How Effectively The Writers Of Three Gothic Horror Stories Create Suspense

Authors Avatar

How Effectively The

Writers Create Suspense In

Three Gothic Horror Stories

        This essay will look at the way that five different themes create suspense in three gothic fiction stories, from the late 19th century and early 20th century. These are “The Monkey’s Paw” written by W.W. Jacobs, “The Red Room” written by H.G. Wells and “The Signal Man” written by Charles Dickens.

        The first theme is darkness. In the three stories of darkness appears in the two main aspects; the use of candles and the use of night.  Candles are used to create suspense in two of the three stories.  In “The Monkey’s Paw” candles are used near the end of the story when Mr White wishes his son alive again, “the china candlestick, was throwing pulsating … larger than the rest.”  This uses the pulsating shadows and flickers of the candles to create suspense by making the reader wonder if there is something lurking in the shadows.  Similarly, in the “The Red Room”, the candles keep flickering and going out, creating darkness, which creates suspense by making the reader feel the man is being surrounded.  However in “The Signal Man” there is no use of candles to create suspense but the story is set at night and huge cliffs block out the horizon, creating darkness and a feeling of claustrophobia.

Join now!

The second theme is that of the supernatural.  In all three stories supernatural things appear to create suspense for the reader.  For example, in “The Monkey’s Paw” Mr and Mrs White use the power of the monkey’s paw to wish their mangled son alive again- “He raised his hand. I wish my son alive again.” This supernatural event was used to create suspense so the reader will want to read on to see if the wish has worked.  The monkey’s paw itself is also very supernatural because it moves when you wish- “it moved he cried, with a glance ...

This is a preview of the whole essay