In “The Monkey’s Paw”, the son, Herbert says, “there he is” and Jacobs does a good job of not letting you know who it is for quite a while. He makes you wonder whose “heavy footsteps” come “towards the door”. The Sergeant replies, “Better where you are” when Mr White said he wouldn’t mind going to India, an this makes you want to know why. You want to know who the “mysterious” “man outdid” was. And why the man hesitates to come up the path to the house. The Sergeant had a feel of unease about keeping the monkey’s paw . He also felt uneasy about giving it to the White family. He seemed nervous about bringing up the subject of the Monkey’s Paw and discussing it with the family. He tries to avoid it really but when he finds it hard when being interrogated by three others. Mr White brings it up by asking why the sergeant was on about a monkey’s paw the other day and the sergeant’s reply was, “Nothing”. Mr White is depressed at the beginning of the story when his son and he are playing chess, and he is complaining about where they live. He thinks that they live in an “Out-of-the-way” place, which no one can get to. The Mother, Mrs White, is also very depressed when her son, Herbert, dies. Weeks later the Mother is still “weeping” at her sons death. When Herbert is “caught in the machinery” at “Maw and Meggins” it is a horrific ordeal. It’s scary to think of somebody who has been “Mangled” in the machinery. It is also scary to think about their “mutilated” son. Jacobs uses a very descriptive word to try and keep the readers interest and also to show that it is a horrible thought. Instead of using the word ‘son’ Jacobs calls it a “thing”.
The Supernatural is involved in both stories, but is so subtle that it makes you wonder whether it was a supernatural encounter or just a coincidence. There are supernatural encounters in “The Signalman”: for instance, when the signalman hears the bell twice yet the narrator doesn’t hear it; when the signalman is talking to the narrator about the first time he saw the ‘figure’ and “six hours after the appearance the memorable accident on the line happened”. And the same with the second incident. But all this seems like it might be on the border of coincidence. When the Signalman dies there is a sense of the supernatural, that the previous sighting of the ‘spectre’ has been a WHAT signalman’s death. The narrator failed to accept that the signalman might have seen something of importance. The narrator “showed him how that this figure must be a deception of his sense of sight” yet the signalman as sure he had seen the ‘figure’. Both stories end in an ironic twist. The irony in “The Signalman” is that all this time when the signalman was trying to help the next victim, he never knew that he was the next person to be killed. The supernatural is also involved in “The Monkey’s Paw” . And again it is so close to a coincidence you have to think hard whether or not it is. The idea of “wishing” to me seems supernatural. When “The Monkey’s Paw” “twisted in [Mr Whites] hand like a snake”. It seems supernatural as you don’t get many monkey’s paws moving. The father, Mr White doesn’t really want to believe that it is a supernatural encounter. For example when his son dies and the two hundred pounds he wished for came through, he treats it as a coincidence. The irony of Herbert’s death is that they all wished for two hundred pounds and when he went off to work he says “don’t spend any money till I get back”. And then he dies and the money comes through as compensation from ‘Maw and Meggins’.
The narrator seems fairly well educated and probably quite well off. He tried to cheer up or at least make the signalman more confident about being around him. “This was a lonesome post to occupy,” the narrator said, trying to get to know the signalman. His speech makes him seem like he was well educated: “My good fellow, what should I do there?” The Signalman isn’t too dim for his job either. He is witty and once he gets to know the narrator he is very talkative and has some very good conversations with the narrator. In ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, there are very few characters; the White family and the Sergeant. I think Jacobs has put so few characters in so it is easier to understand the story. We also see that the Whites are a close family and show quite a lot of affection for each other. At the beginning of the story Mrs White doesn’t want anything to do with the Monkey’s Paw, but later on when her son dies she wants it so desperately so she can bring Herbert back to life. Yet Mr White has been very eager to find out about the Monkey’s Paw and use it, and Herbert is the same.
The setting of ‘The Signalman’ is spooky. It’s set in a fairly dismal place for a signalman to be stationed. Dickens uses very descriptive words, but ones which also make you think. He uses “Angry sunset” which to me tells me the time of day, and also adds the tension. It feels like something’s going to happen, something spooky. “[The signalman’s] post was on a solitary and dismal place as ever I saw.” This makes the scene where the story is set darker and makes you visualise what it might seem like to be there. “So little sunset ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell”. Again this makes it seem a much darker place. But also it has a “Deadly smell”. Something must have happened or be about to happen linked to the cutting. But we already know that it is linked to death and mystery. To add to the atmosphere the narrator visit’s the signalman at night. This is a scary atmosphere. Especially when there is death linked to the place where he is visiting. And why does the narrator decide to visit at night, why not daytime. The Signalman tells the narrator, “when you come down tomorrow night, don’t call out!”. This also gives me a suspicious feeling. The second night the narrator visits, the first step of the zigzag path he touches, and the “distant clocks were striking eleven.” Dickens has made that word “Distant” to seem quite spooky. And the bells, as they strike eleven, adds to the “scary” atmosphere. In “The Monkey’s Paw” Jacobs sets the scene in a house, a fair way out in the country. Nothing even happens outside of the house that we know of; its all inside. He makes the house seem warm and safe by putting wind and heavy rain outside, to make people think it would be a safe place to be, but no one knows what is going to happen. The atmosphere at the reaction of Herebert’s death is quite shocking. Mrs White “screams” out with horror as Mr White is silent, just thinking what caused the death of his son. In “The Monkey’s Paw” Jacobs uses short pieces of speech between Mr and Mrs White when Mrs White wants to bring her son back to life. Mr White asks a lot of questions like “was the first wish not enough!?” as Mrs White seems to be rushing her speech, using simple one syllable words.
Both stories also use the relaxing of tension and the building up of tension to keep the reader’s interest. In “The Signalman”, Dickens writes, “Next evening was a lovely evening” and when you read that after the previous language, it makes you wonder, why is today a lovely day when all the other days have been dismal. Then suddenly the narrator had a sudden “thrill that seized” him and he saw a live man acting out the part of the ‘figure’ that the signalman kept seeing, to a group of other men. It’s as if the narrator could suddenly hear his heart getting faster and faster. The narrator is soon to find out that the signalman had been killed by a train. And the ‘figure’ that he saw was the driver of the train that was to kill the signalman. In “The Monkey’s Paw” Jacobs builds up the tension by making Mr White ask short questions towards the sergeant.
I feel that ‘The Signalman’ was the best story to keep the reader’s interest. I like how Dickens uses the language and how he sets the scene right at the beginning for the reader, and how he describes the “cutting” and the “Spectre”.
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