The Monkey’s Paw: Be Careful What You Wish For
The short story, “The Monkey’s Paw”, was written by W.W. Jacobs in 1902. The genre could be classified as a folk tale, horror, or gothic fiction. It is about three bad wishes that have really bad consequences to follow. “The Monkey’s Paw” is envisioned to show people that fate rules their lives and that it is unwise to interfere with it. In this story W.W. Jacobs writes with a setting, tone, writing style, symbolism, and imagery that helps prove the point that you should be careful what you wish for because it just might come true.
To begin, the writer sets the story inside and around the White family home, called Laburnam Villa. The story is most likely set at the same time it was written, which
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was 1902. Each section of the story is based on the three wishes that were made. The first section of the story covers a single night in the White's lives, and the second section covers the following day. The third section happens at night, ten days after Herbert dies. As the story opens, the scene inside the Villa is contrasted with the scene outside. Outside, it's your classic dark and stormy night, but inside things are warm and cheerful, with chess, knitting, and a roaring fire. As the story progresses, the house becomes gradually darker and frightening. This section is complete with creaking stairs, strange shadows from candles, and things that go bump in the night. After Herbert dies, we are told that the house becomes "steeped in shadow and silence" (Shmoop Editorial) Also, Herbert is employed at a factory that is owned by a company named Maw and Meggins. While reading the story, we never learn what Herbert’s job is, never visit this place, nor do we learn what exactly is done here. It is not once said what causes Herbert’s death. It could have been carelessness on his part, unsafe conditions, or something much worse. This setting shines a light on another serious problem during this time period as well, which is working conditions in the early 1900’s. To follow, Jacobs uses a unique tone that is filled with dark subject matter, which he seems to take very seriously. As mentioned earlier, he used his tone to debrief on other issues that were a problem of his time, as in working conditions in the 1900’s, the effects of British imperialism, the isolation and fascist separation caused by the Industrial Revolution, and heartache of losing a loved one. He makes it clear, as he voices it in the story, that he is a serious guy who cares deeply about the world he lives in. Next, the writing style used in “The Monkey’s Paw” is full of foreshadowing.
This is a tool Jacobs used to give his readers an idea of what to expect later on in the story. This type of style helps gain suspense as well. Herbert foreshadowed his own death a few times. "Well, I don't see the money," said his son, as he picked it up and placed it on the table, "and I bet I never shall.” (Jacobs, William)." By W.W. Jacobs) Before his parents go to bed, Herbert seems to foreshadow his own disfigurement and return from the dead: "I expect you'll find the cash tied up in a big bag in the middle of your bed," said Herbert, as he bade them good-night, "and something horrible squatting up on top of the wardrobe watching you as you pocket your ill-gotten gains." He sat alone in the darkness, gazing at the dying fire, and seeing faces in it. The last face was so horrible and so simian that he gazed at it in amazement. It got so vivid that, with a little uneasy laugh, he felt on the table for a glass containing a little water to throw over it. His hand grasped the monkey's paw, and with a little shiver he wiped his hand on his coat and went up to bed.” (Jacobs, William) If Mr. White hadn't used his third wish (presumably) to send Herbert back to the grave, this might have been exactly the scenario that played out. Mangled from his accident and rotting from his time in the graveyard, Herbert would have been that "something horrible" if Mrs. White had managed to let him into the house. …show more content…
(Shmoop Editorial) Moreover, we don't need a monkey's paw to make wishes. We are free to make wishes at any time. And some of them come true. Unfortunately, it often turns out that the wishes that do come true result in disappointment--or worse. This fact of life seems to be the theme behind the theme of "The Monkey's Paw." We have all had the experience of getting something we wanted and then finding out that we made a mistake. An example of a really serious mistake is marrying the wrong person. A less serious mistake is taking the wrong job. Benjamin Franklin wrote the following truth: “All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.” Wishing is the same as wanting. We all want something much of the time. ("The Monkey's Paw (Theme)." Enotes) In addition, symbolism and imagery is a strong writing characteristic that is used in “The Monkeys Paw”. Slang and dialogue is used to make the characters feel true and sincere. Jacob creates settings which help develop the moods of the story. (St. Rosemary Educational) Mr. White and his son Herbert love to play chess in this story. Therefore, chess is symbol of life. The paw seems to be a dominant symbol. It provides a stimulating way to discover the guilt of losing a loved one. If the paw had never shown up or been discovered, the Whites would have found something else to blame for Herbert’s death besides themselves. It also causes anxiety to build up over a foreign object that came from India that was magical, mysterious, and scary. As the writer continues in the story, one gets the idea that the monkey that lost his paw is evil and full of vengeance due to its poor treatment. Which, it can be assumed that this is powering the paws evil actions, bringing bad luck to anyone who may come in contact with it. In like manner, Jacobs drew from a number of widely known literary sources in writing “The Monkey’s Paw” to make the story both familiar and unsettling. His most recognizable influence was the tale of Aladdin and the magic lamp, one of the more famous tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, or simply Arabian Nights, as Mrs. White calls it. There are numerous variations to the Aladdin story—including Walt Disney’s popular cartoon of the 1990s—but nearly all of them suggest that successful wishing is impossible because magic never works the way people want it to work. Jacobs also uses the same structural pattern in “The Monkey’s Paw” featured in most other “three wishes” stories: the first wish leads to unexpected and dissatisfying results, the hastily made second wish fails to reverse the first wish and only worsens the situation, and the third wish manages to undo the disastrous second wish. ("The Monkeys Paw Analysis.") Jacobs’s less obvious sources of inspiration, however, include the Bible and stories of Faust, the German scholar who sells his soul in exchange for the devil’s service.
