How is suspense and tension created in The Monkey(TM)s Paw and The Red Room

Authors Avatar

How is suspense and tension created in The Monkey’s Paw and The Red Room

I am going be analysing a collection of short stories which include The Monkey’s Paw by W.W Jacobs and The Red Room by H.G Wells which both belong to the Victorian horror genre. The Monkey’s Paw and the Red Room are example of short stories which create suspense and tension successfully.

The Red Room centers around an unnamed man who chooses to spend the night in the remote Lorraine Castle. He spends the night in the ‘Red Room’ after being warned the room is haunted in order to disprove the legends that surround it. However once in the room he starts to doubt his belief that the ‘supernatural’ is just a myth.

The Monkey’s Paw is about a family living in an isolated area. In the story, the paw of a dead monkey, given to them by an old friend, is a talisman that grants its possessor three wishes, but the wishes come with a consequence.

W.W. Jacobs and H.G. Wells use many different techniques to build tension and suspense. One way this is done by is by the description of the setting. For example in The Monkey’s Paw, Mr. White describes the area as “beastly, slushy, and out of the way”. This builds tension in the story because it shows that they are far away from help. Also further tension is built when the night is described to be “cold and wet”. This is called pathetic fallacy where conditions of nature reflect the mood and tone of the story in this case making the reader uncomfortable and concerned about the dangers outside. However the setting outside contrasts to the setting of the inside here Jacobs creates a warm mood where the “fire burned brightly”. This show us of the safety inside but how long can this safety be maintained?

Unlike Jacobs, Wells uses characters as well as setting to build the suspense and tension. For example one of the old men is described as having “half averted lip” and “decaying yellow teeth”. This builds tension and suspense because they are described to have hideous features which emphasise the overall feeling of discomfort and strangeness. These decaying old people represent demise of old Victorian values. Jacobs builds tension and suspense straight away when he uses the word “ghost”. The story opens with talks of ghost this foreshadows the protagonists struggle in the Red Room and makes the genre clear to the readers. Further tension is built when “a monstrous shadow of him crouched upon the wall and mocked his action”. This builds tension and suspense because the reader might think something is following him and makes the reader expect that something will happen and this therefore builds suspense and tension.

Join now!

Jacobs uses the history of the paw to build the tension and suspense when Sergeant Major Morris says “it had a spell put on it by an old fakir”. This builds tension because at the time Victorians were strong believers of “magic” and believed it posed a danger. Also he withholds information when he says “The first man had his three wishes . . . I don’t know what the first two were, but the third was for death”. This builds tension because the wishes before must have brought him bad luck and so much bad luck that he wished ...

This is a preview of the whole essay