The Monkey's Paw And The Tell Tale Heart Analysis

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Essay question: How do the writers of “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” create an atmosphere of tension, fear, and ultimately horror? This essay will discuss how the writers of “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” create an atmosphere of tension, fear, and ultimately, horror. “The Monkey’s Paw” begins with the description of the setting. The weather outside is described as “cold and wet”, which immediately creates tension as bad things often happen in bad weather in stories. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, however, the weather is sunny when the Whites find out about Herbert’s death, but this is a natural event (although there are implications that the paw – something supernatural – has caused it). All the seemingly supernatural…show more content…
In “The Monkey’s Paw”, the name of the house (Laburnam Villa) immediately creates a level of tension as laburnum is a poisonous plant. Verbs describing violent (“bawled”), nervous (“dangled”) and sudden (“snatched”) actions are used to create tension in part one. In part three verbs are used for similar effect, for example “started”, “flung”, “quivering”, “stammered”, and to create a sense of conflict (argument): the word “cried” is repeated 12 times, and Mr. and Mrs. White speak “wildly”, “fiercely” and “hysterically”. Furthermore, Mr. White refers to the revived Herbert as “it”, which shows that he thinks him to have become a walking, mindless corpse and brings in an element of…show more content…
In describing his entering to the old man’s room, many verbs and adverbs serve to slow down pace, which creates suspense, for example “kept still”, “scarcely breathed”, “held the lantern motionless”, “slowly”, “gradually”, “stealthily” and “cautiously” – which was repeated three times in a sentence in the second paragraph. Metaphors are also used for the same effect: “a watch’s minute hand moved more quickly than did mine.” Another important technique in “The Monkey’s Paw” is foreshadowing. The game of chess at the beginning partly reflects what’s going to happen later in the story, for example Mr. White puts his king into “sharp and unnecessary perils”, which reflects him making the first wish, and sees a “fatal mistake” after it is too late (this reflects him realising that Herbert died because of his wish). Foreshadowing is also used when Herbert says: “I don’t see the money, and I bet I never shall.” Although he meant that for a different reason, the reader speculates the true reason for why this might happen – his

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