W.W. Jacobs does a fantastic job in conveying the sense of horror by using terrifying noises in parts of the story, “the sound of a door banging upstairs,” and, “a shuddering cry.” He also uses contrast with silence as an effective tool to scare the reader and to make the passage more tense, “a silence unusual and depressing!” he also shows the mixed emotions that the family felt, “the paw!” she cried wildly, “the monkeys paw,” she said hysterically, “the other two wishes,” she replied rapidly, “we’ve only had one!” this section of the story is also good at conveying a sense of horror because it shows the mother in panic.
From the beginning of the tale, the reader knows that something tragic will happen during the story but you can not tell when it will happen and this is what makes The Monkeys Paw such a successful novel. It makes the reader want to read more and more.
The climax of the story is simply when the mother and father hear a horrendous knocking at their door and they know that it is there son for they had wished him back from the dead. W.W. Jacobs causes more suspense and horror by the layout of the knocks, “a knock……the knock was repeated……a third knock was sounded. There was another knock and another……a perfect fusillade of knocks.” This causes chills to flow through the reader’s spine where as if there was simply hard knocking, the ending wouldn’t be as dramatic and effective.
The Red Room
The red room written by H.G. Wells in the pre 20th century is a frightening tale about a man who decides to visit a haunted castle and enter a room which is said to be haunted. He comes across mysterious things such as hearing weird cries, screams and noises and seeing shadows. Towards the end of story the narrator experiences a fall where he passes out and wakes up the next day knowing that fear is what made fall and see and hear all those things.
The writer creates a sense of mystery in the opening section of the story. He describes the setting, “the castle in which the young duke had died,” this tells us that the castle may be haunted. He describes the characters, “the man with the withered eyes,” and, “an old man, his eyes were in shade, his lower lip half averted, pale and pink.” The weirdness of these characters also creates a sense of mystery and so does the facts that the story is told by the narrator, this makes the reader feel like they’re in the story. The narrator is warned by the weird people about this red room, “it’s your own choosing,” and “this night of all nights.”
Mystery is maintained in the story because you know that something tragic will happen but you don’t know when, H.G. Wells does this by personifications, “a shadow came sweeping up after me,” and, “impression of someone crouching to waylay me,” and, “a lurking, living thing.”
H.G. Wells does an amazing job in conveying the sense of horror by using emotive vocabulary in parts of the story, “with a cry of terror,” and, “it was like a ragged storm cloud sweeping the stars.” He also uses sounds to silences to convey a sense of horror,
“the echoes rang up and down the spiral staircase,” and, “the absolute silence.”
Wells causes more suspense and horror by the description of the room, “the sombre reds and blacks of the room troubled me,” and, “the flickering kept the shadows......shifting and stirring,” this makes it seem that the shadows are alive and moving, Wells also tells us the emotions that the narrator is feeling, “my hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox,” this makes the reader feel more like their in the story.
I found the endings satisfactory. I cannot think of a better ending to close such great novels.
I don’t think that “The Monkey’s Paw” or “The Red Room” would be as successful as they where if they where published in our period of time because today’s readers are less superstitious. In those days the only light sources were candles and therefore darkness was a big issue and caused the people to fear it. Now days if a place is dark we merely have to flick a switch or turn a torch on but in those days people had to light candles which were not very reliable (e.g. the wind could easily put them out).
Houses where very big and hollow with oak panelling and large open fires, this “typically old family house” is portrayed in the monkeys and also in many other documentaries about life during the early 20th century, there where divides between the rich and poor communities and safety in industrial factories was appalling, awful, insufficient and basic. People where very superstitious, they where terrified of ghosts and demons and other things associated with Satan and the dark. Both W.W. Jacobs and H.G. Wells used this and emphasised it to create two brilliant horror novels.
These two novels would be petrifying if I was reading them 100 years ago but I found them dull, boring and occasionally pathetic because the dark, demons and all other things associated with darkness does not scare me.
Written by Moe Hejazi 10P
