Reread this section of the text:
He went down in the darkness, and felt his way to the parlour, and then to the mantelpiece. The talisman was in its place, and a horrible fear that the unspoken wish might bring his mutilated son before him ere he could escape from the room seized upon him, and he caught his breath as he found that he had lost the direction of the door. His brow cold with sweat, he felt his way round the table, and groped along the wall until he found himself in the small passage with the unwholesome thing in his hand.
Even his wife’s face seemed changed as he entered the room. It was white and expectant, and to his fears seemed to have an unnatural look upon it. He was afraid of her.
“Wish!” she cried, in a strong voice.
“It is foolish and wicked,” he faltered.
“Wish!” repeated his wife.
He raised his hand. “I wish my son alive again.”
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.
He sat until he was chilled with the cold, glancing occasionally at the figure of the old woman peering through the window. The candle-end, which had burned below the rim of the china candlestick, was throwing pulsating shadows on the ceiling and walls, until, with a flicker larger than the rest, it expired. The old man, with an unspeakable sense of relief at the failure of the talisman, crept back to his bed, and a minute or two afterward the old woman came silently and apathetically beside him.
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 darkness was oppressive, and after lying for some time screwing up his courage, he took the box of matches, and striking one, went downstairs for a candle.
At the foot of the stairs the match went out, and he paused to strike another; and at the same moment a knock, so quiet and stealthy as to be scarcely audible, sounded on the front door.
The matches fell from his hand and spilled in the passage. He stood motionless, his breath suspended until the knock was repeated. Then he turned and fled swiftly back to his room, and closed the door behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.
“What’s that?” cried the old woman, starting up.
“A rat,” said the old man in shaking tones —“a rat. It passed me on the stairs.”
His wife sat up in bed listening. A loud knock resounded through the house.
“It’s Herbert!” she screamed. “It’s Herbert!”
She ran to the door, but her husband was before her, and catching her by the arm, held her tightly.
“What are you going to do?” he whispered hoarsely.
“It’s my boy; it’s Herbert!” she cried, struggling mechanically. “I forgot it was two miles away. What are you holding me for? Let go. I must open the door.
“For God’s sake don’t let it in,” cried the old man, trembling.
“You’re afraid of your own son,” she cried, struggling. “Let me go. I’m coming, Herbert; I’m coming.”
There was another knock, and another. The old woman with a sudden wrench broke free and ran from the room. Her husband followed to the landing, and called after her appealingly as she hurried downstairs. He heard the chain rattle back and the bottom bolt drawn slowly and stiffly from the socket. Then the old woman’s voice, strained and panting.
“The bolt,” she cried, loudly. “Come down. I can’t reach it.”
But her husband was on his hands and knees groping wildly on the floor in search of the paw. If he could only find it before the thing outside got in. A perfect fusillade of knocks reverberated through the house, and he heard the scraping of a chair as his wife put it down in the passage against the door. He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey’s paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.
The knocking ceased suddenly, although the echoes of it were still in the house. He heard the chair drawn back, and the door opened. A cold wind rushed up the staircase, and a long loud wail of disappointment and misery from his wife gave him courage to run down to her side, and then to the gate beyond. The street lamp flickering opposite shone on a quiet and deserted road.
Points for discussion
How does the writer use structure to interest the reader?
You could think about:
The use of long and short sentences for a specific effect
Repetition
Foreshadowing (when clues are given as to what will happen
next)
Dialogue (direct speech)
Juxtaposition (putting two opposite ideas together for
contrast)
Contrasts
Your answer might look something like this:
At the
beginning, the writer focuses on Mr Whyte’s fear at his wife’s request
to wish his son alive again. The long sentence beginning, “The monkey’s paw was in its place…”
shows the slow passing of time as he struggles to think of what to do. The short sentence at the end
of the paragraph, “he was afraid of her” foreshadows that they are no longer a team, but
each have different wishes. This creates tension as the reader knows that from now on, they
will be at war with one another. The use of dialogue also arouses tension because the wife
keeps repeating the
single word, “wish!” The direct nature of her speech is frightening to the
reader as they know she will not change her mind and the reader wonders what
Herbert will look like when he arrives.
After Mr Whyte has made the wish, the focus changes from high
activity to silence whilst they wait to see what will happen. This arouses
terror and suspense from the reader. Short sentences such as “a stair creaked” and “a third knock
sounded through the house” breaks the sound of the silence, creating terror in
the reader.
The dialogue
in lines 30-33 infer that Mr Whyte doesn’t want Mrs Whyte knowing that
Herbert is at the door. Throughout the remainder of the extract, Mr and Mrs
Whyte’s different wishes are juxtaposed.
She is desperate to open the door, shown through the phrase, “I’m coming
Herbert!”, but Mr Whyte shouts, “Don’t let it in!”
The ending of the text when the lamp shone on a “quiet and
deserted road” contrasts
with the beginning. At the beginning, there is a frenzy of activity as they
realise that they might be able to get their son back, but at the end the
hopelessness of the situation is expressed by the silence.
Links to the English Language GCSE
This question is similar to the Question 3, Paper 1 in the AQA specification.
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