The Monkey's

Paw
Study Guide by Course Hero

In "The Monkey's Paw," a soldier brings a magical, mummified

What's Inside monkey's paw back to England with him when he returns from
serving in India.

j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1

d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1
d In Context
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 2

h Characters .................................................................................................. 4
The Weird Tale
k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 6
In the late 1800s the gothic emerged as a literary genre. Gothic
c Plot Analysis ............................................................................................... 8 novels are commonly set in isolated, mysterious, and often
strange settings; involve characters, including a fallen hero,
g Quotes ......................................................................................................... 13
with complex family dynamics; and feature melodrama, the
l Symbols ...................................................................................................... 16 supernatural, and architecture. Several other genres grew out
of the gothic, at least in part: the mystery/detective genre,
m Themes ....................................................................................................... 16 science fiction, horror, and the weird tale.

"The Monkey's Paw" is a fine example of a weird tale. Influential

American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) distinguishes the
j Book Basics weird tale from the gothic story and the ghost story by both
what it lacks (such as a ghost or a specific recognizable threat)
and what it contains. Weird tales, Lovecraft argues, contain a
AUTHOR
powerful and often inexplicable feeling of dread and involve a
W. W. Jacobs
suspension of the laws of nature. Science loses its power, at
YEAR PUBLISHED least temporarily, and there's often a dark kind of epiphany,
1902 when people reach new and disturbing realizations.

GENRE In "The Monkey's Paw," the mood of dread is established by

Fiction, Horror the dark, stormy night and the appearance of a mummified
monkey's paw that carries a warning. The outcome of the story
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR is dictated not by the laws of nature or science, but by fate and
"The Monkey's Paw" is told by a third-person, limited magic as the character of Herbert dies and is brought back to
omniscient narrator. life. When it is too late, the characters come to understand that
fate is not to be tampered with and magic, like fate, is not
TENSE
subject to human control.
"The Monkey's Paw" is written in the past tense.

ABOUT THE TITLE

The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Author Biography 2

The "Exotic Orient" The Trope of Three

In the 18th century Britain became increasingly involved in Asia, A trope is a structure or convention commonly used to
especially in trade. That led to Britain becoming politically organize stories. These can be highly specific, like fantasy
involved with Asian countries as well. In India the East India novels featuring a dark or evil tyrant, or more general, like
Company (an English company) dominated India for roughly a poets using imagery in their poems. The trope of three falls
century before, in 1858, Britain formally established rule of somewhere in between. Many stories are built around threes in
India by the British monarchy. This led to generations of some way: the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, the
occupation by British troops, which meant that British soldiers, three little pigs, or the three musketeers. Heroes often face
like Sergeant-Major Morris in this story, left their well-known three challenges, and rhetoricians often make sure to address
home country to cycle through years of duty in India. three points in their speeches or essays. For instance, the
body of the classic five-paragraph essay contains three
During this period North America and Europe cast all of Asia as supporting paragraphs. There's a Latin phrase that says omne
the "exotic orient." This broad stereotypical label referred to trium perfectum, which means "all sets of three are perfect or
how inhabitants of the West came to see the East as a site of complete." This refers to the way having three things (people,
mystery, magic, and sensuality. In a time when science and events, or sections) can make a story feel complete.
technology were spreading through Europe, Westerners saw
the East as an alternative: a place where the laws, rules, and There are many threes in "The Monkey's Paw," and this number
expectations governing their daily lives did not apply. Jacobs structures the story, building expectation and tension. There
indicates the Whites share this perspective through Mrs. are three Whites at the start of the story (Mr. and Mrs. White
White's comment that Morris's story sounds like something out and their son Herbert). Morris can't tell the story of the paw
of The Arabian Nights. The Arabian Nights, also known as The until he's had three whiskeys. The fakir who blights the paw
Thousand and One Nights, is a collection of Middle Eastern and structures the curse so that three different men can wish on
Indian stories. The frame story features King Shahryar, who is the paw and get three wishes each. There are three sections
famed for killing his unfaithful wives. One wife, Scheherazade, to the story, which means that when Mr. White makes his third
devises a plan to save her life. Each evening, she tells the king wish, the paw is, or at least should be, exhausted. It should be
an unfinished story. To hear the ending, the king must spare just an ugly little souvenir from someone else's trip to India,
her life for another day. The collection contains the well-known rather than the incredibly powerful talisman it has become
stories of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad the sailor. In "The throughout the story. Once Mr. White makes his final wish,
Monkey's Paw," the paw functions like a dark version of which seems to send their undead son back to his grave, the
Aladdin's lamp, which also enables the holder to request three paw is powerless—but the paw's loss of power also means no
wishes. one will believe the Whites' story because there is no evidence
to support it. The story introduces the Whites as happy but
In his stories set on the docks and those about men working at physically or geographically isolated. The story ends when they
sea, Jacobs drew on stories he heard from members of the are diminished and isolated by both grief and their experience.
British merchant marine and other sailors who traveled to
British colonies in the Pacific and Asia. He often emphasized

