Where as in Red Room the house or ‘villa’ from Monkey’s Paw is replaced with a castle that is quite normal at first until we learn about its secret’s, and also that the ‘castle’ is actually a monument for any Gothic Horror story to keep the audience attention, because the story will be mysterious and spooky before it has even begun. Thus making it more interesting as to how the events will fold. The setting of this story adds more thrill as it is in the famous ‘Lorraine Castle’, where ‘ a young duke had died’. Also the description that is given of the ‘Red Room’ itself, within an old castle down a long corridor, adds more mystery to the story. Nevertheless if that description created by the writer does not indeed create tension, then the legends, and stories the author informs to the reader, through a lecture being given to the main character in the story, ‘But if you go to the red room tonight’, should surely build the excitement, and interest within the reader.
The plot in both stories is quite different, and yet similar. In Monkey’s Paw the plot is basically like a typical three wishes story, yet has a twist, which the White family slowly start to understand. After the family has been excited, and made their first wish the internal workings of the audience are mostly relaxed yet on their toes, the writer makes the reader feel as if the following morning will be ordinary, ‘ There was an air of prosaic wholesomeness about the room which it had lacked on the previous night’. But the tension is then heightened, when a mysterious man turns up at the White’s house to inform of Herbert’s death, ‘Three times he paused at the gate, and then walked on again’, ‘She brought the stranger who seemed ill at ease into the room’.
In Red Room the plot begins near light and safety, ‘I stood up before the fire’. This shows that both stories start near some sort of protection, and warmth, and then the two writers start to build suspension in different ways so as if to not fully conceal the main consequence of the characters actions within the stories from the reader. Tension is built up when the narrator is first alone, ‘I shut them in and walked down the chilly, echoing passage’. The writer starts to use the tension, and suspense of the reader in the beginning, and builds up on it all, and bottles it within the reader, then uses a style of writing to make the storyline reach its climax, ‘ I staggered back, turned, and was either struck or struck myself’.
In Monkey’s Paw the way language is written it is in the second person, and the choice of language is mostly to describe the movement of an object or speech. When Mr White makes a wish for ‘two hundred pounds’, the writer uses simile to describe the moments of the paw, ‘ it twisted in my hand like a snake’. Mrs White says, ‘ Of all the beastly, slushy, out-of-the-way places to live in, this is the worst’, this foreshadowing of negative events tells the reader of later scary events.
In Red Room the story is written in first person, and is being told to us by the character that had witnessed these supernatural events. Also the writer creates an impression that the narrator is disrespectful to his elders, ‘ by their droning insistence’. Also personification is used to describe the enclosure of fear around him, ‘darkness closed upon me like the shutting of a eye, wrapped around me in a stifling embrace’. To create suspense a simile is used, ‘ It was like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the starts’, this shows the sign f depression, and darkness around the narrator.
The characters in Monkey’s Paw include Mr White, Mrs White, Herbert, and Sergeant Major Morris. Mr White at the beginning of the story is seen as the look after of his family, someone who brings in the money, and food, however he becomes a fragile, and delicate Victorian woman, ‘ the old man smiled faintly, put out his hands like a sightless man, and dropped, a senseless heap, to the floor’.
Mrs White on he other hand starts out as a quiet mild mannered woman, ‘ Never mind dear,’ said his wife soothingly’. But just like Mr White she becomes increasingly erratic after her sons death, ‘ Go and get it and wish,’ cried his wife quivering with excitement’.
On the other hand the reader on gets one impression of Herbert as a youthful child who has arrogance that makes us think something will happen to him, ‘ Well, why don’t you have three, sir?’ Said Herbert White, cleverly’.
Also the way in which the representative behaves, signals to us that he is a bearer of bad news, ‘ She was watching the mysterious movements of a man outside, who, peering in an undecided fashion at the house, appeared to be trying to make up his mind to enter’.
In Red Room the characters are not given any names, yet are described to us by their distorted features or age, ‘ withered arm’, ‘old woman’, ‘ bent’. This makes us think that the distorted features add more suspense and tension to the story.
The arrogance of the young man at the beginning contrasted with his fear after his ordeal shows us the dramatic change fear has had on him, ‘ I can assure you said I that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me’, ‘ I stood undecided, an invisible hand seemed to sweep out the to candles on the table. With a cry of terror, I dashed at the alcove.’
In conclusion to this essay I think that the most effective story was, The Red room as it used a wide range of vocabulary, physical imagery, and also a lot of suspense, and thrilling moments. Although in both these stories the writers decide to use a simple plot where the beginning of the story is nice, and pleasant, but then changes after a certain object or space is introduced, which develops the suspense, and tension leading to a dramatic fast, and quick ending in the eyes of the reader, I think that W. W. Jacobs did not effectively deliver his story as that of H. G. Wells.
Raees Gillani 10A
English Coursework