In “The Monkeys Paw” tension is built up between Mr. and Mrs. White as the narrator uses a lot of short sentences to make the pace very quick this makes the reader want to read on and adds fear or panic to the story. The narrator uses short sentence a lot to build up tension when a wish is made on the monkeys paw to build up tension and suspense on what the outcome will be. ‘I wish for two hundred pounds.’ When a wish is made by the father that Mrs. White doesn’t know about it immediately adds tension and suspense to the story. The atmosphere is built through suggestions of something bad previously happening, phrases such as ‘Mr White looked up sharply’ and ‘sudden and un-looked for violence’ supports why the atmosphere builds up and creates tension and mystery.
The characters in “The Red Room” come across to the reader as elderly people and not up to date with society. ‘The old man said with the withered arm.’
The characters in “The Red Room” represents religion and superstition however the narrator is young and is more up to date with society and goes against the elderly expectations ‘eight-and-twenty years’.
In both the stories the writers use dialog to create suspense.
In “The Monkeys Paw” the writer uses a fast quick pace in the conversations between the characters by changing the sentence structure. ‘Better let it burn.’ The description of the parlour builds a sense of fear and suspicion as well, as the sentence structure is very intriguing and makes the reader begin to picture an image of the settings in their heads.
‘The blinds were drawn and the fire burnt brightly.’ “The Monkeys Paw” is a convention to the gothic horror genre and builds a tense atmosphere. The background of the monkeys paw makes the readers feel intrigued and alert as to what is happening in the story; A mother wishes for her dead son to be returned to her a wish of which is granted by a severed paw of a dead monkey. ‘Well, wish for two hundred pound then; that’ll just do it.’ Once the mother has wished for the return of her dead son the audience feel a sense of mystery within the family and the monkeys paw and relate to a supernatural element which links to the gothic genre and generation of society. In “The Red Room” suspense is created by dialog when the narrator talks to no one in particular, essentially just the ghost.
‘My candle was a little tongue of flame in its vastness that failed to pierce the opposite end of the room, and left an ocean of mystery and suggestion beyond its island of light.’ This makes the audience feel on edge as the notice that when the narrator is in the red room he is not alone this creates tension and suspense by the use of dialog.
The description of the Victorian setting in “The Red Room” creates tension and suspense by the way they are illustrated to the reader. ‘The echoes up and down the staircases’ Immediately after this quote it gives the reader a sense of fear as to what is in the red room and what is going to happen next a large amount of suspense is built up here.
The reader note fast moving action and fear, the writers of the “Monkeys Paw” describe this when there is a knocking on the door t nobody is actually visible there. ‘-and at the same moment a knock so quite and stealthy as to be securely audible, sounded on the front door.’ Once the reader reads on and finds out that really there nobody was at the door it creates a sense of suspicion and builds up the tension as o why they thought there was a knock on door. Each sentences builds up the tension more and more making the reader want to know what is going to happen next ‘ The matches fell from his hand. He stood motionless, his breath suspended until the knock was repeated.’ The writer uses caesuras to add dramatic pauses, but also make the pace faster this builds up the tension and mystery as the reader is starting to feel the fright of the narrator, this is done by the sentence structure.
In “The Red Room”, the writer makes the reader note fast moving action and fear when the flames of the candles were dancing the use of personification makes the candle feel human like and makes the reader feel the fear of the narrator it will make the narrator and reader feel as if somebody or something is there around them. At The beginning of the story the narrator has a conversation with his friends and says ‘it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me’ then as the reader reads on nearer to the end of the book the narrator hits his head whilst running around as he is fearful of his surroundings by doing this the narrator becomes unconscious. ‘- and struck myself heavily against the corner of the bed. I staggered back, turned and was either struck or struck myself against some other bulky furniture.’ As the candles danced alone, and blew out by themselves the reader senses fear and the tension is built up even more because they know the narrator entered the red room alone. The narrator is young, however the other characters n the story are from an older generating and are involved with the Victorian era and the society because in the Victorian era they believed in beliefs and supernatural elements and not science so therefore the characters in the book believe in the supernatural element of the room and superstition unlike the narrator. The narrator blames how he becomes disorientated with himself on fear; the narrator says that fear made his eye see things that wasn’t really happening. ‘There is fear in that room of hers – black fear - ’ The writer used fear to build up the tension and question the narrators view of seeing things and feel as if something is living in the red room.
Both stories end with a sense of mystery, in the gothic genre this is very common and ends with a mysterious and questionable ending which makes the audience debat on what actually happened or happened after. In “The Monkeys Paw” the writer doesn’t include what the whites finally wish for. ‘–and the same moment he found the monkeys paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.’ This creates a sense of mysterious and lets the reader imagination run free and end the story themselves. In “The Red Room the narrator ends the story by talking about the sin element and using personification of fear, the narrator gives the feel to the reader that fear is alive and makes our eyes lead us on and make the superstition element. ‘There is fear in that room of hers – black fear, and there will be- so long as this house of sin endures.’ The gothic genre is really brought out here as the reader still doesn’t no what or who blew out the candles and if fear is the main cause or if it is a ghost the ending is mysterious and open.
“The Red Room” and “The Monkeys Paw” have many similarities and many differences between them; they both relate to gothic horror and have may conventions that are needed within the genre. The ending of both stories end on a mysterious element as they let the audience end it themselves and wonder if something unknown was involved with the monkeys paw itself or inside the red room. However in the monkeys paw the family is described as youthful and ordinary people that don’t believe in superstition or supernatural elements, and can relate to use in everyday lives, the red room has an older generation of characters who live in a different society and believe in a different thing such a religion and science although the narrator goes against these beliefs and represents us today. I personally prefer “The Red Room because the narrator is in contrast to the older generation of the characters and shows the audience how society changes with religion and science to what we believe today. The sentence structure is exciting too and makes the reader want to get involved as the narrator gives the impression that he is fearful of his surroundings and knows he is not alone.