a Author Biography
elements of these travels, particularly those where members of
the British working class paid the price for imperial expansion.
Though this story does not explicitly discuss politics and
Jacobs does not share any of Morris's actual stories about his
travels, that's exactly what happens with the paw and its curse. Early Life
The Whites, who don't play an active role in British imperial
expansion and don't benefit from it, lose their son to a prize W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs was born in Wapping, England
carried home by a member of the British military. (now part of London) on September 8, 1863. Jacobs's father
was a wharf manager on the Thames, the major river running
through London. In the 19th century London was one of the

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Author Biography 3

busiest ports in the world, and the 10-mile stretch of the managed suspense before resolving everything at the end of
Thames that served the naval trade hosted ships from around the work. Jacobs wrote slowly and meticulously, writing only
the world. Jacobs played on these docks, meeting a wide array 100 words a day, a pace that allowed him to write a story
of characters who would later populate his fiction. month. Despite this slow pace he published over 150 stories
and several novels. A collection of his work published in 1931
Jacobs's mother died in 1870, leaving her husband with four included 17 volumes.
children. He remarried and had seven more children with his
new wife, producing a large family that lived on a limited "The Monkey's Paw" stands out from the bulk of Jacobs's
income. Jacobs attended a private school when he was young, earlier work: it is much darker and not directly set around the
and then he went to Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, docks. Jacobs published it in The Strand and then in 1902 in his
later called Birkbeck College, which then became part of the collection The Lady of the Barge. It was immediately popular
University of London. and has remained so. The rest of Jacobs's work has often
been out of print, but "The Monkey's Paw" has been continually
When Jacobs was 16, he started working in the Post Office reprinted and has taken on a life of its own. It has been
Savings Bank, which was state-run. In 1883 he was promoted adapted many times and in many ways. It was modified for
to the savings section of the bank, where he worked until 1899. stage not long after its initial publication (1903). Almost a
hundred years later a play version was published for children's
theater. It has been adapted in many film or TV versions, from
Jacobs's Writing Career and the comic (episodes of The Monkees and The Simpsons) to the
serious (an episode of The X-Files). Various musical groups
"The Monkey's Paw" have incorporated the idea into songs, and an opera version
was produced in the United States in 2009. Comic books have
Not long after he entered the civil service, Jacobs started also reused the idea. Many literary works have adapted the
submitting short written pieces to magazines. He got his big general idea of an object that grants wishes but twists them,
break in 1895 when the popular magazine The Strand and some have commented on the story directly.
published one of his stories. In 1896 he published his first
collection, Many Cargoes, and for quite some time, Jacobs
published a book almost every year. Many of the stories Jacobs's Personal Life and
published in his collections were first published in magazines
like The Strand, which helped Jacobs increase his income. By Later Years
1899 he was making enough from his writing that he retired
from the civil service. At his peak Jacobs was a well-paid writer In 1900 Jacobs married Agnes Eleanor Williams, a former
of short stories. suffragist who fought for women's right to vote. The two had
five children (two sons, three daughters). The family lived in
Many of his early stories fall into two categories, which
London, joined at times by his sister Amy and Agnes's sister
sometimes overlap: yarns about the world of the sea and
Nancy Williams. The couple reportedly argued quite often,
docks and humorous pieces. (He also wrote a number of crime
clashing in both temperament (Jacobs was quiet and shy, while
stories.) Some critics saw him as an heir to British novelist
his wife was jailed for her political activism) and politics
Charles Dickens (1812–70). He was praised by a diverse group
(Jacobs was more conservative than his wife).
of authors, such as American writer Henry James (1843–1916)
and British author G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), and he Jacobs didn't write as much new material after World War I
influenced later writers like British author P. G. Wodehouse (1914–18), instead dedicating a lot of his energy to adapting his
(1881–1975). His work is classified as being part of the "well- earlier work for the stage. Jacobs died in London on
made story" tradition, along with Scottish writer Saki September 1, 1943 at age 79.
(1870–1916) and English author M. R. James (1862–1936). This
tradition is related to that of the "well-made play" that
dominated the 19th-century stage. Both emphasized technical
skill and tight plotting, leading audiences through well-

