Another factor in this story that creates suspense is the mysterious “…red room…” and its description of being a “…haunted room…”. This quote raises suspense rapidly because it adds more horror to the current unpleasant situation and also recalls the fear inside us of haunted castles and reminds us of frightening ghosts. The word “red” also reminds us of blood and of death and make us suspect that something dreadful might happen to the writer. It increases the fear and suspense levels inside to maximum levels but not quite to the top yet. At this stage, the reader now feels involved and he or she is automatically dragged into imagining their selves in that point and they are now placed at the face of the actions. At this moment, the reader can’t wait any longer to discover what’s on next.
The main element in the setting that really creates suspense is the writer’s intensive description of the passage he took to reach the red room and the surroundings of the passage that he been through:
“The long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty,”
The above quote that the writer has used is very descriptive and strongly agrees with my point. It enables the reader to easily create an image in mind of what the surroundings are like, which leads us to getting scared easily and especially that it is dark. The suspense levels in this part raise alongside the fear levels and they increase as we get closer to the haunted room and we are consciously waiting to arrive there and to find out what’s in that room of doom.
Moving on to discussing the structure of “The Monkey’s Paw”. We can clearly see that the writer has began his story with a very typical first sentence: “Without, the night was cold and wet,”
This sentence is very traditional and is typical for a scary story and is found in many scary stories beginnings. It also gives the reader the first impression of suspense by mentioning “…night…”. Due to this the reader’s might feel interested, therefore eager to dive deep and explore the story.
In “The Monkey’s Paw” we can spot a pattern of suspense, which changes according to the actions. The story starts with a rather calm and peaceful scene with “Father and son were at chess”. However, the arrival of an outside visitor slightly breaks the peace and brings tension: “‘There he is’, said Herbert White”. The visitor raises suspense by making the readers ask question which are related to him and what he’s got to do with the development of the actions. When the visitor introduces the paw ton the family, our suspense levels were raised dramatically, because having a monkey’s paw inside your is a bit strange and is abnormal. The visitor also raised the suspense level when he told the White’s that they could use it to grant wishes for them selves, so we start wondering if they will use it and what will thy wish for.
The peaks of high tension in this story are caused when the characters intend to use the monkey’s paw to ask for a wish, and the first peak was the first wish: “‘I wish for two hundred pounds,’”. The family wished for their first wish but the two hundred pounds didn’t come immediately as they thought. The reader now starts to happen of what went wrong and if the money they wished for would come later or if the monkey’s paw really doesn’t work. Another act that raised suspense and made us believe in the monkey’s paw is that it “twisted” in Mr White’s hands and this is an unnatural event that created fear in us and in Mr White himself.
The tension then falls after the change in time from the fearful night into the bright morning: “In the brightness…”. This quote drops suspense very rapidly and makes the reader now feel calmer and safer.
This safety atmosphere is broken by the strange acts of an outsider: “…mysterious movements of a man outside,”. This quote and especially this mysterious man raises our suspense levels and gets us started to thinking about what is this man doing outside and why is he hesitating to talk to the White’s. This man’s hesitation also raises suspense when he enters the White’s house and is still hesitated to tell them what he came to tell them. The suspense levels are raising steadily with no falls as a result of this mans hesitation and because of our continuous queries of what it could it be that is that hard to mention to Mr and Mrs White.
Then the suspense levels reach the top when we hear form the man that the White family will receive: “‘Two hundred pounds’” as a compensation for their son’s death. The readers are now stunned in the way that the wish money was received and never they never expected it to come this way. After this shock, we start to question ourselves if the White family would use the paw again despite what happened last time and if they will use it, what will they wish for?
When coming towards the end of the story the suspense levels drop slightly as a result of the White’s mourning their son’s death and the change in time: “…the days passed…”, but the suspense raises back again when Mrs White insists in using The Monkey’s Paw to wish her son alive again. At this stage and because of Mrs White’s manic behaviour the suspense levels reach a climax. This suspense level is retained until the end of the story: “The street lamp flickering…”. This quote is still keeping our tension levels high, even thought the story has finished. This results in us wanting to complete reading the story despite it ending, so this was a good technique that the writer has used to keep his readers attracted to the story even after it finished. He also left a feeling of insecurity and a feeling that this thing that knocked the door would come back, and we want to discover it. We also want to know if this thing was their son and if the paw really did the job.
