How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
And there were other and older stories that clung to the room, back to the half-credible beginning of it all, the tale of a timid wife and the tragic end that came to her husband's jest of frightening her. (31)
More on the red room’s dark history. Its reputation is a large part of what makes it a place steeped in fear. What’s particularly interesting about this passage, however, is that we learn that the place first became cursed when the young countess came to a tragic end. And how did she come to a tragic end? She was frightened (though we don’t know how) by her husband. The old woman makes significant mention of her being frightened again at the end of the story (48). So at the very beginning of the red room’s black history, there’s fear.
Quote #5
I resolved to make a systematic examination of the place at once, and dispel the fanciful suggestions of its obscurity before they obtained a hold upon me. (32)
The narrator is worried about the "the fanciful suggestions of [the red room’s] obscurity." In other words, he’s worried that the suggestive figures taken by the shadows ("fanciful suggestions") and general surrounding darkness ("obscurity") will spook him. In this sense, we see an admission that his fear is within his control (i.e., it’s something that can "get a hold" of him). There’s also the suggestion that fear isn’t just something "in one’s head"; the fear in him is brought about by something out there, by the darkness of the room itself. So what threatens him is both "inside" and "outside" him.
Quote #6
By this time I was in a state of considerable nervous tension, although to my reason there was no adequate cause for the condition. My mind, however, was perfectly clear. I postulated quite unreservedly that nothing supernatural could happen, and to pass the time I began to string some rhymes together, Ingoldsby fashion, of the original legend of the place. A few I spoke aloud, but the echoes were not pleasant. (34)
Here the narrator admits that he’s starting to get nervous about the situation. Not only that, he also admits that there’s a separation between the state of his nerves and that of his mind. His "reason" is perfectly clear; there is nothing to fear rationally. His reason doesn't have an effect on his nerves, however, which are beginning to give way. He needs to find other measures of comforting himself.