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Characters 4

h Characters

Mr. White
Mr. White is an elderly Englishman. He and his wife have been
married for 40 years. They used to have several children but
only have one child still alive. Mr. White is largely content with
his modest life in a small home a long walk from the rest of the
village. However, he is eager to learn about Sergeant-Major
Morris's adventures in exotic India. At the start of the story his
judgment is limited: he makes risky moves when playing his son
in chess, and loses as a result. Mr. White cares intensely about
his son and wife. This leads him to wish first for his son to
come back from the dead and then, more strikingly, to wish for
the undead thing at his door to go away. In the end he shows
both bravery and good judgment by doing so.

Mrs. White
Mrs. White is an older woman; she and Mr. White have been
married for 40 years. When the story opens, she is quietly
knitting while her son and husband play chess. She plays a
supporting role in the early scenes: she encourages her
husband when he loses at chess, makes bridging comments to
lure Morris further into his story, and asks Morris directly if he
got his three wishes from the paw. After the Whites own the
paw and Morris has left, Mrs. White shifts to the forefront,
speaking more openly and dismissing Morris's claims. After
Herbert's death she reverses her stance on the paw's magic,
claiming it could resolve her tragedy and return her son to life.
Her emotions and efforts to open the door to let her son in
drive much of Part 3.

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Characters 5

Character Map

Mrs. White
Elderly English woman

Spouses

Son

Mr. White
Elderly English man

Friends

Son
Sergeant-Major
Morris Herbert White
Military man; brings High-spirited,
the monkey's paw good-natured young man
from India

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Plot Summary 6

after a few Morris starts telling stories about the things he saw
Full Character List on his travels, which have been going on for 21 years.

When Mr. White mentions he'd like to visit India some time, his
Character Description
visitor tells him he's better off where he is. White insists, and he
asks Morris about a monkey's paw the man had mentioned
Mr. White is the father of the family
Mr. White before. Morris quickly shuts this down, trying to discourage
and the one who makes the wishes.
White from asking further questions. When Mrs. White asks
about it, Morris mentions they could call it magic. The Whites
Mrs. White is the mother of the
Mrs. White give him another drink, and he pulls out the paw. He explains
family, who drives the later wishes.
that a holy fakir, or wandering Hindu wonder-worker, put a
Sergeant-​Major Morris visits the spell on it to demonstrate that fate rules human life and that
Whites and brings the monkey's people challenge that fate only at great risk. The spell gives
paw into their lives, although he three men three magic wishes each.
Sergeant-​Major
warns them about it; thus he is the
Morris
catalyst for the story. He is a career
military man, having served 21 years Herbert White asks the sergeant major why he didn't take
in India. these three wishes. The sergeant major says he did—and his
face goes white as he says it. When pressed, he claims his
Herbert's work sends a wishes have come true. The man who had it first also had three
The
representative to inform the Whites wishes. Morris doesn't know what the first owner's first two
representative
about Herbert's death.
wishes were, but the man's third wish was to die. He sounds so
serious that everyone goes quiet for a while.
Herbert White is the Whites' only
living child, high-​spirited and a bit of After a time Mr. White asks why Morris still keeps the paw,
Herbert White
a joker. He dies in an industrial
accident. since it is worth nothing to him. Morris claims he doesn't really
know. He thinks about selling it, but people who don't believe
him aren't willing to pay much for it—and it has already caused
him a lot of trouble. White asks if he'd make three more wishes
k Plot Summary if he could. Morris says he does not know and throws the paw
into the fire. Mr. White pulls it out and asks Morris to give it to
him. Morris refuses, saying he threw it away and that's where it
belongs. If White keeps it, that's on him. White looks the paw
Part 1 over and asks how to use it. Morris explains—hold it in the right
hand and make a wish out loud—but also warns him not to do
Mr. White and his son Herbert White are playing chess in their
so.
home. It's a cold wet evening, but it is bright and warm in the
house. Mr. White just made a mistake and tries to distract his The Whites joke about making a wild wish—for "four pairs of
son from noticing it by drawing his attention to the wind hands" for Mrs. White—but Morris grabs Mr. White and warns
outside the house. They begin to talk about whether a visitor him to make only "sensible" wishes. Mr. White puts the paw
they had been hoping would come to the house might do so away, and the family enjoys more stories from Morris over
that evening, and Mr. White complains that they live so far dinner. After he leaves, Herbert returns the conversation to the
away and it is hard for people to reach them. paw, saying they won't get much out of it if their guest's stories
were true. In response to a question from his wife, Mr. White
His wife recognizes that her husband is complaining in part
admits he paid something for it, but that it wasn't much—and
because he just lost the chess game, and she reassures him.
that Morris pressured him to throw the paw away.
Mr. White hears someone enter their gate and gets up to
welcome the visitor. The man, Sergeant-Major Morris, is tall Herbert makes another joking suggestion about what to wish
and strongly built, with a reddish face. They shake hands, and for (to be an emperor), but Mr. White says he feels like he has
the visitor takes a seat by the fire. Mr. White serves drinks, and everything he needs. His son suggests that his father would be

