Theme Of Conflict In The Monkey's Paw

The stories of “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish” deal with similar forms of conflict. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, the White’s decide to keep the Monkey’s Paw despite the warnings from the Sergeant, who stated “better let it burn” when being pushed by the Whites, who wanted to use it for 3 wishes. In the story, they wish for 200 dollars to pay off the house. They get the 200 dollars, but at the price of losing their son Herbert in a Machine incident. They try to make a wish to bring him back, but the wish turns him into a monster. The whole story is a haunting tale about the Whites being too greedy and paying the price. In “The Third Wish”, Mr. Peters rescues the “king of the forest”. As a reward, he gives him 3 wishes. He does warn him about the possible misfortunes that could occur. Mr. Peters

With both being a mixture of person vs. self, person vs. nature, and person vs. person, the types of conflict are the same. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, the White’s decide they want to get 200 dollars with their first wish. They believe this will be consequence free, but they are wrong. As a consequence, they receive the money as compensation from the fact that Herbert has died from a machine incident. In “The Third Wish”, Mr. Peters wants a beautiful wife. This wish ends up backfiring when his wife is from swan origins, and her twin sister is a swan. This leads her to be unhappy, and thus leads Mr. Peters to use his second wish to turn her back into a swan to make her happy. Between these two stories, a common theme within the two conflicts is the belief that the wish will be granted without any issue, only for the wish to carry a consequence. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, it was Herbert’s death, while in “The Third Wish”, it was Mr. Peters’ wife being a swan. Overall, the way the conflict arises due to a misconception is very similar, and a major reason why these two stories are so