Writers use the ghost story genre in a number of ways; the books I am comparing are The Red Room by H.G. Wells, The Signalman by Charles Dickens and The Old Nurse's story by Elizabeth Gaskell. The Red Room centres on an unnamed cocky, confident young man who doesn't believe in ghosts. To prove ghosts don't exist he decides to spend a night in an apparently haunted house. Despite ominous warnings from the elderly protectors of the house he does it anyway. During the night strange things start happening in the room 'I saw the candle in the right...
warning the signalman that a train is coming down the track. In the final part of the Old Nurses Story Hester uncovers an appalling secret about Mrs Furnivall. In the climax of the story the reader gets to see the ghost of the lord of the house. The lord has ''gleaming eyes'' and ''grey hair''. Miss Rosamond is almost possessed by the ghosts she is ''writhing'' and ''sobbing in my arms''. It is very typical of the genre that children get possessed or get drawn to ghosts. The story has a very typical and melodramatic ending to the story.