Mr. White recoils in horror after wishing on the monkey’s paw for the first time, insisting that the paw moved like a snake in his hand. This snake alludes to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, in which Eve discovers that the seemingly delicious fruit brings only misery. Similarly, the Whites—whose surname suggests unsullied innocence—discover that the powerful monkey’s paw grants wishes with a heavy price. And just as in the Faust stories, the fulfillment of Mr. and Mrs. White’s wishes brings only pain and suffering to others and therefore fail to satisfy them. ("The Monkeys Paw
Analysis.") In the final analysis, you can see that in this story W.W. Jacobs writes with a setting, tone, writing style, symbolism, and imagery that helps prove the point that you should be careful what you wish for because it just might come true. The characters’ lives are governed by an indifferent fate that punishes regardless of a lack of moral failings because of the paw. The story examines the old adage “Be careful what you wish for”, highlighting people's tendency to focus on what they don't have to the detriment of what they do possess. People fail to take responsibility for their own selfish actions and blame the foreign objects. In this case, the White’s family blame the monkeys paw for the death of their son. This story creates a true aspect on life using fictional and magical objects and beliefs.
In the short story, "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs, I came to the conclusion that Sergeant Major Morris was responsible for the sorrows that resulted from the monkey's paw. For instance, he was the one who owned the paw in the first place, allowed Mr. White to keep it, and even told them how to use it, stating on page 377, "Hold it up in your right hand and wish aloud."
In the story The Monkey's Paw the foreshadowing creates tension and suspense because during the story there was so many things going on and you didn't know what was going to happen next. I say this because in the Monkey's Paw the author writes He raised his hand. "I wish my son alive again." This quote explains foreshadowing by suspense because when he wishes for his son to be alive again it gives the audience suspense if he is going to actually be alive again or if it's not going to come true and they are going to be disappointed.
“I warn you of the consequences” - “The Monkey's Paw” (page 89) this essay will be comparing and contrasting Two stories “The Monkey's paw” by w.w. Jacobs and “The Third wish” by Joan Aiken. In “The Monkey's paw” and “The Third Wish” the mood and setting are almost completely different, If it wasn't for the theme this book wouldn't be so similar .