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Plot Summary 7

happy if they just had the money to pay off the mortgage, The man apologizes, and Mrs. White immediately asks about
which would be £200. Embarrassed by what he's doing, Mr. her son again—if he's hurt. The man says he is "badly hurt," but
White holds up the paw and wishes for £200. They hear a no longer in pain. He means Herbert is dead, but at first Mrs.
crash from the piano when he makes this wish, and Mr. White White thinks he's saying her son is okay. Eventually the truth
cries out. When his family runs toward him, he explains the paw dawns on her. She turns to Mr. White, and the visitor goes on,
moved when he made the wish. His son observes that the explaining their son was killed in an industrial accident. This
money isn't there and predicts they never will see it. Mrs. White devastates the Whites, especially since he was their only
suggests her husband's imagination is what made him think the remaining child. The man explains the firm feels sorry for their
paw moved. loss. While Maw and Meggins doesn't accept any responsibility
for Herbert's death, they do want to give some money to make
They all sit by the fire again. The men smoke, and everyone is up for their loss. Mr. White asks how much it is. The visitor says
quiet. Outside, the wind is stronger than ever. When they go to it's £200. Mrs. White shrieks at the information, while Mr. White
bed, Herbert jokingly predicts they'll find the money on their smiles wanly and then faints.
bed and "something horrible" on their wardrobe watching them.
When his parents go up to bed, their son sits and stares into
the fire. He seems to see faces there, and they get increasingly
grotesque until he throws a glass of water on the fire and goes
Part 3
to bed.
The Whites bury Herbert in the cemetery two miles from their
house then go home to a silent house. Herbert had died so
quickly that his parents expect something else to happen to
Part 2 make them feel better, but nothing does. Days pass, and they
fall into a tired sadness, barely speaking to each another.
The next morning is bright and wholesome, so much so that
the Whites dismiss Morris's stories as ridiculous and the A week later Mr. Herbert wakes up in the night alone. He can
monkey's paw as powerless and harmless. They don't see any hear crying. He calls to his wife to come to bed and says she'll
way for the money they wished for to hurt them. Mr. White be cold if she stays where she is. Mrs. White responds that it
reminds them that Morris had said the paw's magic works so will be colder for Herbert. Eventually she stops crying. Mr.
subtly it could be taken for "coincidence." Herbert jokingly White dozes off, but when his wife cries out he wakes up again.
warns them not to spend any of the money before he gets She screams "THE PAW!" and "THE MONKEY'S PAW!" She
home and then leaves for work. Mrs. White laughs and mocks starts looking for the paw. Mr. Herbert tells her where it is, and
her husband over breakfast. Even so, after she answers the she laughs tensely as she explains: they have two wishes left,
mailman knocking at the door, Mr. White claims the paw really and she wants to wish Herbert back to life. Mr. White asks if
did move. He and his wife are still disagreeing about this when the first wish wasn't enough, meaning their loss already cost
Mrs. White sees someone moving outside the house. He seems them a lot. She counters that it was not—that they will have
to be looking for something or trying to decide something. Mrs. another wish—and tells him to get the paw. Mr. White lights a
White notices the man is well-dressed. candle and tries to talk her out of it, suggesting it was just a
coincidence that Herbert was killed and they got the money.
The man seems unsure of himself: he stops near the gate
three times, walking on each time. Finally, he gathers his Mrs. White insists he get the paw and make a wish. Mr. White
resolve and walks to the Whites' house. Mrs. White tucks her shifts tactics, arguing that Herbert's been dead for 10 days
apron into her chair and goes to the door as the stranger now. He also tells her for the first time that Herbert had been
approaches. She welcomes him, but he still seems nervous and so badly mangled Mr. White only recognized him by his clothes.
distracted. Eventually he hesitantly explains his purpose. He is
a representative from Maw and Meggins. Mrs. White is Mrs. White insists, claiming she could never be afraid of the

