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How authors create suspense
How authors create suspense
How authors create suspense
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More handpicked essays just for you.
How authors create suspense
How authors create suspense
How authors create suspense
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
For two centuries now, horror and suspense stories have become one of the most intriguing types of story genres. These genres have captured the attention of countless of readers and nowadays watchers. According to Percy D’Aco, horror stories are created to show discomfort and fear reflecting on one’s greatest fears. In the process of writing horror stories, numerous authors create suspense to make people continue reading and stay hooked on the story. A great example of the use of suspense would be the horror story “August Heat,” written by W.F Harvey.
The person responsible for the misfortune to the White family in the Monkey's paw is Mr. White. The Monkey’s Paw is a short story by W.W. Jacobs is a story about a paw that grants three people three wishes. The family gets the paw but the catch is that each wish comes at a cost. The family's first son causes their son's death.
The monkey's paw is just like the quote, “Be careful what you wish for it will surely be yours” (Baldwin 3). One of the ways is when the Whites wished for 200 pounds to pay off their home. How they got the money was by way of their son. He died at work due to falling into the machines. The Whites got a settlement for his death.
According to Dictionary.com, “ Talisman means, a stone, ring, or other object, engraved with figures or characters supposed to possess occult powers and warn as a necklace or charm. In the story The Monkey's Paw Mr. White gets a talisman from his friend that just got back from India from serving in the military. There are two different adaptations of the story, the original and the video adaptation. The video adaptation enhances the suspenseful mood of the original version of The Monkey's Paw. Some examples of it creating more suspense is when Mrs. White blames Mr. White for killing Herbert.
The setting of the story creates horror just like suspense does. The typical horror story is in bad weather. In “The Monkey’s Paw” the weather was, “ the night was cold and wet.” This is an ideal setting for a horror story. The monkey’s paw, The main concept of this story, was also established on this dreary night.
In the two stories “The monkey paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “Where are you going, Where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates both use suspense to engage the reader more. Suspense is keeping the reader thinking about the mystery events that are taking place in the story. The lesson that is displayed in these two stories is how one bad actions can lead to punishment. “The monkey paw” and “Where are you going, Where have you been” are both good examples of suspense in horror because they both have unsolved mysteries in the stories that leads the reader guessing and also include the actions of the characters that show why one can view punishment as a lesson in the story.
Have you ever wondered what it would like through the eyes of a killer? In each of the story’s they have examples of cause and effect, for example from the killer 's perspective he went crazy because he killed the old man. From the victim’s perspective in monkey’s paw after using this paw it costed them their son and losing their son made them depressed. The-Tell-Tale-Heart by Edgar Allan Poe and The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs have cause and effect relationships that create suspense.
In The Monkeys Paw, Mrs. White used the magical object (monkey’s paw). One out of the three wishes granted using the monkeys paw was to have her son back. The outcome of this was pounding at the door, not knowing exactly who was behind the door. The Monkeys Paw is all about granting wishes and not expecting its outcome. This is comparable to The Story of an Hour because Mrs. Mallard wished to have her husband back in her life, but she didn’t expect the outcome of actually seeing her husband alive.
There are many red flags in The Monkey’s Paw, like the story only taking place at the White’s home. Another red flag is that there is not a lot of information about each character, for example, how they look like, what they do etc. We know the family is not well off because Mr. White wishes for money, which gives us a bit of context, yet not enough. This leads to the other red flag dialogue, most of the story is just the characters talking about what is going on.
[hook here] The horror genre has different elements that are repeated throughout all horror stories. One of the most common elements of horror is the use of suspense. According to “What is the Horror Genre?”, “…horror stories share the use of suspense as a tactic with many other kinds of literature…that suspense is intensified by our knowledge of the genre.” The advance knowledge of what is going to happen also creates suspense—authors can either confirm those expectations or surprise the reader with a different outcome.
With Morris’s face whitening, it tacitly tells the audience that something terrifying happened when Morris made his wishes. This foreshadows that something dreadful will happen once the Whites make their wishes. Question 2: Compare Mr. White’s feelings about the monkey’s paw when he makes the first wish, second wish, and third wish. How does his attitude change?
Mr. White, the main protagonist, pulled the Monkey’s Paw out of the fire in curiousity (pg 187). He look at it with ignorance and wished foolishly after being warned (pg 189). When his son went off to work and never came home, he and his Wife fell into depression (pg 191). Sadness drove them to bring him back any possible way, and it was his Wife who suggested taking the action of wishing him back (pg 192).
Suspense, the state of tension, anxiety, and uncertainty, like waiting for an outcome that comes very slow. Authors usually create suspense by using story elements. In the story “The Monkeys Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, he uses story elements such as foreshadowing, conflict, and surprise ending. Foreshadowing is one of the biggest ways that expresses suspense in the story. For example Sergeant Major Morris states that the first owner of the paw wished for death.
The conflict in the story is not only the monkey’s paw but was somewhat Mr. White’s attitude. If he never was that greedy the story would have changed he would have agreed with Morris and burned the monkey’s paw but he didn’t want to do that creating the plot. Any change in the plot could have/ would have altered the course of the story but also altering the theme. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” the downfall of the White family is when they receive the two hundred pounds as a compensation for the son’s death which was actually caused by messing with fate.
Have you ever watched a suspenseful movie about magic? Have you ever wished you had your own genie that would grant you three wishes? However, the three wishes aren 't exactly what you wished for? Well in the story the Monkey’s Paw that pattern seems to be happening a lot.