Elements Of Horror In The Monkey's Paw

What causes a story to be included into the horror story? Throughout Shanon Russell’s article, “What is the Horror Genre?”, Russell gives clear criteria for what makes something horror including the use of suspense, the setting, and the supernatural. Moreover, W.W. Jacobs fulfills each of these criteria in his short story, “The Monkey’s Paw”.
According to Russell, one characteristic of horror is suspense. Suspense is a feeling of excitement or anxiousness uncertainty about what may happen, so it is an important part of an horror story. First, Russell’s article explains suspense as, “The tension we feel when a when a character goes into the attic, down into the basement, or just into the abandoned house is partially a result of suspense.”(p.126) That quote gave a good explanation and examples of what suspense is. Suspense is being put to action in “The Monkey’s Paw,” when it says, “His tones were so grave that a hush fell upon the room.”(p.108) This shows how they reacted when they heard he died on his third wish, adding suspense. Last, “The Monkey’s Paw” shows another example of suspense by saying,

In the “Monkey's Paw” Mr.White described the spell on the paw as, “He put a spell on it so that three separate men could have three wishes from it.” (p.107) This is a good example of the supernatural because a magic paw doesn’t exists. Another, good example is when the old woman wishes for Herbert back, the passage says, “It’s my boy; Herbert! She cried, struggling mechanically.” (p.115) This is another example of the supernatural because, once you bury someone they can’t come back. Last, “What is the Horror Genre” shows a perfect example of suspense. The text says, “Sometimes the supernatural is the result of the way the central character sees the world, as in stories told from the point of view of a crazy person.” (p. 127) This could be a reason why supernatural things