How is the convention of gothic fiction used to build tension in "The Red Room" and "Monkey's Paw"

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Ben Hale                English GCSE Coursework

Gothic Fiction – The Red Room and The Monkey’s Paw

In these two stories, the Red Room and the Monkey’s Paw, a convention of gothic fiction is used to build up tension to grab the reader’s attention more to the story and also to create a frightening atmosphere. The cultural society of Victorian times in the United Kingdom influenced both these writers to create such frightening stories as then the idea of a ghost or haunting was an early idea at the time, people were more aware of the religious background of spirits and demons, even the fact that they could be in their very own homes! These ideas were taken in to make a good gothic fiction story by building up tension.

In the Red Room, the characters have an eerie and mysterious manner as we do not know their names, we are only given description labels of each character such as “the old woman” and we do not know the narrator’s name throughout the story. This is cataphoric reference, as the narrator’s name is not mentioned at all which first creates a mystery to the reader, as we would want to know his name from the very start. Also the man with the withered arm keeps repeating the same warning to him, “it’s your own choosing.”  As this saying is said over and over, it sticks to our minds that something bad may happen to the narrator, which builds up the tension, as we would want to know what would happen to the narrator then.

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In the Monkey’s Paw, the settings of the inside and outside of the cottage are very separate and different. Inside we know is warm and safe as the story says, “the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly,” which gave out a positive tone to the inside. However outside the cottage was the opposite as it wasn’t very safe or warm, the story says “the night was cold and wet” which gave a more negative tone to the setting outside the cottage, which would make us feel that staying inside the cottage would be best. The supernatural element ...

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