“Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it”—Anonymous. In W. W. Jacobs’s horror short story, The Monkey’s Paw, the author basically teaches us about how dangerous one’s wish and tampering of one’s fate can be. Because of the dangers, one must be careful since they may regret it for life and bring sorrow upon them. Throughout the story, there are certain themes that sum up most of the story: dangerous wishes and interference of fate, the clash between domesticity and the outside world, and the horror. W.W. Jacobs teaches a very important lesson in this short story; he teaches us that we must wish carefully and that we should not tamper with fate. If we let our greed consume us, we are bound to wish carelessly. And if we do wish carelessly …show more content…
“The Whites’ house is full of symbols of happy domesticity: a piano, knitting, a copper kettle, a chessboard, a fireplace, and a breakfast table” (SparkNotes Editors). Although the house is full of symbols of happy domesticity, the Whites “repeatedly invite trouble into the cozy world of domesticity” (SparkNotes Editors). For instance, when Sargeant-Major Morris visits the Whites, he disrupts the peacefulness in the Whites’ home with his magical stories of India, the fakir and the monkey’s paw. When Morris shows the paw, “the ultimate token of the dangerous outside world,” (SparkNotes Editors) to the Whites’, the Whites become fascinated about the paw and its stories. Afterwards, the Mr. and Mrs. White damage their domestic world—their home—by inviting the Maw and Muggins representative who announces Herbert’s death. Also, when the Whites make their second wish, someone furiously knocks on the door. Although we are not exactly sure who the person at the door is, we assume that the final contributor to the deterioration of the domestic world in the Whites house, who is at the door, is Herbert himself. Mr. Whites’s fear of the uncertainty of the identity of the one knocking on the door and the uncertainty in whether if Herbert is a human or an animated corpse forces him to take action immediately and wish for the person knocking on the door to go away. Throughout the short …show more content…
Jacobs uses an unexpected transitioning from the peacefulness of the family to the disruption of that peacefulness. The author begins the story with a peaceful scene where Mr. White and his son are having fun playing a game of chess while Mrs. White knits closely. The fireplace nearby warms up the room and contributes to the peacefulness of the house. In contrast, the outside world which is described as dark, cold and stormy, gives off a bad mood that is mostly likely a foreshadowing to the terrible events that are about to occur. When the guest, Sargeant-Major Morris comes to the Whites’ home, this is where the peacefulness of the house gets disrupted. When Morris left the monkey’s paw, Mr. White carelessly wished for two hundred pounds which is granted at the cost of Herbert’s life. As Mrs. White figures out the power of the paw, she forces her husband to wish for the son to be back to life again. A moment later, the main horror scene takes place is when someone just furiously knocks on the door, desperate to get to the house. Mrs. White hurries to the door to open it, thinking that Herbert is on the door, but she can’t reach the bolt to open it. As Mrs. White tries to open the door, Mr. White rushes to the Monkey’s paw and uses up his final wish to either send the knocker or Herbert away since we do not know if that person was evil or not. And, when the Whites check outside to see the knocker, all they saw on the streets was a dark, abandoned street. Therefore, in
The theme in both stories are the same it is be careful what you wish for. I know this because in the “Monkey's paw” even when the man says, “ I warn you of the consequences if you must wish, wish for something sensible” Mr.white still wishes for 200 pounds this was not a very sensible wish it was actually very selfish and childish. As a result That same day a man walked up to his door and says that Mr.white's son was caught in equipment and that, “they wish to present
The Simpsons episode “The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror II” is about a magical monkey’s paw bought by the Simpsons, a modern day family that lives in a town called Springfield. The family uses the paw to grant themselves four wishes. The wishes, they soon find out, all include repercussions that harm the family in some way. The book “The Monkey’s Paw” is about a family that is given a monkey’s paw by a friend that says it can grant three wishes. The family’s home in this story is Laburnum Villa, sometime in the past. At first the family is skeptical of the friends claim that the paw is magic saying, “If the tale about the monkey’s paw is not more truthful than those he has been telling us, we shan't make much out of it.”(Page 4, W.W. Jacobs). They then proceed to use the paw and are surprised to find that what they wish for is in fact granted but comes with terrible consequences. While “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror II” both share similar plots, the settings of the stories and the
One may stutter over the conception that a monkey’s paw holds the power to determine fate, rather than siding with freewill. In the short story, “The Monkey’s Paw,” an average family, located in the middle class discovers a monkey’s paw and are told that they had three wishes upon that magical, yet deceiving item. However, their decisions cost them several, unintended consequences, due to greed within the human mind. The author, W.W. Jacobs uses symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony to convey the peril of wish fulfillment and the dangers of interfering with fate.
