W. W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw" is an inimitable synthesis of the supernatural and psychic tension. Foreshadowing, that besides building expectations enhances the dosage of suspense and tension sewn into the narrative cloth, forms the hub of the effectiveness of this story. Throughout the story, Jacobs skillfully hints at future happenings, and by doing so, she manages to sustain expectancy in the mind of any reader, making them both curious and apprehensive as to what awaits the family of Whites. From the start, Jacobs establishes an atmosphere full of threat foreshadowing. The visit of a man with a mysterious past, Sergeant Major Morris, embeds an element of unease from the moment he first appears. His stories of such far-flung …show more content…
As the tension builds up, the White family dismisses Morris' warnings and makes their first wish. The casual, almost flippant manner in which Mr. White wishes for two hundred pounds is in marked contrast to the ominous mood established earlier. The result of its juxtaposition shows the seriousness of the consequences at hand. Jacobs uses the eerie coincidences that crop up subsequent to the wish to foreshadow the impending doom. The crashing of the piano and then the sudden, unbroken silence, before Mr. White nervously exclaimed to confirm that the paw had indeed moved, contributes towards the taut feeling of dread. Such subtle hints raise palpable tension amongst the readers as they guess the extent of the paw's malevolent influence. Jacobs further heightens this suspense through the foreshadowing clothed in the interaction between the family and the setting. Mrs. White's humor regarding the money falling on her husband's head, and the unsettled reaction of Mr. White to the movement of the paw, are not merely coincidental but rather an allusion to the tragic