The Vampire of Kaldenstein and The Monkey’s Paw Essay Example
The Vampire of Kaldenstein and The Monkey’s Paw Essay Example

The Vampire of Kaldenstein and The Monkey’s Paw Essay Example

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  • Pages: 10 (2626 words)
  • Published: October 15, 2017
  • Type: Report
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Today, interest in the supernatural genre is mainly focused on two categories of beings, the good and the evil. There are many comic book and film heroes such as "Superman" who are good supernatural characters and fight to help the world; at the same time there are many evil supernatural beings, which mainly appear in horror films, such as vampires whose sole purpose is to kill for their own gain. There is of course a minority of supernatural beings and events that are neither good nor evil such as the children's book character "Vlad the Drac" and the appearance of crop circles.

The supernatural has fascinated people throughout time and very likely will continue to do so. The primary reason for this is people's fear of the supernatural; as they do not know much about the supernatural they do not unders

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tand it. However, it is because of this that people become curious and do read and watch so much material on the supernatural; they hope that they will gain knowledge and understanding and hence overcome their fears. There is also a level of enjoyment at being scared. The supernatural is commonly used to create suspense and add atmosphere to books, films and plays.

We still enjoy the supernatural genre because it gives human beings the opportunity to escape from their mundane lives. It places us into a completely different realm. We can control our fear, unlike in daily life where fear is uncontrollable, by simply shutting the book or turning off the film; this control adds another level of enjoyment to the book or film. The supernatural has always appeared in literature. In ancient Greek mythology variou

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supernatural characters such as the Minotaur play a major part. The Greeks believed in these characters. Authors use the supernatural for other reasons.

In "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Shakespeare uses the supernatural in the form of fairies. They give a freedom to the plot. The supernatural world of Puck with his magic "love in idleness" brings the couples together and ensures that the play ends happily. In "Macbeth" Shakespeare uses the supernatural to add fear and create a highly sinister atmosphere to the play. The witches are truly terrifying but it is not their powers that drive the plot; it is the hero's weak character.

Two short stories where the supernatural provides the theme are "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs and "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" by Frederick Cowles. In both of these stories the supernatural is used as the basis of the plot. In this way readers are immediately intrigued and wonder what involvement the supernatural has within the story. This creates an interest in the story before one has even started reading. The use of the supernatural theme gives a freedom for anything to happen in the story; while reading the story one will never know what will happen next which holds the reader's interest throughout the story.

When writing about the supernatural authors use a variety of techniques to, describe events vividly, create atmosphere and enable us to suspend our disbelief. A good example of an author using such techniques when describing events vividly is in "The Monkey's Paw", during the incident where Mrs White wishes for the resurrection of her son Herbert. Throughout the passage the author uses many adverbs to describe the

event vividly. For example in the lines, "The talisman fell to the floor, and he regarded it fearfully.

Then he sank trembling into a chair as the old woman, with burning eyes, walked to the window and raised the blind. Even though we have no clear picture of what the characters actually look like, the author ensures that we understand their mental state. The use of the word "burning" clearly conveys Mrs White's excitement and hope just as the use of the word "trembling" conveys Mr White's fear. In the "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" the technique the author uses for describing events vividly is very different to that in "The Monkey's Paw". A good example of Frederick Cowles descriptive technique is in the passage, "He was unusually tall, with a face of unnatural pallor.

His hair was intensely black, and his hands delicately shaped but with very pointed fingers and long nails. His eyes impressed me most. As he crossed the room they seemed to glow with a red light, just as if the pupils were ringed with flame. " In this passage the author uses phrases such as "intensely black" to describe what the count looks like. His use of description is very detailed and leaves almost nothing to the imagination, clearly creating a picture of evil. By contrast, the description in "The Monkey's Paw" is far less detailed; we are not given a picture of what the Whites look like.

In neither passage are the characters' emotions directly described, however, in the passage from "The Monkey's Paw" the reader can infer the characters' emotions from their descriptions, whereas in the passage from "The Vampire of Kaldenstein"

no description is given to hint towards the characters' emotions. In "The Monkey's Paw" the technique used by the author to create atmosphere can be seen in the sentences, "Neither spoke, but lay silently listening to the ticking of the clock. A stair creaked, and a squeaky mouse scurried noisily through the wall. "

The sounds described in this section are very stereotypical of the supernatural genre for example, "the ticking of the clock". The sounds are not pleasant sounds and create quite a tense atmosphere. They also emphasise the silence and by doing increase the tension. In "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" the way in which the author creates atmosphere is evident in the passage, "A clock in the house chimed the hour of midnight, and suddenly I had the unpleasant feeling that I was no longer alone. For a moment I felt frightened and then, overcoming my fear, I turned over. There, by the windows and black against he moonlight was the figure of a tall man. "

As in "The Monkey's Paw" the author uses sounds that are common in the supernatural genre. Both of these passages are set in the dead of night and the sounds breaking the silence add tension and excitement to both pieces. However, "The Monkey's Paw" uses sounds to create atmosphere to a greater extent than "The Vampire of Kaldenstein".

As "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" is written in first person the author has used description of the characters emotions to create atmosphere more than the use of sounds for example, "For a moment I felt frightened and then, overcoming my fear, I turned over. As we know the narrator is not

easily frightened the author ensures that we are drawn into his fear. By being ambiguous the author gives the opportunity for the reader to put the whole story down to chance; because readers can rationalise the story they are drawn into it. Frederick Cowles suspends our disbelief in two ways.

The primary way he does this is the exact opposite to W. W. Jacobs's method; he leaves no opportunity for the supernatural events to be rationalised. A good example of this is in the line, "As the drops touched the leering corpses they appeared to writhe in agony, to swell as though they were about to burst, and then, before our eyes, they crumbled into dust. " By writing about all the events as if they were fact the author leaves no choice but for the reader to believe and hence be drawn into the story. The other method Frederick Cowles uses to suspend the reader's disbelief is by writing in the first person.

