Maria Rizoiu

English Major
Light and Darkness:
Optics in H.G. Wells's The Red Room and E.A. Poe's The Oval Portrait
The contrast between light and darkness has been the basis of many literary works, structuring
plots and shaping characters from the first sacred texts up to modern fiction. Order and chaos, good and
evil, beauty and ugliness, truth and lie, knowledge and ignorance, science and mysticism, all these
dichotomies are essentially based on the same basic contrast, that between light and darkness. Since the
human mind prefers to think in terms of oppositions, it is easy to see how more abstract concepts have
been metaphorically mapped by using this very concrete example. Likewise, as we have seen in the
discussions about literature and science, these two fields have also been thought of in terms of an
opposition. It is writers like H.G. Wells and E.A. Poe who managed to combine the two in their works,
essentially bringing light and darkness together. This might be more clear in their science fiction, where
an obvious symbiosis between the scientific field and literary forms can be observed, but there are
other types of writing where science has a more subtle influence.
In Wells's The Red Room and Poe's The Oval Portrait, light and darkness are not only a
metaphorical, but also a physical presence, creating the atmosphere while at the same time providing a
comment on the science behind it. There seem to be two discourses (one literary, the other scientific)
interwoven in the same text, one feeding the interpretation of the other. In this essay the separation of
the two discourses will be attempted, in order to take a closer look at each one and determine their
dynamic. Applying notions from the field of optics, as well as theories on Gothic fiction, the two
chosen short stories will be analyzed in parallel, from a scientific and literary perspective.
Firstly, from the point of view of literary analysis, both stories present features of the Gothic
sub-genre. This is evident from the first line of The Red Room:
"I can assure you," said I, "that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me." (Wells)
The abrupt beginning, as well as the mention of ghosts, create suspense instantly, and from the
oxymoronic construction tangible ghost the reader is aware that what will follow is a classical
confrontation between a non-believer and mystical forces. In the case of The Oval Portrait, the
Gothic element which is immediately evident is the setting:
THE CHATEAU into which my valet had ventured to make forcible entrance, rather than
permit me, in my desperately wounded condition, to pass a night in the open air, was one of

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English Major
those piles of commingled gloom and grandeur which have so long frowned among the
Appennines... (Poe)
The exotic location, the abandoned building and the unexplained injury of the unknown narrator (both
typical of Poe's storytelling technique) engender a similar effect of suspense as Wells, yet Poe's
approach is not at all abrupt. Rather, he slowly builds the scene and the atmosphere, with the aid of
sonorous vocabulary (the alliteration gloom and grandeur), making the reader hyper-aware of the
details.
The setting in Wells is similar, an old house at night, but in this case it is not deserted. However,
the people inhabiting this space have taken on a spectral appearance, and the most ghoulish figure
among the grotesque custodians is that of an old man:
The door creaked on its hinges as a second old man entered, more bent, more wrinkled, more
aged even than the first. He supported himself by the help of a crutch, his eyes were covered by
a shade, and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.
(Wells)
The narrator stresses the discomfort he feels among these senile old people, and the reader
empathetically feels as uncomfortable in their company as in the broken-in chateau of Poe.
Throughout the story, Wells uses repetition in order to accentuate the mystery and the grotesque.
The phrase It is your own choosing appears obsessively since the very beginning, very much like the
raven's Nevermore, but what is more interesting is the description of the man with the shade. After
his introduction in the passage quoted above, this character is continuously referred to as the man with
the shade, a fact which becomes relevant once the narrator enters the Red Room and the episode with
the candles occurs. The darkness of the night takes on an almost corporeal shape and this, together with
the fact that the candles keep being extinguished mysteriously, could lead the reader to make a
connection between the old man and what appears to be the ghost:
() an invisible hand seemed to sweep out the two candles on the table. (Wells)
However, the most interesting thing about the old man's description remains the initial portrait,
namely the syntagm his eyes were covered by a shade. This is where the Platonic notion of light and
vision comes into discussion, as presented by William J. Scheick in the article An Intrinsic
Luminosity: Poe's use of Platonic and Newtonian Optics. Although the article speaks about Poe, I
believe the same principle applies here to Wells. The Platonian view is that eyes are luminous, emitting

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English Major
light from within, as opposed to being mere receptors for external light sources (Scheick 80). Now
Wells's particular choice of words becomes even more relevant: if the old man's eyes are covered by a
shade, instead of being described as clear, or luminous, they emit no light, and can thus be associated
with death. This interpretation also holds on a linguistic level, sustained by the existence of expressions
such as the light went out of his eyes.
A similar focus on eyes can be found in Poe's short story as well. As Scheick remarks, the
entrancing eye of the artist's dying bride (Scheick 80) is central to her description. In this story, the
importance of gazing, seeing and the connection between light and life are made more obvious:
Long- long I read- and devoutly, devotedly I gazed. () I glanced at the painting hurriedly, and
then closed my eyes. () In a very few moments I again looked fixedly at the painting. That I
now saw aright I could not and would not doubt; for the first flashing of the candles upon that
canvas had seemed to dissipate the dreamy stupor which was stealing over my senses, and to
startle me at once into waking life. (Poe)
As noted before, the vocabulary is strikingly expressive with Poe: the use of so many synonyms to
describe the same action while giving it subtle nuances is in itself a linguistic game of shadows.
Particularly relevant to my earlier observation, however, is the final remark of this passage, wherein the
light of the candle is directly connected with waking life.
Going back to The Red Room, it can be noted that candles play a very important role in the
story, serving as the only source of light in the room at night. Moreover, particular emphasis is given to
the careful placement of the candles about the room, with an abundance of details as to their placement
and number, so that no nook or cranny should remain in darkness:
I recalled the wax candles I had seen in the corridor, and, with a slight effort, carrying a candle
and leaving the door open, I walked out into the moonlight, and presently returned with as many
as ten. These I put in the various knick-knacks of china with which the room was sparsely
adorned, and lit and placed them where the shadows had lain deepest, some on the floor, some
in the window recesses, arranging and rearranging them until at last my seventeen candles were
so placed that not an inch of the room but had the direct light of at least one of them. (Wells)
The anxiety with which the narrator struggles to light the room induces the same feeling in the reader,
but it can also be metaphorically interpreted as a struggle for knowledge, for shedding light unto the
dark, mysterious and unknown corners of the universe, a scientist's dislike for doubt and 'shadows'. The

