Samuel, Cornelia, William, EdwardNotable Quote: What hath God wrought? Early Life and Education Samuel F.B. Morse was born on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the first child of noted geographer and Congregational minister Jedidiah Morse and Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese. His parents were committed to his schooling and the Calvinist faith. His early education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, was undistinguished, except for his interest in art. He next enrolled in Yale College (now Yale University) at age 14, where he focused on art but found a new interest in the little-studied subject of electricity. He earned money by painting small portraits of friends, classmates, and teachers before graduating in 1810 with Phi Beta Kappa honors. He returned to Charlestown after college. Despite his wishes to be a painter and encouragement from famed American painter Washington Allston, Morses parents wanted him to be a booksellers apprentice. He became a clerk for Daniel Mallory, his fathers Boston book publisher. Trip to England A year later, Morses parents relented and let him sail to England with Allston. He attended the Royal Academy of Arts in London and received instruction from Pennsylvania-born painter Benjamin West. Morse became friends with poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, several accomplished painters, and American actor John Howard Payne. He adopted a â€Å"romantic† painting style featuring heroic characters and epic events.  In 1812, his plaster statuette The Dying Hercules won a gold medal at the Adelphi Society of Arts exhibition in London, and his painting of the same subject received critical acclaim at the Royal Academy. Family Morse returned to the U.S. in 1815 and opened an art studio in Boston. The next year, seeking portrait commissions to earn a living, he traveled to New Hampshire and met Lucretia Pickering Walker, 16, in Concord. They soon became engaged. Morse painted some of his most notable work at this time, including portraits of military leader  Marquis de Lafayette  and President  George Washington.   On Sept. 29, 1818, Lucretia Walker and Morse were married in Concord. Morse spent the winter in Charleston, South Carolina, and received many portrait commissions there. The couple spent the rest of the year painting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A year later, Morses first child was born. While living with his family in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1821, Morse painted more distinguished individuals, including cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney and dictionary compiler Noah Webster. Morses second child was born in 1823 and his third child arrived two years later, but tragedy followed. One month after the birth of his third child, Lucretia Morse died suddenly at age 25 and was buried in New Haven before he could return. Interest in Electricity Resurfaces In 1827, Columbia College Professor James Freeman Dana presented a series of lectures on electricity and electromagnetism at the New York Athenaeum, where Morse also lectured. Through their friendship, Morse became more familiar with the properties of his earlier interest. In November 1829, leaving his children in the care of relatives, Morse left for a three-year tour of Europe, where he visited friends Lafayette and novelist James Fenimore Cooper, studied art collections, and painted. While raising his family, painting, lecturing on art, and viewing works by the old masters, Morses fascination with electronics and inventions never disappeared. In 1817, he and his brother Sidney patented a human-powered water pump for fire engines that worked but was a commercial failure. Five years later, Morse invented a marble-cutting machine that could carve three-dimensional sculptures, but it couldnt be patented because it infringed on an earlier design. Meanwhile, advances in electronics had been moving the world closer to a device that could send messages over vast distances. In 1825, British physicist and inventor William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet, which would be a key component of the telegraph. Six years later, American scientist Joseph Henry developed a more powerful electromagnet and demonstrated how it could send electric signals over long distances, suggesting the possibility of a device such as the telegraph. In 1832, on his voyage home from Europe, Morse conceived the idea of an electromagnetic telegraph during conversations with another passenger, a doctor who described to Morse European experiments with electromagnetism. Inspired, Morse wrote in his sketchbook ideas for a prototype of an electromagnetic recording telegraph and a dot-and-dash code system that would bear his name. Later that year, Morse was appointed professor of painting and sculpture at the University of the City of New York (now New York University), but he continued to work on the telegraph. Developing the Telegraph In the fall of 1835, Morse built a recording telegraph with a moving paper ribbon and demonstrated it to friends and acquaintances. The next year he demonstrated his prototype to a professor of science at the university. Over the next several years, Morse demonstrated his invention to friends, professors, a House of Representatives committee, President Martin Van Buren, and his cabinet. He took on several partners who helped with the science and financing, but his work also began to attract competitors. On Sept. 28, 1837, Morse began the patent process for the telegraph. By November he was able to send a message through 10 miles of wire arranged on reels in a university lecture room. The next month, after completing the paintings he was working on, Morse set aside his art to devote his full attention to the telegraph. At this point, other men- including the doctor on Morses 1832 return voyage from Europe and several European inventors- were claiming credit for the telegraph. The claims were resolved and in 1840 Morse was granted a U.S. patent for his device. Lines were strung between many cities, and on May 24, 1844, Morse sent his famous message- What hath God wrought?- from the Supreme Court chamber in Washington, D.C., to the B O Railroad Depot in Baltimore, Maryland. By 1849, an estimated 12,000 miles of telegraph lines were being run by 20 American companies in the United States. In 1854, the Supreme Court upheld Morses patent claims, meaning that all U.S. companies using his system had to pay him royalties. On Oct. 24, 1861, Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph line to California. After several breaks, a permanent undersea Atlantic Cable was finally laid in 1866. New Family Back in 1847 Morse, already a wealthy man, had bought Locust Grove, an estate overlooking the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, New York. The next year he married Sarah Elizabeth Griswold, a second cousin 26 years his junior. The couple had four children together. In the 1850s, he built an Italian villa-style mansion on the Locust Grove property and spent his summers there with his large family of children and grandchildren, returning each winter to his brownstone in New York. Death On April 2, 1872, Samuel Morse died in New York. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Legacy Morses invention changed the world, as it was used by the military during engagements, newspaper reporters filing stories from the field, far-flung businesses, and others. After his death, his fame as the inventor of the telegraph was obscured by other communication devices- the telephone, radio,  television, and the  internet- while his reputation as an artist grew. At one time he didnt want to be remembered as a portrait painter, but his powerful, sensitive portraits have been exhibited throughout the United States. His 1837 telegraph instrument is in the  Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington,  D.C. His Locust Grove estate is a national historic landmark. Sources Samuel F.B. Morse: American Artist and Inventor. Encyclopedia Britannica.Samuel F.B. Morse: Inventor. Biography.com.