The Signalman realises that he has been issued with a warning by the spectre and that he should do something about it, likewise Mr White recognises that he has a responsibility to do the right thing with the third wish and by this time the audience would obviously know what the wish would be, however to let the horror sink in, the writer leaves hints. Both characters have an internal conflict as what to do, the Signalman struggles to interpret the spectre’s warnings and Mr White struggles with his own wife who demands that Herbert is returned to her, whatever his physical condition. This showing that there is contradiction and misunderstanding in both plays, with the ‘Signalman’ not interpreting the warnings and in ‘Monkey’s Paw’ the husband and wife were clashing with one another.
Credible threat is another device or technique used to create suspense. It is vital that the audience believes that the monkey’s paw is a dangerous and powerful object. As they would then feel intimidated by such a thing of power and believe in the whole spirituality theory. So too with the ‘ghost’ in the ‘Signalman’; the reader genuinely feels that they are things of influence and power that direct the events of the stories as the audience really get in to the story as they believe such spirituality.
The use of a three fold structure within both the stories provides the reader the certainty of a third and conclusive ‘event’ also know as the climax in the story, where something defining will happen that will keep the audience in suspense or will receive something dramatic at the end. Dickens makes events even more foreboding by the comments that he puts into the narrative himself to talk straight to the audience. These comments give a feeling of hopelessness, and we know that events are heading towards an inescapable conclusion. The same feeling is present in ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ because once the father has made his wish for the money, we know that he will not simply get his wish, but we don’t know the price he will have to pay for it. Herbert’s death is revealed slowly. The audience has actually worked out what has happened long before we are told and this allows the full horror of what has happened to sink in.
Credibility of the characters is central to the creation of literary suspense. Dickens and Jacobs are careful to provide sufficient detail for their characters to present them to the reader as believable in order for the reader to become engaged by their plight. The White family is very normal, their house and their lifestyle familiar to Jacobs’ audience. So too with Dickens’ Signalman; he is unremarkable in appearance, vocation and temperament but it is because of the characters’ normality that the strange events seem out of place, and unusual as people wouldn’t expect such thing’s to happen to the average person.
Settings in both stories use carefully constructed environments, Look carefully at the vocabulary that both writers use to describe place. The weather in Jacob’s story is a pre-cursor to something terrible happening, and the old man’s tale reinforces the fear. The attempted destruction of the paw and the reluctance to give it away show the power and fear it strikes in those who have experienced its power. Dickens takes a different slant and makes great use of repetition when describing the tunnel and the manner of waving the alert. There is use of hell-like terminology and colours, like red, to give an unearthly feeling when descending down to the signalman. Look at any describing words like "monstrous" to see what Dickens is trying to achieve with his atmosphere. The story takes place in a cabin in a deserted suburban area. The majority of the story’s scenes happen at night, leaving only a few scenes in daylight. During the night, the weather is never pleasant and often unsettling, but during the day the weather is decent. The author purposely sets the suspenseful scenes during the night time leaving the reader to expect something horrible to happen. The scenes that take place during the day are not as scary and do not have the same affect as those at night. The author’s main reason for setting scenes at night is to target the reader’s fears. For example, the scene where Mrs. White wishes for her son to come back to life is set at night to make it fearful and suspenseful. When their wish came true, it was a stormy night. There was heavy rain, thunder and lightening. If it had been set in the daylight it would not have had the same effect. In conclusion, the setting of a play can be a key to understanding the mood, the characters, and the plot. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” the dark, cold setting sets the mood of suspense. Nothing on earth is more invigorating.
Language is carefully chosen in both texts to create, sustain and produce a climax to the dramatic tension produced by the plot lines ‘precipitate, clammy stone, oozier, wetter, vapour etc’. Words like these set the scene in a story; it can change the mood instantly. Therefore, a wide range of bone-chilling words are introduced to attract audiences.
The Historical context is in the having been set in 19th century England Victorian era which was a period of significant change. The emergence of technology as a driving force in their cultural development led to an advance in their way of thinking and the effects were felt throughout the arts Industrial jobs offered a precise description of work and leisure time that had never existed in the past. The Victorians were the first people to have statutory holidays and proscribed days off. The burgeoning entertainment industry was only too eager to help them fill that leisure time with recreational pleasures, enticing them into theme parks, shopping malls, amusement arcades and theatres. The nineteenth century was an era of general belief in ghosts and is spirituality. This is what made gothic stories even more appealing and successful during this era – the fact that they would be seen as being realistic. One major reason for the rise in spirituality during this era was the fact that many people had started to lose their Christian faith (mainly because the Church was unable to give an explanation as to why ghosts existed) and so they started to search for a new way of understanding and accepting death. I think that the Victorian’s enjoyed reading horror stories because they offer a challenge – to see whether the reader can figure out who the “ghost” or spectre represents and what they are doing. By involving the reader, the writers were able to keep them interested throughout
Talismans and ghosts are the main themes for the stories and the whole concepts, as in the ‘Signalman’ there is a ghost and in ‘Monkeys Paw’ a supernatural paw that grants three wishes. Both stories result in a death: Herbert’s resurrected body is wished away and the grief becomes new again, and the signalman meets his doom in the chilling way that he had seen. In both stories the audience could pretty much see certain thing’s coming, but the effect on the audiences would be superb.
