# The Room in the Tower explained — Ghost Stories > Chapter companion for Ghost Stories by E. F. Benson. ## What happens The narrator reflects on the nature of dreams and coincidences before recounting a recurring nightmare from his youth about a redbrick house with a tower. Years later, he visits his friend Jack Stone's home and realizes it matches the dream house. He is given a bedroom in the tower, where a portrait of Mrs. Stone hangs. After the portrait is moved, he experiences a terrifying supernatural encounter: the ghostly figure of Mrs. Stone appears, touches him, and speaks of feasting. His friend John Clinton discovers the portrait back in place and a foul, earth-stained thing on the floor. The story concludes with the revelation that Mrs. Stone committed suicide in the tower room and her body was repeatedly found protruding from its grave. ## Themes in this chapter ### Psychology of Dreams and Perception The chapter opens with a detailed discussion of dreams, coincidence, and the subconscious, framing the supernatural events as a possible psychological phenomenon. ### Supernatural and Occult The central event is a ghostly visitation by the deceased Mrs. Stone, involving a moving portrait, a spectral figure, and physical evidence of the supernatural. ### Death and the Afterlife The story revolves around Mrs. Stone's suicide, her restless spirit, and the gruesome detail of her coffin filling with blood, suggesting an unnatural death. ## Character check-ins ### Unknown Narrator The narrator and protagonist, a habitual dreamer who experiences a recurring nightmare that later comes true. ### Jack Stone A former schoolfellow of the narrator, son of the house where the nightmare is realized. ### Julia Stone Jack Stone's mother, whose portrait hangs in the tower room; she committed suicide and her ghost haunts the narrator. ### John Clinton A friend staying at the house who investigates the tower room and confirms the supernatural presence. ## Key lines > It is probable that everybody who is at all a constant dreamer has had at least one experience of an event or a sequence of circumstances which have come to his mind in sleep being subsequently realised in the material world. Most frequent dreamers have likely experienced a dream that later came true in real life. _Opening reflection on the commonality of precognitive dreams._ > I knew you would come to the room in the tower. I have been long waiting for you. At last you have come. Tonight I shall feast; before long we will feast together. The ghost of Mrs. Stone tells the narrator she has been expecting him and promises a shared feast. _Climactic supernatural dialogue during the haunting._ > Yes, the portrait's there, and on the floor is a thing—a thing spotted with earth, like what they bury people in. Come away, quick, come away. John Clinton confirms the portrait has returned and there is a grave-soiled object on the floor, urging immediate escape. _John's horrified discovery after investigating the tower room._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ghost_stories_se/chapters/the-room-in-the-tower - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ghost_stories_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ghost_stories_se/chapters