"The Monkey's Paw" is a Gothic short story. This sub genre of Romanticism aims to use the darker aspects of reality and add specific elements that would intensify their role in the story for the purpose of mood.
Often, Gothic stories will show the following "staple" traits:
- a remote location
- inclement weather
- inevitability of fate
- death surrounding the plot
- the lowest ebbs of human emotion: tragedy, desperation, sadness, insanity
- the presence of the supernatural
As such, "The Monkey's Paw" reunites all of these factors making the mood fluctuate from happy and upbeat (at first), to gloomy, scary, and desperate toward the end.
At first, we have a couple playing chess during a dark, windy and rainy night, presumably isolated. Fate is about to knock on the door in the form of the Sergeant Major and the entrance of the actual monkey's paw. Death will come in the form of the news of the couple's son, and the insanity and despair that will ensue will come as a result of all the elements working together.
The ending, which leaves the reader in complete suspense is a clever literary technique that adds even more intensity to the potential outcome of the story. In turn, the ending which plays with the reader's imagination so that it provides its own closure to the tale.
No comments:
Post a Comment