“The Red Room” and “The Monkeys Paw” were both written in late Victorian time where superstitions played a great part in people’s lives. In contrast the castle in “The Red Room” was a great and perfect location to write a story about the investigation of a haunted house, as the atmosphere adds and creates a sense of darkness and homeliness. Also, in the “Monkeys Paw” the paw itself is the centre of superstition and also contributes in creating the atmosphere and gives us a sense of mysteriousness.
“The Signalman” starts off with the explicit detail of the cutting and tunnel. For example: “a rough zigzag descending path”, “a clammy stone that became oozier and wet. These words make us more involved in the story. When we hear the signalman’s story, it is one with such a horrific plot that the reader becomes drawn in. Many things are left unknown to us, because the writer gives bit by bit about the signalman’s past, creating a quizzed atmosphere .Also, the fact that the visitor keeps interrupting the signalman’s peculiar story makes us anxious and desperate to hear the rest of his story. The writer’s use of strong and painful personification like: “angry sunset” and “violent pulsation” contributes greatly to the atmosphere. Short sentences and repetition also make us feel tense. The signalman works alone making his job a solitary and lonely one, therefore he was rarely visited: “His post was in a solitary and dismal place as ever I saw.”, “This was a lonesome place to occupy, and it had it had riveted my attention…A visitor was rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? As the signalman was a lonely man, the visitor does not know what to expect of him and is not sure how the signalman will react. "So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world." This quote tells us very much that this place is not natural, and that the visitor has entered an entirely different world.
“The Monkey’s Paw” starts off with a calm atmosphere, everyone in the family do their own things. The mother is knitting by the fire:”The whit-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire”. Also, the fact that the father and the son are playing chess together creates a sense of cosiness and warmth. However, upon receiving the news of their son’s death the mother is hysterical: "laid her trembling old hand upon his”, and the father is just stunned and can not take it in: "Caught in the machinery, repeated Mr White in a dazed fashion,". Mrs White then suddenly starts crying because she realises that they still have two wishes for the monkey's paw. She thinks that there is a way of bring Herbert back to life: "The paw! … The monkey's paw,” this starts to increase the fear and tension in the story. However then Mr. White finds out what Mrs. White is trying to do and he becomes fearful: "Good God, you are mad!"
