Tension and Suspense in The Monkey's Paw by W.W.Jacobs and The Signalman by Charles Dickens

Tension and Suspense in The Monkey's Paw by W.W.Jacobs and The Signalman by Charles Dickens

In the 19th Century a new genre of book was introduced, this genre was

known as short spooky stories. They were often published in magazines

and short collections at the time. These stories used many techniques

to help built up and keep the atmosphere of tension and suspense, two

examples of these stories are The Signalman by Charles Dickens and The

Monkey's Paw by W.W.Jacobs. These stories are written to involve the

reader in the paranormal and unnatural. Similar stories all used

tension, and had a final twist in the ending to scare and capture the

reader.

The Signalman was written in 1865, Steam trains were a very recent

invention, and would have seemed very modern. From the very beginning,

a suggestion that all is not right, the narrator makes his way down to

the railway he feels as if he 'had left the natural world'. The reader

can imagine for himself or herself the way the mind could play tricks

on anyone there. The introduction then merges into the sense sight.

Dickens describes the Signal Man's bodily movements to reinforce his

actions providing more to the bazaar circumstances, Dickens uses

pathetic fallacy as he describes an "…angry sunset…" to adjoin to

increase dramatic tension.

As the story progresses the sense of touch is introduced. He speaks

of' "…clammy stone…" this quote gives me the feeling of an eerie

surrounding, and as he clambers down the deep cutting, it evolves into

a, "…oozier and wetter…" wall.

The Monkey's Paw is set in an isolated house, the home of Mr. and Mrs.

White and their son, Herbert. T...

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...hites; that their only son and light in their

life should die as a result of a wish made by them was very sad, but

was ale to be brought back for them to see in a horrendous wish made

by Mrs White. The Monkey's paw was also more successful at being a

supernatural horror story. If the two stories were to be turned into a

film or a play, The Monkey's Paw would be more terrifying because of

the grisly idea of their son returning to see them from his grave, all

crushed and gory from being caught in the machinery. However, in The

Signalman there are many pieces of very successful imagery, such as

the 'frozen finger tracing out my spine'. This is a quote that you

could imagine being put into a horror story as it is one thing that

can make people cringe and shiver, the thought of a cold, icy finger

being run down their spine!