Mood In W. Jacobs A Monkey's Pawing

Mood, one of the most important features to a story. In the short story, “A Monkey’s Paw” written by W. W. Jacobs, the mysterious mood is constantly represented while the story is being read. The details of the setting, constant imagery, and the narration method all help convey the mood. The technique that the author used to write this story, constantly create a detailed picture in the reader's mind. He made sure to include detailed descriptions and strong words to fulfill the importance of imagery, and using an objective narrator helped the reader know what everyone was feeling rather than one person. Let's dive in a little deeper to explore his methods and how they helped develop the mysterious mood. To start, the setting has a huge role

When I think of a cold, wet night, the first thing that would pop into my head is a dark mystery story. A huge part about setting is where the story takes place. Mr. White, the father of the family, explains to us where they live and what it is like. Page 374, “‘...Pathway’s a bog, and the road’s a torrent. I don’t know what people are thinking about. I suppose because only two houses in the road are let, they think it doesn’t matter.’” Their average day, from what I can conclude using his description, is swampy, dark, and wet. At one point in the story we learn that they only live two miles away from a graveyard. To me and many readers there is nothing about the setting that would not bring a mysterious mood. Next, the imagery. Imagery serves its purpose to create vivid descriptions and stronger pictures of the setting in the reader’s mind. The author decided to use imagery to make the mysterious setting even stronger. At the end of the story the reader is left off wondering what was seen when the door was open. Was it Herbert, the son that tragically died, or was it just the wind and their heads messing with them. W. W. Jacobs ended the story with imagery to keep the reader

“The streetlamp opposite shone on a road.” It is boring, but with a little bit of imagery the mystery is brought back to the story and creates mood and a dark and scary effect. Lastly, the narration method that was used brings mood. After reading the story, I realized that it is written in third person subjective narration. What a subjective narrator is, is someone who recounts events with character’s thoughts, feelings, and observations. Throughout the story, the reader would experience how everyone is feeling rather than a single person’s internal feelings. There were many parts of the story that included two or more people and the reader would get to experience how everyone is feeling at that moment in time. On page 376, Sergeant-Major Morris arrives and we get to experience everyone's actions and thoughts. “Mr. White looked up sharply… between mother and son… The sergeant-major shook hands, and taking his proffered seat by the fire, watched contentedly.” COntinuing from this point, the author includes a little bit more of what the sergeant is doing. In the beginning of this quote we see what Mr. White was doing, and then shortly after we get the feeling of what the sergeant is