Which Short Horror Story do you find more Horrific?

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Which Short Horror Story do you find more Horrific?

 Dickens uses sophisticated vocabulary and complex sentence structure in The Signalman: “The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man.” This creates tension in The Signalman as there is lots of description and dialogue between the characters hinting to the unnatural but there is a lack of action. Dickens focuses on descriptive techniques to create detailed imagery and relies heavily on the senses of the reader being used: “there was a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air.” Dickens lists adjectives in the same, dark, semantic field to emphasise the gloomy setting of the of the railroad cutting. The writing is very atmospherically and highly developed.

 Jacobs uses excellent language but little description in his story as he dependant on the shock and action to scare the reader. Jacobs writes: “for God’s sake don’t let it in.” As a result of the lack of description there is no visible horror in The Monkey’s Paw, so it is up to the reader to imagine what is knocking at the door. Connotations of words like “mutilated” help the reader to do this. Jacobs uses short sentences to create tension: “Was that not enough?” The conversation between the mother and father about deciding to use the paw for the second wish is very atmospherically and Jacobs emphasises the tension with the use of many adverbs.  

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                     Both W.W Jacobs and Charles Dickens use language in their stories to create horror. Dickens uses lots of description to develop the story, creating atmosphere and tension. In contrast Jacobs uses little description relying on action and shock to develop his story.

           The setting in the Signalman is important to the development of the story. Dickens sets The Signalman is a railroad cutting near the mouth of a tunnel throughout the whole story and provides a detailed description: “The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitous. It was made from unusually clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as ...

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