immediately worried and asks if something happened to her baby she nursed. Mr. White goes down into the parlor. He finds

son. Mr. White intervenes, reassuring her that the man didn't the paw on the mantel. He's suddenly afraid his mental wish

bring bad news. would bring his dead, mangled son back immediately, before
he can even get out of the room. This scares him so much he

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Plot Analysis 8

starts to sweat as he moves through the darkness with the the door. A wind blows through the house, carrying a chill and
paw in his hand. When he gets back to his wife, Mrs. White's Mrs. White's cry of sad disappointment. This makes Mr. White
face is white and looks "unnatural" to her husband. Mr. White is brave enough to run down to her and then out the door to the
scared of his wife. gate beyond. The road is quiet and empty.

She orders him to wish for their son to return. He tries to argue

c Plot Analysis
it is a bad and stupid thing to do, but she orders him again. He
wishes for his son to be "alive again." The paw drops on the
floor, and Mr. White stares at it in fear, then collapses in a chair
shaking. Mrs. White goes to the window and stares out.

Mr. White just sits there until he's cold. He looks at his wife
Setting the Stage: The Perfect
from time to time. The candle has burned down, and it casts
flickering shadows around the room until it goes out. Mr. White
Home
is relieved because the paw seems to have failed. He goes
The story opens by setting the stage for the story. The entire
back to bed, and his wife joins him.
story takes place within the Whites' home or within sight or an
Neither speaks. They just listen to the clock ticking. They hear easy walk of it. The setting is so limited that it is almost like a
a step creak and a mouse move in the walls. After a while the play: a stage set could be made with just the sitting room, the
darkness feels threatening to Mr. White, and eventually he Whites' bedroom, and a window for Mrs. White and the family
lights a match and goes downstairs to get a candle. Once he's to look out in anticipation of Sergeant-Major Morris's arrival.
downstairs, the match goes out. Just as he starts to light
This static set is, at the start of the story, almost perfect.
another match, he hears faint knock. He drops the matches
Herbert White is an adult, but he and his parents get along so
and holds his breath.
well they pass the evening playing chess together and talking.
There's another knock. Mr. White turns and runs back to his This makes the weirdness and trauma that will soon follow all
bedroom, slamming the door after him. Behind him there's a the more intense.
third, louder knock that can be heard throughout the entire
house. Mrs. White calls out "What's that?" and sits up. Mr.
White says it is a rat. There's another knock loud enough to Anticipation and
hear everywhere in the house.
Foreshadowing
Mrs. White is sure it is her son and runs to let him in. Mr. White
beats her to the bedroom door and grabs her arm. He asks For the Whites these early paragraphs are defined by one
what she's going to do, and she says she is going to let him emotion: anticipation. Mr. White is so eager for their visitor to
in—that she had forgotten it would take him a while to travel arrive and share stories of his travels that he worries Morris
the two miles from the cemetery. She struggles to get to the won't come because of the distance and the weather, and he is
door, and the two argue about whether to let him in. There are actively listening for the sound of his arrival. For the reader this
more knocks on the door. Eventually, Mrs. White gets free and anticipation passes smoothly into foreshadowing. Herbert and
runs downstairs to open the door. However, she can't get the his father are playing chess, a game that requires foresight and
bolt open, and she calls for Mr. White to help her. pattern recognition to win. Mr. White shows he lacks these
things by making a stupid mistake in the second paragraph, a
Instead, Mr. White is upstairs, desperately scrambling for the
mistake so bad the author labels it "fatal." Soon the Whites will
paw. There's another blast of knocking. Mr. White hears his
make a mistake that is literally fatal, by making a wish.
wife pull a chair over to the door so she can open the bolt. He
hears the bolt creak as she opens it, and at the same moment
Mr. White makes his third wish.

