How is a sense of horror created in Charles Dickens’ ‘The Signalman’ and W.W Jacobs’ ‘The Monkeys Paw’?
...r as know one knows what is behind the door but there is a picture in the readers mind of the fathers sons body. In ‘The Signalman’ the narrator seems mysterious as he doesn’t use much description of himself he just says ‘I’. His attitude towards the way he deals with the supernatural is very shy. When ‘The Signalman’ suggests the supernatural the narrator says without a hesitation ‘No’. ‘The Signalman is very shook up and scared we can tell this from the way he acts towards the scary sense of the story. He seems distracted as he doesn’t speak much only does when he is spoken to. He doesn’t seem to want to say supernatural as he uses the phrase ‘left the natural word’’, instead of saying supernatural. The way that the narrator talks about ‘The Signalman’ make him sound very distracted or mad, ‘turned his face towards the little bell when it did NOT ring’ and then ‘The Signalman’ himself says ‘I am troubled ‘ which is the first time we hear him admit there is something wrong. In ‘The Monkeys Paw’ Mr and Mrs White seem to have a nice calm relationship but towards the end after the death of their son they get arguative and shout at each other ‘wish! She cried, in a strong voice’. ‘Sergeant Major Morris’ Isn’t a big character as he is only involved in the start of the story but he introduces the paw tells them of its powers and the curse, ‘It had a spell put on it by an old fakir’. When Mr White hears of the story he wants the paw regardless of the curse. Mr White’s son Herbert White pays the consequences for his Dads actions. Mr White wishes for two hundred pounds, then later that day his son dies from an accident at work and Mr White gets his two hundred pounds as ‘a certain sum of compensation’ for his son’s death. ‘The Signalman’ has a suspended plot building up to the supernatural. Charles Dickens hints about supernatural presences ‘struck to chill me’ and ‘monstrous thought’. The main part to the story is ‘The Signalman experiencing supernatural appearances. He sees a ghost but isn’t trying to scare him it is warning him, ‘The Signalman’ hears the ghost telling him to ‘clear the way’ and he doesn’t know why it is saying this. Charles Dickens tells us that ‘The Signalman’ sees things we don’t or he is mad, ‘turned his face towards the little bell when it did not ring’. ‘The left arm rose across the face, and the right arm is waved,--violently’ that is how ‘The Signalman’ describes the actions of the ghost he sees from his signal box, that he doesn’t know is trying to save his life. Towards the end the narrator goes to see ’The Signalman’ at his box but to his horror finds that ‘The Signalman has been ran over by a train ‘’Signal-man killed this morning sir’, ‘He was cut down by an engine sir’. The engine driver tells the narrator how he tried to tell ‘The Signalman’ to move ‘Below there! Look out! Look out! For god’s sake clear the way!’ this way the same words the ghost had said to ‘The Signalman’ this ‘started’ the narrator. The engine driver told what he did ‘I put this arm before my eyes not to see, and I waved this arm to the last’ the actions the driver took were the same that ‘The Signalman’ described the ghost as doing this creates a great sense of horror as now only the narrator knows of the ghost. In ‘The Monkeys Paw’ the sense of horror built up at the end. When Mr White wishes for two hundred pounds his family are calm apart from the small bit of pressure put on by ‘Sergeant Major Morris’ they don’t worry to much of the curse, until the curse takes place and there sons ...