This quote shows the ludicrous amount of wealth the Hadley’s have because of how the author describes certain qualities of their home. On the other hand, the amount of riches the White’s have access to in “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W Jacobs is significantly less than that of the Hadley’s, and this is depicted when the author describes that one of the
Just like a genie, right? Wrong. Thesewishes come with an outstanding price. The story proves that interfering with fate can have a disastrous outcome. “The Monkey’s Paw” uses literary devices to create a story filled with both suspense and horror..
The monkey’s paw is a gothic tale. The tale is about a family of three named the Whites. When the Whites are given a magical monkey’s paw by an old family friend – Sergeant Major Morris - they also inherit three wishes. Herbert, the descendant of the family takes the paw for granted and had no certainty in the paw. That day they make their first wish for two hundred pounds, nothing happens. That night, after the old couple had departed to bed, Herbert sees a simian-like face in the fire. The following day, Herbert, goes to Maw and Meggins, where he works. In the meantime a worker from the Maw and Meggins cotton mill comes to visit Herbert’s parents and delivers devastating news. He claims that Herbert had been crushed by machinery whilst working which led to his death, but they were entitled to compensation of two hundred pounds. The couple are absorbed by grief and after the funeral Mrs White suggests that they use the monkey’s paw to wish Herbert back to life. Mr White is very hesitant to do this, but after a lot of persuasion and fuss from his wife he agrees to the idea. After making the wish the couple retire to bed. When the candles burn out, and Mr White goes to retrieve more there are loud knocks at the door. Mrs White runs to the door, and after a few struggling minutes, manages to get the door open. A loud...
Foreshadowing is common in many stories to show the reader glimpses of the future. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, foreshadowing is used to make the story more dynamic and interesting. Some specific examples of foreshadowing in “The Monkey’s Paw” are Mr. White’s radical chess game and the unpleasant stories about the monkey’s paw.
In W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw” there is a family named the Whites who receive a magic monkey paw that can grant three wishes to them, but they are forewarned that each wish will have a horrible consequence. They do not heed the warning and wish for money to pay off their house debt and their son dies as repercussion for messing with fate. Mrs.White tries to bring her son back to life with the monkey’s paw, but her wish was undone by her husband’s fear of seeing their son’s mangled body. When people mess with fate and alter destiny they must also face an equal consequence for straying the path that was set for them.
All spring and summer the townsfolk spoke about the three bodies that had been found, mangled and slashed. Now, had the three men headed the warning and stayed away from the old man’s house they would still be alive. Instead they were tempted by the greed in their hearts for the money the terrible old man was said to have possession of. This drove them to enter through his gate and knock on the door. They believed that because he was an old man, he would be feeble and week, making him an easy target for
The cause in the Monkeys paw is that the Whites son dies. The White’s son shockingly dies in a machine, “he was caught in the machinery,” said the worker. The White’s feel responsible because of the wish they made for money. The wait to see if their son was still alive after wishing on the monkeys paw brought great distress, so much so that Mrs. White fainted. The Monkeys Paw creates suspense, by showing us all the emotions from the characters while they wait to see if their son will return with the last wish. In the Monkeys Paw if they did not make a wish for money, then their son would still be alive. If these things wouldn’t have happened the White’s
Mrs. White on the other hand manages to keep a cool head in the beginning and is apprehensive of the paw. She originally senses the danger that the paw poses but doesn’t make much of it and actually encourages Mr. White to use the paw.
There mustn’t be any shadow of doubt when you give an order, not in combat. Robert Heinlein. Johnnie Rico is the main character in the book Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein.. All he ever wanted was to join the Federal Armed Services, along with his friend, Carl. He was the only son of a wealthy Filipino family, and very privileged.
he gibes them 200 pounds. The consequence of Mr. Whites first wish is the main
The underlying message of the short story, “The Monkey’s Paw” is that some things are just too good to be true. I think that this is the underlying message because to people who don’t know the consequences, the monkey’s paw is amazing and could grant them everything they ever wanted. But, what they don’t know is that everything that they wish for is going to cost them something, including the life of a person. For example, in the story, the text says, “He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it” (Jacobs 3).
In the first half of “Ghost House”, word choice is used to create a somber, unsettling tone. Even innocent words take on a bleak undertone. Phrases such as “daylight falls” exemplify this with the anxiousness that is evoked with the word “falls.” Even the word “copse” begins to sound like “corpse.” This word play is important in solidifying a foreboding mood.