Explore the way in which writers use language to create a feeling of mystery and suspenseThe Monkeys Paw, The redroom and the Signalman

Here Jacobs begins to introduce an element of mystery. The whites seem very eager to please him. The character of the Sergeant major Morris would have appealed to a Victorian audience as this symbolises curiosity and progress in travelling around the world.
“Spoke of wild scenes and doughty deeds; of wars and plagues”
The whites become increasingly curious and it is clear they will become victims of the monkey’s paw.
Jacobs highlights its supernatural power when the paw moves “It moved, as I wished, it twisted like a snake” cried Mr White, “I wish for two hundred pounds” said Mr White distinctly.
The irony message is good/evil. Victorian audiences believed in fate and evil deeds.
There is a sense of foreboding when the mysterious visitor arrives he was described as ‘Tall, burly man, beady of eye and rubicund of visage’ this adds dramatic impact because it highlights the supernatural part of the story.
At the end of this short story Mrs White dramatically changes, she becomes more wild and dominant. “It’s my boy, its Herbert” she cried struggling mechanically. She goes mad trying to get to the door in time; this shows a lot of tension of how she changes into a different person at the end. The moral of this tale was ‘don’t wish for something you cant have’ because danger could happen at any time. This story appealed to Victorian audiences because they believed in the evil spirits.

The Signal Man was written by Charles Dickens in           . It was written in the first person about when he goes to visit the ‘Signalman’ to experience what his isolated life was like. When he first visits the ‘Signalman’, he shouts out “Halloa! Below there” which comes to some considerable significance later on in the story. The ‘Signalman’ looks round in shock until he realises who it is. The ‘Signalman’ thought the narrator was a ghost. He points out the path for the narrator and he makes his way down the hill of which ‘the cutting was extremely deep and unusually precipitous’. This setting is quite like the ‘Red Room’ castle because they are both in isolated settings with overgrown paths and other typical ghost story features like candles and the colour red for danger.
This story appeals to a Victorian audience because they believed in evil deeds and fate.
Dickens creates a sense of foreboding with the atmosphere, this highlights the tension in the story.

The narrator comes back the next day and listens to the ‘Signalman’s’ story of the spectre he saw one night, a year ago that troubled him deeply. The ‘Signalman’ explains that he saw a ‘spectre’- ghost on the track near the tunnel that called out to him ‘Halloa, Below there!’ so the ‘Signalman’ went over to the tunnel but when he got there, the spectre had gone. ‘The signalman’ ran a long way down the tunnel. There had been an accident. ‘Within ten hours, the dead and wounded were brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure had stood’.
This creates tension in the story, Dickens is explaining what happens on the railway and begins to haunt the signalman.