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
“The Monkey’s Paw,” contains the idea of three wishes. This gives a motif of, “Be careful what you wish for: for you don’t know what’ll bring.” On the other hand, “Tell-Tale Heart” tells us that your conscious will always get you. You will not go unpunished for all the bad deeds you commit. The conflicts faced by the protagonists in both stories revolve around death. However, the cause of the problem is diverse. In,”The Monkey’s Paw,” the Whites face a catastrophe. Their wish has killed Herbert. While in “Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator faces his conflict in the fact that he killed the old man. These supplementary details make all dark tales one of a
The monkey’s paw itself resembles evil and only obtained its powers from a fakir “to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow” (The Monkey’s Paw). The narrator claims the paw “twisted in [his] hands like a snake” much alike the malicious serpent in the Garden of Eden (The Monkey’s Paw).Disguised as being helpful, the serpent, presented in the form of a snake, persuaded the biblical characters that everything that they were doing was moral and right. Adam and Eve’s “lives were ruined because of their sin” because of the serpent’s “temptation and ridicule… [, which closely resembles] methods used by Satan [,]” in order to convince them to eat the forbidden fruit (adam&eve). Their action upon this fruit relates to the conflict within the short story’s characters which left them in despair just as the biblical characters were. Mr. White should have never acted upon the temptations that stood before
White used on the monkey’s paw was to have 200 pounds (Jacobs 91). The previous examples prove how the theme of limiting luxury is illustrated differently in both stories by showing the wealth of each family. In “The Veldt,” the family is in a superior financial state where they have access to anything they want and where money is not an issue. However in “The Monkey’s Paw,” although it took place in 1902, the White’s first wish was for 200 pounds- 243 dollars and 83 cents- which is not an insanely large amount of money that would result in them being care-free for the rest of their lives. Overall, this proves the theme of the limiting luxury through showing the amount of means each family has and how their limit’s would be different from one another's as the two stories progress. Another instance of how the theme is portrayed differently in the short stories is how finances play a role in family life. For instance, in Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt,” the Hadley’s have access to such an extreme amount of money that it begins to affect how the parents and kids interact. This occurs when Peter threatens his father by saying, “I don’t think you’d better consider it any more, father” (Bradbury 7). On the contrary, the relationship between the members of the White family is much
In short, there are multiple similarities and differences in the characters, plot, and resolution in the short story and motion picture “The Monkey’s Paw” that clearly influence the audience. For instance, the difference in characters affects the mood. Similarities in the plot influence the tone, and the corresponding resolutions impact the theme. The director of the motion picture “The Monkey’s Paw” chose to stick to some aspects of the text as well as change some for numerous reasons, some of which include keeping the audience's attention, sustaining the author's tone in the text, and ensuring that the readers and viewers receive the same message.
The Monkey's Paw, we see fate take on a large role, as the story is
put on it by an old fakir. The story continues and then Mr.White and the
“The Monkey’s Paw, ” a clever and mischievous intertwinement of suspense and mystery, creating sparks of action, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat until the end. But how did W.W. Jacobs do it? Well, there were multiple key aspects he took into consideration, like tension, when a conflict hasn’t been solved, and suspense, the feeling of mystery or not knowing what is going to occur as the plot continues. However, one of the most critical aspects he used in different scenarios was foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is little hints the author gives to hint the reader of what may happen along the plot. The author can foreshadow events in a clear or vague manner. In the story, the author, W.W. Jacobs, used foreshadowing in many different scenarios, but the most clear and critical foreshadowing used was when Mr. White, a character in the story, first receives the paw. Another key foreshadow point is when he has to make his second wish because of his circumstances. There were a variety of moments the author used foreshadowing, but those two scenarios were the most crucial and critical.
In the story, “The Monkey’s Paw”, W.W Jacobs narrates a story about a man wishing on a monkey’s paw, at his own risk. Jacobs provides all of the plot elements to exemplify that when one tampers with fate, there is always consequences that comes with it, especially if it is wished upon the monkey’s paw. The plot of the short story The Monkey's Paw uses a sense of foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to display the unforgettable effect Jacobs was aiming for.
The stories of Joyce Carol Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" and William W. Jacobs "The Monkey's Paw" have several different degrees of symbols and themes that warn the characters of emitted danger or bad outcomes in their stories that can be mirrored of each other. In, these stories the characters do not follow the warnings from these symbols and themes from the clues that are presented to them. From these terrible choices that are decided, they find themselves in situations that could have been avoided, but they did not proceed with. My analysis of these symbols and themes will demonstrate what they are and show the obvious of what to look for. So, let us begin on this analysis and see how the symbols and themes could have
Monkey’s Paw Prequel There was once an old fakir who lived in India. He created something that was called “the monkey’s paw.” The monkey’s paw could grant three wishes. The old fakir saw a man walking by who was just staring at the ground looking at the dirt.. The old fakir said “Would you like to buy this monkey’s paw?
A monkey's paw? Granting wishes? Who has ever heard of such a thing? Apparently W.W. Jacobs thought so with a classic story brought by him called "The Monkey's Paw." In this story, a man comes to show a family in the English countryside what he has brought back from India, and one of those things is a Monkey's paw. He told them it would grant only three wishes so they took it, wished their first wish, then got it, bit not in the way they expected it. The character, Major Morris, is the most responsible for the sorrow that resulted from wishing on the monkeys paw.