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English Major
rationalist, when confronted with the unknown, will immediately attempt to use reason in order to
explain, to understand, to know. This is symbolized by the carrying of the candle to the darkest corner
of the room which began to display that undefinable quality of a presence (Wells). The same motion
can be observed in The Oval Portrait as well, only in that case, the discovery (by means of candle
light) is accidental:
But the action produced an effect altogether unanticipated. The rays of the numerous candles
(for there were many) now fell within a niche of the room which had hitherto been thrown into
deep shade by one of the bed-posts. (Poe)
The bed-posts are also delimiters of the narrator's field of vision, or, metaphorically speaking, obstacles
in the way of knowledge.
This passivity of the eye is more in line with Aristotle and Newtonian optics (Scheick 80-81),
which Poe and, I believe, Wells also employ: the eye does not illuminate on its own, the light reflected
onto different surfaces is the one which reveals reality to the observer. What also comes into discussion
is the obliqueness of vision, which actually reveals certain truths better than direct vision. The beauty
of the woman in the portrait, for example, appears to the painter most strongly when he only glances at
her over his brushes as he paints:
[he] turned his eyes from canvas merely, even to regard the countenance of his wife (Poe)
The narrator's vision is also oblique, once because at first he only catches a glimpse of the woman as
the candles accidentally shed light upon the painting, and twice because what he regards is not the
person, but rather an image. This mediated view (mediated by the comments in the book he is reading
as well) seems to capture the true life of the young woman, as she appears more alive in her portrait,
both to the painter and to the narrator, than she did in the flesh. This is why the symbolic passing of her
spirit or essence into the canvas shows that beauty can be truly observed only through works of art,
which are oblique visions of reality, and not by direct contemplation.
In Scheick's study the gap between objective reality and subjective perception is also
mentioned. This is most evident in Wells's story with respect to the identity of the supposed ghost. The
conclusion offered by the narrator is telling:
"There is neither ghost of earl nor ghost of countess in that room; there is no ghost there at all,
but worse, far worse, something impalpable" () "The worst of all the things that haunt poor
mortal men," said I; "and that is, in all its nakedness'Fear!' Fear that will not have light nor

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English Major
sound, that will not bear with reason, that deafens and darkens and overwhelms. It followed me
through the corridor, it fought against me in the room" (Wells)
Fear, therefore, created the gap between reality and perception (which are still disjuncted in this
testimony, if the references to the shadow's corporeality should be taken into account). From a
psychoanalytical perspective, fear is part of the id, the repository of instincts and of suppressed desires,
associated with darkness and in stark opposition to reason and light.
Fear is the blank canvas on which the narrator of The Red Room unconsciously projects his
own images, just as the three old people have done before him. Each sees something different in the
figure of the ghost, because each has a different mental image which they project, irrespective of the
objective reality. Similarly, in The Oval Portrait, it can be said that the painter projects his own
mental image of the beloved onto the canvas, since he is the only one to see beauty, serenity and
happiness where everyone else sees the sadness and decay of the young woman:
And be was a passionate, and wild, and moody man, who became lost in reveries; so that he
would not see that the light which fell so ghastly in that lone turret withered the health and the
spirits of his bride, who pined visibly to all but him. (Poe)
Thus, physical perception is seen to be actually influenced by imagination, and the mental image
becomes more powerful and tangible than the so-called objective reality.
What is striking about Wells's story from this point of view is that he gives a solution to the
enigma of the ghost, presenting a more objective view in the light of day and diffusing the tension. Poe,
on the other hand, ends his story without presenting a rational explanation for the portrait or the death
of the young woman. What the reader is left with is the supernatural legend, as stated in the painting
catalog which the narrator relates. This has a more powerful effect, although Wells's reader should
rationalize some of the finer details on his own if he is to diffuse the mystery of the ghost altogether.
With Poe, the question is entirely up to the reader, to believe in the captivating play of two-way mirrors
which break down the barrier between reality and perception, between reason and the supernatural,
between light and darkness.
To conclude, I believe both Wells and Poe manage to insert scientific principles into their art,
using optics to play with light and enhance the narrative structures. However, I find Poe's technique to
be more subtle, more coherent and more efficient, blurring the lines between the real, the possible and
the supernatural, between the earthly plane and that of spirits and magic. Meanwhile, Wells boldly puts

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English Major
the doubting rationalist face to face with mystery, only to have reason triumph without much question,
just as dawn conquers the night and the sun chases away any shadow of doubt.

Maria Rizoiu
English Major
Bibliography
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Oval Portrait. HTML version via xroads.virginia.edu.
Scheick, William J. An Intrinsic Luminosity: Poe's Use of Platonic and Newtonian Optics in
American Literature and Science, Robert J. Scholnick, University Press of Kentucky, 2010.
Wells, H.G. The Red Room. HTML version via gutenberg.org.