How do the authors create atmosphere and tension in The...

How do the authors create atmosphere and tension in The...

How do the authors create atmosphere and tension in The Monkeys Paw and The Red Room?



A ghost story is a story with intent to scare; it usually builds up tension and suspense by using a lot of intense, exaggerated words.

Usually in a ghost story there is a typical dark and gloomy setting and an inhuman object almost always there is a non human force or a supernatural being in the story to give it a scare factor.

Supernatural means a power above the forces of nature which implies that it is not human. In the time that the two stories were written, the belief in the supernatural was a lot different to those of today.

They believed in such things as ghosts and witchcraft where as nowadays there are only some believers. This could ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...In The Monkey's Paw the author uses the typical horror story setting so that you get an early picture of the atmosphere. They are on a windswept road in the middle of nowhere. the author describes the place using such metaphors as "roads a torrent"and "paths a bog." I feel that the author is extremely exaggerating the setting because he is describing the road as if it is flowing with water and the path is wet, muddy and swamp like .I feel that he uses this well because it gives you a clear visual image of the setting and is very useful to add negative vibes. Inside the house it is light and peaceful the author deliberately does this to show the juxtaposition between dark and light. He does this because darkness represents negative emotions and light represents positive emotions. The comfortable atmosphere inside misleads the reader to believe the story will not be scary.



The Red Room however is set in a different perspective. It is set inside a castle. As in most ghost stories, there is a fire place.

Fireplaces are used a lot in ghost stories to give that feeling of warmth and security before they go into the scary parts. He also uses an example of onomatopoeia by saying that there is a creaky door; again this is a typical

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