Comparing "The Red Room" and "The Monkey's Paw".

The stories both use pathetic fallacy at the beginning, pathetic fallacy is using the weather to create an atmosphere, and both stories do so as, ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ describes the location as “Cold” and The Red Room describes the location in “Darkness”, showing the use of pathetic fallacy. Also the settings of the stories are in isolation, which is another similarity.

The characters are also similar in both stories; they show similar feelings and reactions. The characters are arrogant in both stories as the narrator in ‘The Red Room’ says, “I can assure you “that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me”, and from The Monkey’s Paw “how could two hundred pounds could hurt you father”. Along with these lines an effect of something to happen later in the stories is created. Near the end of each story the characters learn a lesson; in ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ they learn that fate cannot be changed or messed with and in ‘The Red Room’ the character learns that the only thing scary about the Red Room is ‘fear’ itself. The grouping of the characters in both stories is very similar; in ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ a stranger emerges from the darkness and interrupts a close knit group held by the warmth of a fire, this stranger is Sergeant-Major Morris who passed on the monkey’s paw to the White family; and in ‘The Red Room’ the old pensioners are intruded by the narrator.

In both stories suspense is built up through one stage leading to another, and both stories give indications towards the climax of the story. In ‘The Red Room’ and ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ the use of gothic horror conventions such as ‘ghostly’ and ‘supernatural’ are used to create suspense. Also each story uses short sentences to build tension and long sentences to lower the tension level.

Both the stories rely on a belief of something supernatural, which involves death. In both stories the main characters have underestimated the power of the supernatural. In ‘The Red Room’ the narrator is a victim of the supernatural and in ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ the White family is the victim.

The characters from both the stories have underestimated the hints towards the horror that they face and try to take advantage by exploring the so-called horror. At the end of both stories the characters are shocked to see what has happened to them.

In both stories the writer uses sound and silence through till the end. The writers use silence to lower the tension and then use something dramatic to cause tension. In ‘The Red Room’ ‘There was an interval of silence’ this is used to calm down the tension after the main tension period.

In these two stories repetitions of words are used to emphasize the writers’ message to the reader. In ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ the old man with a withered arm warns the young man (narrator) twice about the Red Room he says: ‘its your own choosing’ and then says ‘I said – it’s your own choosing’. The writer uses this to emphasize on the importance of ‘The Red Room’ and that there is something really bad about it.

Each story shows the use of darkness and shadows. Daylight is seen as a calmer of tension created in the stories. The Red Room uses more darkness and shadows, as it concentrates on the arrival of the narrator to ‘The Red Room’.

The look of individual characters affects both the reader and the characters especially in The Red Room since the old pensioners in the story are really old which give the thought that maybe ghosts are believable and that they have seen many.

The authors of each story have been very successful in building up suspense, tension and fear. As the levels of suspense, tension and fear varied a lot during the course of the stories. The message of The Monkey’s Paw was that you cannot change your fate, and the message of The Red Room was that the only thing that man is afraid of is fear itself. . W.W. Jacobs is by far my best author because not only that he was successful in building up suspense, tension and fear he is more experienced than H.G Wells as he has written more well known books. The main reason I think this is because I was more interested in ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ than ‘The Red Room’