Use Of Suspense In And Then There Were None And W. Jacobs

How are the genres mystery and suspense represented in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and W.W. Jacobs “The Monkey’s Paw”? The two genres, mystery and suspense, moves the reader to feeling excitement and curiosity. This growing tension causes the reader to wonder what will happen next. In other words, these two literary devices keep the story gripping. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and W.W. Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw” use mystery and suspense to leave the reader begging for more. While both And Then There Were None and “The Monkey’s Paw” fall under the genre of mystery and suspense, each piece of writing is unique in regard to foreshadowing, motif, and irony. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is about ten

Jacobs’ s “The Monkey’s Paw” tells of Mr. White who takes a sergeant’s almost incinerated monkey’s paw and wishes on it, not heeding the sergeant’s warning. This tale uses foreshadowing, just as Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None does. W.W. Jacobs uses foreshadowing when the sergeant first arrives. The sergeant tosses the paw in the fire, but Mr. White quickly grabs it. The sergeant doesn’t throw it back, but before he leaves the sergeant states, “Better let it burn…if you keep it, don’t blame me for what happens. Pitch it on the fire again, like a sensible man” (Jacobs 3). This foreshadows that what Mr. White wishes for will not turn out the way he intended. W.W. Jacobs additionally uses this technique when the son, Herbert, after Mr. White wishes for money, says, “Well, I don’t see the money, and I bet I never shall.” (Jacobs 4). This foreshadows that Herbert “won’t be around” to prove his point. Motif is presented several times in this story however, unlike And Then There Were None, which uses it noticeably, “The Monkey’s Paw” uses it subtly. While And Then There Were None uses soldiers to display motif, “The Monkey’s Paw” uses a number. Throughout the plot the number three appears. Though nothing is noted about it, the number three is the evident motif. A few examples are: the three wishes the monkey’s paw grants, the trio of family members mentioned in the story, the third owner of the monkey’s paw, the three knocks on the door, the three begs made by Mrs.

Both stories similarly utilize not only foreshadowing, motif, and irony, but additionally they use mystery and suspense to convey their message. Both stories use foreshadowing in a way that unfortunate events are bound to occur. Each piece of writing uses motif in a form of number, because just as “The Monkey’s Paw” uses the number three, And Then There Were None uses ten little soldier boys to represent the ten victims that occupy the island. These stories use irony correspondingly, as both deals with death. These literary works share similar moods, as both use dark themes to keep the story