Feminist Criticism In 'The Monkey's Paw'

Three wishes, an old Indian curse, and a mummified paw, that was cut from a monkey. This is going to be exciting! “The Monkey’s Paw” is a short story written by W.W. Jacobs in the early 1900’s just after the turn of the centenary. Even though the text is short, it grabs the reader’s attention and keeps them on the edge of their seats until the very end. As exhilarating as this thriller is to read, unfortunately like many literary works written during that time, “The Monkey’s Paw,” is demeaning towards women and goes against feminist literary criticism’s principles and ideologies.

When applying feminist criticism to a work of literature, like “The Monkey’s Paw,” the focus is on whether the text reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women. This school of criticism places little importance on the actual story, but rather pays attention to feminist ideology in comparison to the text (). During the time Jacobs wrote this short story, the woman’s suffrage movement was making great advancements towards woman’s rights

In the text there are many subtle ways that social segregation is implied, but the author even goes as far as to come out and say how society felt that women were inferior to men. When the man from the factory come to tell the old man and woman that their son was killed at work the texts says, “She then waited as patiently as her sex would permit” (story). With that quote it is clear that men were thought to be better than women. Because she was a woman it meant that she was unable to be patient. It is being implied men are patient, but the only reason the female character cannot be is because she is a woman. The use of feminist criticism is not necessary to find this statement offensive and to show that “The Mokey’s Paw” dose reinforce the segregation that went on during the time the story was