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The Man with the Withered Arm
The old woman is one of the elderly custodians who look after Lorraine Castle. She is the most concerned about the narrator’s planned exploration of the Red Room; repeatedly, she exclaims, “This night of all nights!” though she never clarifies what makes this night so especially terrifying. Upon finding the narrator unconscious in the Red Room, she is the custodian to care for his ailments, preparing doses of medicine. She, like the man with the withered arm, is shocked to learn that the Red Room isn’t haunted by ghost, as she was sure it was haunted by “the poor young countess.”
The Old Woman Quotes in The Red Room
The The Red Room quotes below are all either spoken by The Old Woman or refer to The Old Woman . 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
“Eight-and-twenty years,” said I, “I have lived, and never a ghost have I seen as yet.”
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(“This night of all nights!” said the old woman.)
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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.
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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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The Old Woman Character Timeline in The Red Room
The timeline below shows where the character The Old Woman appears in The Red Room. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Red Room
The narrator assures two elderly custodians—an old man with a “withered arm" and an old woman —that he could only be frightened by “a very tangible ghost.” At 28 years old,...
(full context)
...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 no mind. He makes...
(full context)
