The Monkey's Paw Compare And Contrast

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In order to compare and contrast the ending of the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and the ending of Ricky Lewis Jr’s film adaptation, one must think about all the drastic differences and essential similarities in both versions. One event that appears in both versions is when Mrs.White harshly forces Mr.White to wish for Herbert to come back to life. One scene where the film adaptation strays from the text is when we learn that the White’s die a year after Herbert’s death because of of a large amount of grief. Whereas in the story it ends at Herbert’s death. Both the film rendering and the story include that Mrs.White made Mr.White rapidly wish Herbert alive again while she was in denial. In the text on page 114 Mrs.White ordered “We’ll have one more. Go down and get it quickly and wish our boy alive again!” By including this …show more content…

To conclude the story Jacob writes “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.” The story ends this way too show the characters are upset and to create a gloomy feel like the calmness after a storm which was harsh and damaging. On the other hand the film says “A year passes though the final wish was granted the grief caused becomes the paw’s last wicked lesson.” and later shows Mrs.White’s tombstone beside Herbert’s along with Mr.White laying in the snow since the amount of grief cause was unbearable. This scene was added to provide the audience with a full, perfectly concluded story unlike the text because that way the audience wouldn’t be left hanging. It is clear that the director chose t add this scene to leave the audience with a closed ending since the story provided no further information after Herbert’s

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