“The Monkey’s Paw” – By W. W. Jacobs

About The Author:

W. W. Jacobs was born September of 1863 in London, England. He spent most of his childhood on wharf where his father worked and many of his stories took this setting. His works are best known as satirical macabre, which consists of madness to inspired a moral to the reader.

“The Monkey’s Paw”:

Setting: The Monkey’s Paw is mainly set in the Laburnum Villa in England which is where the whites live. It can be assumed that the story takes place during the industrial revolution.

Point of view: First person point of view – when the story is told through the perspective of the main or minor character in the story. In the story, the point of view is third person limited because the we know knows the thoughts and feelings of only one of the characters ( Mr. White)

Characters: 

1)    Mr. White: was Herbert’s father. He was curios about the paw

2)    Mrs. White: she was married to Mr. White. She loves her son

3)    Herbert: was a worker man. He was son the son of Mr. and Mrs. White

4)    Sergeant-Mayor Morris: was an old family friend who just arrived from India with the paw.

The theme of this story is ambition. This is because ambition is wishing to get what you want. In the story, you have to be careful of what you wish for, because you might just get it. Another theme is that people learn from their mistakes and the whites learned from their by losing their son and then trying to bring him back.

The story is about a family that was in their house playing chess. Suddenly, an old family friend arrived and started to tell what he did in his life. He started to talk about India and that he found a monkey’s paw. The paw was magic because it was possible to wish 3 wishes. He had already wished them and the paw gave him bad luck. So, he threw it to the fire but Mrs. White caught it. Then, Mr. white wished to have 200 hundred pounds to prove if the paw was real. The next day, they realized that nothing happened. Herbert, Mr. white’s son went to his job. At night a man knocked the door to inform Herbert’s parents that their son was dead. And as a retribution for his dead their son’s company paid them 200 hundred pounds.

Ten nights had passed and Mr. white woke up at middle of the night feeling alone and he saw his wife crying because of their son. They decided to use the second wish to bring their son back. Mr. white was against this idea because of the terrible consequences. they wished it and suddenly someone started knocking at the door strongly. Mrs. White wanted to know who it was, but Mr. white was too afraid so he decided to use the last wish to avoid his second wish. After that the door stopped knocking and the woman started knocking and the woman started to cry.

So, the moral of the story is that fate rules people’s lives, and those who interfere with it, pay with the their sorrow.