Various Ways that W.W. Jacobs Creates Tension in Monkey's Paw

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Various Ways that W.W. Jacobs Creates Tension in Monkey's Paw

In this essay I am going to write about the various ways the author

W.W Jacobs creates tension in the short story Monkey's Paw. For

example I am going to write about how he has used the setting of the

story, the manner of speech of the characters etc. to help him create

tension.

Firstly, the setting of the story takes place in a very isolated and

lonely place, far away from civilization in a deserted area. This

makes it a bit scary and starts to introduce tension for the reader in

the story.

"That's the worst for living so far out"

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Then we are told about the name of the villa i.e.- "Laburnum". This is

the name of a poisonous plant. This is quite scary as the home of the

characters is of a deadly plant. This could be informing the reader

that something bad could happen later on within the story and so this

makes the reader wonder more. This creates tension within the reader,

as they are apprehensive as to what will happen next.

"but in the small parlour of Laburnam villa"

Secondly Jacobs uses a sense of mystery in the story to help him

create tension for the reader. The best example is in the beginning of

the play. When suddenly a person comes to visit them. The reader feels

that there must be a reason behind his visit to such an isolated

place. This also makes the reader more curious and also created

tension.

"heavy footsteps came towards the door"

This is where the reader is introduced to the monkeys paw - Cleverly

Jacobs doesn't let the reader know much about the visitor initially.

This makes them more curious to know about him and what makes it even

more interesting is that all they know about the paw is that it is

mystical and it contains a spell on it.

"It had a spell put on it by an old fakir"

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