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The Old Woman
The man with the shade is one of the elderly custodians who look after Lorraine Castle. He appears after the narrator has already begun his conversation with the man with the withered arm and the old woman. He appears older and sicker than the other custodians and says nothing to the narrator except to question if “[he’s] really going” to the Red Room. Unlike the other custodians, the man with the shade is unsurprised by the narrator’s revelation that the Red Room is haunted by fear.
The Man with the Shade Quotes in The Red Room
The The Red Room quotes below are all either spoken by The Man with the Shade or refer to The Man with the Shade . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Red Room Quotes
At the door I turned and looked at them, and saw they were all close together, dark against the firelight, staring at me over their shoulders, with an intent expression on their ancient faces.
Related Characters:
Narrator (speaker), The Man with the Withered Arm , The Old Woman , The Man with the Shade
Related Symbols:
Darkness and Light
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
173-174
Explanation and Analysis:
This passage comes as the narrator leaves the custodians in their chamber so he can make his way to the Red Room. The imagery is distinct; not only does Wells highlight the age of the custodians, but he also sets up the importance of darkness and light as symbolic motifs throughout the remainder of the story.
At this point, the narrator is still uneasy and fearful of the old custodians. He sees them as odd creatures who act as an extension of the Red Room’s haunting persona, and, here, they are connected to darkness. Their figures block the firelight from the narrator’s view—meaning, in other words, that they are the ones who begin to shape his fear of the Red Room. This image prepares readers for the recurrence of darkness representing fear and light representing courage. Because the custodians are still beacons of fear for the narrator, they are linked with the darkness that ultimately overwhelms the narrator’s courage.
I must confess that the oddness of these three old pensioners in whose charge her ladyship had left the castle, and the deep-toned, old-fashioned furniture of the housekeeper’s room in which they forgathered, affected me in spite of my efforts to keep myself at a matter of fact phase.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
There is Fear in that room of hers—black Fear, and there will be—so long as this house of sin endures.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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The Man with the Shade Character Timeline in The Red Room
The timeline below shows where the character The Man with the Shade appears in The Red Room. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Red Room
The door creaks open and another old man enters the room: the man with the shade . He is distinguished by his eyes, covered by a “shade,” and his decaying teeth....
(full context)
...to the purportedly haunted room, the Red Room, he will have to go alone. Both the man with the shade and the old woman continue to question his decision, but the narrator pays their worry...
(full context)
...ghost, but rather “the worst of all things that haunt poor mortal men […] ‘Fear!’” The man with the shade agrees with him, saying that, if the house continues to exist, fear will continue to...
(full context)
