The Monkey’s Paw is a short horror story written by W. W. Jacobs. Its main characters are Sergeant-Major Morris, Mr. and Mrs. White, and their son Herbert White. One day when Morris visits Mr. White, Mr. White asks about the Monkey’s Paw. Morris told him it would grant 3 owners each 3 wishes, he was the second owner. But there was a catch to it, with every wish there would be a consequence, although he knew, Morris didn’t tell him that. So Mr. White took it gladly, he wished for 200 pounds, and then his son died. The company he worked at felt bad so they gave the couple 200 pounds. And then Mrs. White wished for her son to be alive again, but the bad thing was that Mr. White had turned into a bad person and wished that his son wouldn’t come back. The evil thing was always related to the wish, for example, the family only got the money once their son died. There are many strong themes that are found throughout the book and they play a very important role in it.
The main theme of the story is greed, it is not a good thing. Greed tricks people into doing evil things, which isn’t good at all. Mr. White didn’t need the 3 wishes from the monkey’s paw but he still wanted them simply because they were magic. Morris told him it was magic and could grant wishes tricking Mr. White into wanting it. He told him that the wishes have consequences, but they will just seem like coincidences. But Mr. White didn’t care, he just wanted his 3 wishes. Once he got the paw he noticed that he didn’t really need anything. His son Herbert, suggested he wish for 200 pounds so he can pay off the mortgage of the house. So Mr. White wished for the excessive money that he didn’t need. In the end he got a consequence. He never needed 3 wishes, before that, in the prelude of the story, he said he felt like he had the best life in the world, and he didn’t need anything else. The theme of this part of the story is to not be greedy.
The second theme is taking advantage of others' trust and curiosity, fake friends would most likely do this to you without you knowing. In the story, Morris took advantage of his friend’s trust and lured him into the trap by taking advantage of his curiosity. In the beginning, when Morris came to visit Mr. White, Mr. White immediately questioned him about the monkey’s paw. So we can infer that Morris already told him about it. Morris told him that it was magical and could grant him 3 wishes. This was how he took advantage of his friend’s curiosity. He then told him that it causes mischief and consequences so he was going to throw it into the fire. But at this point, Mr. White’s curiosity and greed had gotten the better of him. He begged Morris for the paw, and offered something to him. Eventually Morris gave in and acted like he still didn’t want to give him the paw, but he actually just wanted to get rid of the thing this whole time. He didn’t really care if his friend died because of the consequences, he just wanted to get rid of it.
Suspense is another key theme to the story, after every wish, the reader would be dying to see what would happen next. In the book, while Morris was explaining to the White family about the Monkey’s Paw, he said that there would be consequences. But they didn’t really care, they thought that it wasn’t possible, and Mrs. White and her son didn’t even think it could grant their father’s wishes. When Herbert told him to wish for 200 pounds, he did but nothing happened. It was very suspenseful at this time because the readers were definitely dying to know what's going to happen next, if there was going to be a consequence or not. Another very suspenseful part of the story was the night, 1 week after Herbert's death. Mrs. White had thought of a genius idea and forced her husband to make that wish, the wish was to wish him back to life. There was a sudden knock at the door, Mrs. White thought it was her son. She told Mr. White to open it but he didn’t want to, he thought his son would be like a zombie after being crushed by the machine so he was scared. It was very chaotic and when Mrs. White opened the door, no one was there because Mr. White used his last wish to wish that Herbert wasn’t coming back. There is a lot of suspense in this book which is why people enjoy it so much.
This short horror story written by W. W. Jacobs is a very popular book and has been rewritten many times, as slightly different stories and movies. The story is about the White family and the Monkey’s Paw. The themes of the story are very important. The first one is greed, is to not be greedy, Mr. White was greedy and wanted the monkey’s paw although he already had everything he wanted and in the end nothing good came out of it. The second theme is taking advantage of others, because Morris took advantage of his friend’s trust and curiosity to trick him into taking the evil monkey’s paw. The last theme is suspense, after every wish, the readers would be waiting in suspense to see what consequence happens next. The story started when Morris took advantage of a friend, then Mr. White fell into the trap by being greedy, many consequences came with his wishes too. The themes and morals of the story are very strong and play a very important role in every book.
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