By writing in the first person the reader learns to trust the narrator as we see he is a level-headed person capable of making rational decisions. By doing this we automatically believe whatever the narrator tells us. The methods used by the author to suspend our disbelief also want to make us read on. Because the events in "The Monkey's Paw" are so ambiguous we want to read on to confirm in our minds the cause of the incidents that can be taken to be supernatural or merely natural. The technique used in the "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" is very different.

As it is written in first person we are intrigued about the fate

of our narrator. It is evident that he survives the supernatural proceedings in the story as he is the narrator, yet as we do not know how he survived our curiosity is aroused, causing us to read on. Another method used by the author to make the reader read on is dividing the text up into chapters and placing cliff hangers at the end of each chapter. A good example of this in "The Monkey's Paw" the end of chapter two, "Unconscious of his wife's shriek, the old man smiled faintly, put out his hands like a sightless man, and dropped, a senseless heap, to the floor.

The reader is left concerned about the health of Mr White and also wondering how the Whites will react to the death of their son once they have recovered from their initial shock. Frederick Cowles uses cliff hangers at the end of chapters in the same way. A good example of the use of cliff hangers in "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" is at the end of chapter three, "A burst of mocking laughter died away in the distance as I fell to the floor in a dead faint. " We are left worrying about the health of the narrator and wondering what his fate will be the next evening when the count returns.

In "The Monkey's Paw" and in "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" the supernatural arises as a result of the characters' own actions. In both texts the supernatural is used to punish the characters for disregarding warnings. In "The Monkey's Paw" Mr White is frequently warned about the dangers of using the paw's powers by Sargent Major Morris. At

the beginning of the story, he was even told that the last owner's final wish was for death, as the result of using the paw was so terrible. Yet he ignores these warnings and wishes on the paw.

We can see that Mr White is being greedy when he wishes on the paw from the sentence just before making the wish, "I've got all I want. " One can argue that Mr White is punished for using the supernatural by the death of his son Herbert, if one chooses to accept that Herbert died as a result of the Supernatural. Herbert doubts and mocks the supernatural from the beginning of the story. We can see this in such remarks as, "I expect you'll find the cash tied up in a big bag in the middle of your bed" and, "something horrible squatting up on top of the wardrobe watching you as you pocket your ill-gotten gains".

Later on Herbert is punished with death for mocking the supernatural; however, it is his death that causes the wish to come true. This uncanny chain of events punishes the whole family for meddling with the supernatural. In "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" the narrator is seen to be stubborn and ignore the warnings issued to him by the priest and the landlord. An example of this is, "This was too fantastic for anything. I am afraid I smiled in a sceptical manner, but the poor landlord was obviously very serious,"

Just as in "The Monkey's Paw" Mr White doesn't heed Sergeant-Major Morris's warnings, the narrator in "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" doesn't believe the landlord that the count is a vampire". The narrator

even goes as far as to pity others for believing in the supernatural; this can be seen from the phrase, "poor landlord" and this is similar to Herbert's mocking of the supernatural; in "The Monkey's Paw". It is possible that the narrator was also punished for not believing in the supernatural; however, his punishment was not as severe as the White family's punishment in "The Monkey's Paw".

This was a time when little was known about India. People knew of stories about fakirs, magic and mystery from the Far East making India the perfect place for the monkey's paw to have come from. It also makes the story more believable, as people's knowledge of India and science was so small they would have little reason not to believe in the powers of the paw. The Vampire of Kaldenstein" is set in the 1930's. The use of electricity in the text such as, "groped for my flashlight" shows that the text is set later than "The Monkey's Paw".

Because of World War One, science and technology had advanced greatly since the writing of "The Monkey's Paw" in 1902, thereby making it much harder to convince people of the existence of the supernatural. Post 1918, authors have to write more persuasively to convince the reader who would be able to rationalise far more. When "The Monkey's Paw" was written, people were generally ignorant about technology and more ready to believe in the supernatural.

The way in which the supernatural genre is used today is more similar to the use of the supernatural in "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" than "The Monkey's Paw". In modern writing the supernatural is for more focused

around people with special abilities than magical objects, examples of this can be seen in "Harry Potter" by J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". In both "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" the supernatural is an evil force, however today the supernatural is more balanced between good and evil. Both the stories use the supernatural as the basis of their plot.

The authors use the supernatural to create interest and suspense. Within in the plot the supernatural is used to punish the main characters in both stories, Herbert and Mr White are punished for mocking and doubting the supernatural in "The Monkey's Paw" and in "The Vampire of Kaldenstein" the narrator is punished for being stubborn and refusing to take the advice offered to him. In both stories, the characters have to want the supernatural to have an effect on their lives. Mr White has to wish and the narrator has to enter the castle of his own free will before supernatural happenings occur.

Although the supernatural is used for similar purposes within both texts it is how the author manipulates it which determines how effective it is. The supernatural events are stereotypical and hence predictable in "The Vampire of Kaldenstein," which ruins its effectiveness. There are two other factors in the story which ruin the suspense, the first being the title "The Vampire of Kaldenstein. " we immediately know that the supernatural will be used in the form of a vampire. The second is the fact that it is written in the first person.

Because of this we know that the main character in the story survives his experiences and is happy

about the outcome. In "The Monkey's Paw," although the setting of the scene is very stereotypical of a supernatural story, "Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Labumum Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly", the supernatural events are unique and unpredictable. The reader does not expect Herbert to die as a result of the wish. I think the supernatural has been used far more effectively in "The Monkey's Paw" where it gives suspense, atmosphere and also enjoyment to the story.

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