“The Monkey 's Paw"
"The Monkey’s Paw” is W.W. Jacob 's most famous story. It is considered to be a classic of horror fiction.The story opens with the White family spending a cozy evening together around the hearth. An old friend of Mr. White’s comes to visit them. Sergeant-Major Morris came home after more than twenty years in India. He entertains his hosts with exotic stories of life abroad. He also sells to Mr. White a mummified monkey’s paw.Jacobs uses foreshadowing, imagery and symbolism in this story to explore the consequences of tempting fate.
the first wish is made for two hundred pounds. Herbert White suggests this particular amount because it would be enough to pay off the mortgage on their house. The consequence of this wish is that the parents get the money but that Herbert dies. He is killed in an accident when he is “trapped in the machinery” at his workplace.
The next wish stems from the first. Ten days later, Mrs. White realizes that they have two wishes left and could use one to bring Herbert back from the dead. She pushes her husband until he gives in. As the story tells us, “He raised his hand.
‘I wish my son alive again.'
All we know for sure is that some hours later something starts knocking on the Whites’ door in the middle of the night. We never see what is knocking but the Whites are sure it is Herbert. Mrs. White thinks that Herbert will be normal again.But Mr. White does not. He remembers that Herbert was mangled beyond recognition in the accident and he knows the corpse has been rotting for 10 days. He is sure that the knocking is coming from Herbert’s corpse, and not from a Herbert who has been brought back to life as he was before the accident.
The next wish stems from the first. Ten days later, Mrs. White realizes that they have two wishes left and could use one to bring Herbert back from the dead. She pushes her husband until he gives in. As the story tells us, “He raised his hand.
‘I wish my son alive again.'
All we know for sure is that some hours later something starts knocking on the Whites’ door in the middle of the night. We never see what is knocking but the Whites are sure it is Herbert. Mrs. White thinks that Herbert will be normal again.But Mr. White does not. He remembers that Herbert was mangled beyond recognition in the accident and he knows the corpse has been rotting for 10 days. He is sure that the knocking is coming from Herbert’s corpse, and not from a Herbert who has been brought back to life as he was before the accident.
Just as we are not told for sure what is knocking on the door, we do not know for certain what the third wish is. Mrs. White has been getting a chair so she can open a bolt on the door that is too high for her to reach. Mr. White is frantically looking for the paw because he does not want “the thing outside” to get in.He heard the creaking of the bolt as it was slowly opened, and at the same moment he found the monkey’s paw and frantically breathed his third and last wish. The knocking stopped suddenly, though it still echoed in the house.Mr. White wished for his son to return to the dead and that the consequence of his wish was that Herbert did so.
The moral of the story is that People do not need a monkey's paw to make wishes. We all are free to make wishes at any time. And some of them come true. But 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 Pow " We have all had the experience of getting something we wanted and then finding out that we made a mistake in wanting it.
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