In “The Red Room” we can spot a different pattern of suspense that keeps on rising gradually until reaching a climax near the end of the story. The suspense levels are already raised from the first line in the story: “‘…it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’”. The word ghost is the first word that grabs our attention and gives us an idea of the way that actions might take place. The arrogance of the narrator makes the reader sense that he will be proven wrong and that he will look stupid in front of the readers.
Another thing that keeps the suspense raising is the continuous warnings that the narrator keeps on receiving from the old people: “‘It is your choosing,’”. These warnings are a very strong signs of danger that the narrator totally ignores through out the beginning of the story. The ignorance that the narrator is showing, proves again that he will be proven wrong and that something will happen to him that will teach him a lesson not to underestimate other people continuous warnings.
The intensive description of the long passage that the narrator takes to reach The Red Room keeps the suspense raising without a drop: “The long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty,”. This quote and others of the same structure are very effective, descriptive and create a clear image in the readers mind of how creepy it is in there. It creates suspense because we imagine our selves in there and results in us feeling uncomfortable and insecure.
The tension levels keep on rising steadily until the narrator reaches the red room and the candles starting to fade out: “…a little tongue of light…”. This is where the suspense levels start to rise quickly and the line of suspense starts to get steeper. The climax of the story is then when the narrator behaves hysterically because of the fear inside him of the surroundings in “The Red Room”. The intensive imagery that the narrator creates makes us believe as if we were in that room, so we get scared and our suspense levels are extremely high.
In both stories, we can spot a similarity at the beginning. They both start with a first sentence that grabs readers attention and interest in reading the rest of the story, in “The Monkey’s Paw” this first sentence contains words like: “… the night was cold and wet,”. In The Red Room”, this sentence was: “‘…it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’”. These two sentences leave a very big effect on the reader by making him or her feel an eager to read more and discover the story. The stories have a differentiation in the way the tension is built up. In “The Monkey’s Paw” the line of suspense keeps on rising up and lowering down. However, it is totally different in “The Red Room” and the line of suspense keeps on rising until reaching a climax at the end.
In the language of “The Monkey’s Paw”, the writer uses adverbs to add suspense to the story: “…breathlessly.”. This word that describes Mrs White, gives us a good view in mind of how she is know. It also makes us feel the same and changes our pace of reading to a faster pace, so we feel tired as well. It creates suspense because it shows us how much Mrs White is worried and that she really feels that something terrible had happened to her son and we feel the same.
The writer also uses short sentences in his story that create tension in the reader: “‘What is it?’” / “‘Is he hurt’”. These short sentences are a result of Mrs White’s agitation and worry about her son. We as readers also feel agitated because of these short sentences that speed up the stories pace and make us run out of breath. We also expect that something bad would happen and the characters are the one’s with their agitated action’s that give us this feeling.
Another technique in language is the deliberate choice of words that create an atmosphere or place an image in the reader’s mind: “…throwing pulsating shadows on the ceiling and walls,”. This sentences describe the motions that Mr White’s candle shown. The writer created suspense by creating a very clear image in the reader’s mind of how scary these shadows are and of how dark it is in there. He also uses personification by giving the shadows a pulse and this scares because we feel as if these shadows are going to attack us and make us think that it might also attack Mr White.
The language in “The Red Room” also uses imagery and descriptions that help create tension: “The long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty,”. This quote is a very good example of the writer’s technique, it creates an image of a long, creepy, dusty and dark passage in the reader’s mind and makes them feel the draught, the chilliness and smell the dust. The writer uses this technique all through the story, as it creates tension in the reader’s and makes them attracted to it. Another example is: “little tongue of light”, this quote creates suspense by making us realise how dark it is in the red room and also makes us feel the fear of dark that the narrator is feeling, so puts us in the same situation.
The writer has also used long frantic sentences that describe each motion he is undertaking: “‘…,I dashed at the alcove, then into the corner, and then into the window,…then on that’”. These descriptive short sentence that keep on going without a full stop for about 8 lines, are very good at creating suspense. They create a brilliant image in mind of the actions and make the reader’s feel as if they are there and they also sense each moment of fear that the narrator is going through. Putting all these short sentences inside a big paragraph is good because it gives you a rapid line of actions in mind that makes you fell tense, therefore tension levels increase. The use of connectivity words get you to read the sentences with nearly no stop, so it builds the tension inside you and creates fear.
When comparing the language in both stories we can identify a similarity, which is the use of description and imagery. The writer’s use very descriptive words and sentences that help the reader to generate a very clear image of how it is in that particular situation. These images build up suspense in the reader’s because they make the reader feel involved and blend the reader in with that situation.
