46 pages • 1 hour read
W.W. JacobsThe Monkey's Paw
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1902A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Dangers of Wishful Thinking
Despite the ominous warnings by Morris, Mr. White retrieves the paw from the fire. Yet, confronted with having to make a wish, he states, “I don’t know what to wish for, and that’s a fact,” and continues, “It seems to me I’ve got all I want” (54). His wife and son are more lighthearted about the paw and its magical powers. Mr. White listens to Herbert when making his wish and asks for 200 pounds. Mr. White has a visceral reaction to the sounds of the piano crashing and the monkey paw moving after the wish, imagining he sees even the face of the monkey in the fire.
Herbert pays the price for his wishful thinking through his death. Mr. and Mrs. White not only now grieve their son, but they also wrestle with the guilt for the wish that seemingly caused this terrible turn of events. But the two parents learn different lessons. While Mrs. White wants their second wish to “wish our boy alive again” (112), Mr. White has apparently not given a thought to the paw. He tries to warn his wife about wishing Herbert back: “If he was too terrible for you to see then, how now?” (119), but she will not be deterred. As terrible as the first wish and its consequences were, Mrs. White cannot see that this second wish could bring forth something even worse. It defies the laws of nature. Mr. White wishes away the second wish, and the monkey’s paw—now useless for the Whites with its three wishes used—becomes a reminder of the ills of wishful thinking.
The Finality of Death
The main element of horror appears in this story once Herbert dies and his parents receive the 200 pounds. Both Mr. and Mrs. White experience tremendous grief at the abrupt loss of their son. In the first moments after hearing the news, Mrs. White experiences relief when the stranger from Maw and Meggins states Herbert is “badly hurt” but “not in any pain” (84). This relief does not last long, and Jacobs describes the transition to the realization that Herbert has not been spared, but rather died quickly. After the Whites bury their son, Mrs. White demonstrates an inability to accept death’s finality. Denial is often listed as one of the stages of grief, and she illustrates this through her unwillingness to accept Herbert’s death as definitive.
In the world of “The Monkey’s Paw,” death can be denied—not only through an unwillingness to accept it—but also through the wish Mrs. White demands Mr. White make. Mr. White argues against this wish, having identified his son’s body only by his clothes due to the severity of the work accident. This experience of seeing his son’s body forces the reality of Herbert’s death upon Mr. White and convinces him that the incarnation of their son after wishing him back to life would likely be horrific.
In the story’s last few paragraphs, Mrs. White anxiously awaits her son’s appearance, denying his death is final. Simultaneously, Mr. White fears what will appear at their doorstep. Mr. White’s final wish is a wish for finality. While not explicitly stated in the story, the reader can deduce that Mr. White’s final wish was that his son remained dead. Mrs. White cries out in disappointment when no one is at the door. She will yet again have to endure grief and death’s finality, no matter what else she may wish were true.
Coincidence Versus the Supernatural
“The Monkey’s Paw” plays upon psychological elements and the supernatural to build suspense and have the reader question what really happened and what might happen next. The story never presents a ghost, monster, vampire, or witch, but there is nonetheless anticipation in the final part of the story that Herbert may be the monster at the door. The story illuminates a horror trope that sometimes what we fear most is something we never actually see.
A skeptic reading the story could argue that the events are unusual but natural. The fact that the 200 pounds wished for matches the sum rewarded to Mr. and Mrs. White after Herbert’s death is simply a coincidence. The events are tragic but, in this reading, they do not indicate supernatural forces are at work. The same could be said of the knock at the door. The Whites, having buried their only son, feel tremendous grief and despair. The narrator says of them, “Sometimes they hardly exchanged a word, for now they had nothing to talk about, and their days were long to weariness” (98). Mrs. White experiences understandable volatile emotions at her son’s passing, and her exclamation for “The paw!” is a last attempt to avoid the profound pain she experiences. But the reader never sees beyond the interior of the house, so it is never known what makes the sound. A skeptic could argue that it was the wind, an animal, or even the mind playing tricks on two people who have endured severe pain. Jacobs leaves it to the reader to decide if Herbert was at the door and if the paw has supernatural power.
