How To Build Suspense In The Monkey's Paw

Horror is a genre filled with thrills and scares. There are very few good horror stories. This is because most are cheesy and people know what is going to happen which takes away the thrill and suspense. “Tell-Tale Heart” Edgar Allan Poe and “The Monkey’s Paw” W.W. Jacobs both have cause and effect relationships with a feeling of suspense.
The story “The Monkey’s Paw” W.W. Jacobs consists of a cause-and-effect relationship. Mr. White had carried around a monkey’s paw that supposedly had a spell put on it in the 1800’s at Laburnum Villa. The fact that the monkey’s paw is magical causes the suspense. “He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it.” W.W. Jacobs Page 107. This quotation is

explaining why he has the monkey’s paw and what it does. If that quotation was not there, the story would not be moving forward or going anywhere. This shows the suspense and the cause-and-effect relationship used in the story.
The story “The Tell-Tale Heart” Edgar Allan Poe consists of a cause-and-effect relationship. This person (narrator) is about to kill an old man and has been observing him the whole week before. This took place in the 1800’s at the old man’s house. The thing that causes suspense is the storyline leading up till he dies and how he is going to die. “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” Edgar Allan Poe Page 90. If this quotation we would never what the story was about and it would not make sense. This relationship in the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a cause-and-effect relationship that cause suspense within the story.
Both “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Monkey’s Paw” have cause and effect relationships with a feeling of suspense. The cause-and-effect relationships is what the story moving verses from the story going nowhere. Horror is a difficult genre because it is rare that it will be successful. These two stories have exceeded the things that will make a great horror story.