“but in the small parlour of Laburnam villa”
Secondly Jacobs uses a sense of mystery in the story to help him create tension for the reader. The best example is in the beginning of the play. When suddenly a person comes to visit them. The reader feels that there must be a reason behind his visit to such an isolated place. This also makes the reader more curious and also created tension.
“heavy footsteps came towards the door”
This is where the reader is introduced to the monkeys paw – Cleverly Jacobs doesn’t let the reader know much about the visitor initially. This makes them more curious to know about him and what makes it even more interesting is that all they know about the paw is that it is mystical and it contains a spell on it.
“It had a spell put on it by an old fakir”
This helps to create tension as the reader is curious to know more about the monkey’s paw and what all can it actually do. Since there is a bad impression of the paw in the story the reader wants to know what is going to happen later on and how deadly the paw can be. This sense of mystery in the reader helps to create tension.
“better let it burn”
The manner of speech in the story also creates a lot of tension for the reader. For example there are parts in the story where there are quick, short dialogues between the characters. This helps to create a lot of tension as not only is the scene tense but also the quick dialogues helps to build up tension of that particular scene. These short quick dialogues help the text to keep flowing making the scene more chaotic and tense. Also during such conversations Jacob has intelligently used simple English, so the reader can digest the text and keep up with the fast pace of the conversation.
The best example of such a scene is the conversation between Mr. White and Mrs. White after their son is dead and she wants him to use the paw to bring their son back to life.
“the paw!” “the monkey’s paw”
“Where? Where is it? What’s the matter?”
“I want it”….
In addition to all these methods W.W. Jacob has used sound effects to help create tension. The best few examples of sound effects in the Monkey’s Paw are whenever Mr. White makes a wish. Everything is silent just as he is making his wish and the reader expects something to happen. What, the reader doesn’t expect is a sudden BANG! which really does shock the reader.
“I wish for two hundred pounds”
I fine CRASH from the piano greeted the words
The varying tension in the story not only has impact on the reader but also it makes the story interesting by the increasing the overall tension. So if you look at the Monkey’s Paw you can see that the tension keeps fluctuating throughout out the whole story.
The use of irony also helps to create tension for the reader. One example used in the story is when we come to know about the death of the son. The irony in this is that they are offered 200 pounds compensation, which ironically is the same amount that Mr. White had wished for earlier. So if the reader is aware of that it creates a lot of tension, as they would never expect something like that to happen and now they realise how fatal the paw is.
“the services wish to present you with a sum as compensation.”
“How much”
“two hundred pounds”
As you can see that I have explained most of the techniques W.W Jacob has used to create tension. I think that the monkey’s paw is a really good story and is very expertly written.