The knocking suddenly stops. Mr. White hears his wife open

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Plot Analysis 9

outside: Morris brought the paw and magic, and the

Intrusion from Outside representative brings news of their side effects. However, he is
so delicate and concerned about the news he has to deliver
When the story opens, the Whites seem to have a modest but that he cannot bring himself to say it directly.
happy life. It is warm and safe inside their home. Things change
when there are intrusions from the outside. The first intrusion
is Morris's visit: once he crosses the line of their gate and then
enters their home, everything changes. He introduces the
Unspoken and Unseen
monkey's paw to the Whites. He informs them about its magic.
Throughout the story Jacobs manages the mood by carefully
He explicitly warns them not to use it. He sketches the general
choosing which elements of the story to dramatize and which
framework for the rest of the story: the paw gives three
things remain unspoken and unseen. When Mr. White buys the
wishes, which will come true, but in such a dark fashion that
paw from his visitor, he does not say how much he pays but
the final wish will be for everything to end.
rather only that it is a "trifle." When the factory representative

Despite this warning the Whites are already set on their fateful visits the Whites' home, he communicates Herbert's fate (he's

path. Mr. White's desire for magic is strong enough that he dead) without saying the words or directly indicating what the

buys the paw from his guest. This is itself a sign of change and accident was. Here Jacobs shows how strong his mastery of

may drive the wish itself. For all that, Mr. White says he paid storytelling is, because as part of their reaction, Mr. White says,

only "a trifle" for the paw, even though he does not give the "He was the only one left to us," indicating the Whites have

actual amount. He may need the money he later wishes for in a suffered the deaths of other children. This immense backstory

way he did not before he wished. All later intrusions into the of pain never comes up again and is never explained, but it

Whites' world will also be negative. The two largest are the suggests why the Whites might be so vulnerable when they

arrival of the company representative (announcing Herbert's lose Herbert.

death) and the knocking at the door after the second wish
When the Whites make their second wish, Jacobs never shows
(which may or may not be the mangled Herbert returned from
if the knock on the door is coming from Herbert returned from
the dead).
the dead, or what he looks like. Instead, he has Mr. White think

Though Jacobs does not dwell on this aspect too heavily, there on how long he'd been in the grave and share with his wife that

is a definite cultural component here as well. The British he only recognized their son from his clothes. Finally, the

Empire was a Caucasian empire, and this family is Mr. and Mrs. knocking on their front door ends after Mr. White's third wish,

White. The paw Sergeant-Major Morris introduces is black and without Jacobs ever confirming what had caused the knocking

comes from India, where the native population is not (and if Herbert actually had returned from the dead).

Caucasian. This story suggests that any intrusion from that

This subtle emphasis on mood, and communicating
land is both dangerous and evil.
disturbance through implication rather than direct direction, is
common in the weird tale. American author Stephen King (b.
1947) also argued that the threat kept off stage is more
Daylight, Irony, and Death upsetting than the threat revealed, because what the
imagination evokes is always scarier.
When day dawns so clean and pure the next day, it seems to
completely debunk the stories Morris had told the night before.
The idea of wishes seems ridiculous, and the paw harmless.
However, this is an instance of situational irony. Ordinarily a
pristine, bright morning foretells well-being and serenity, but
instead the representative from the factory shows up. He is
unsure about just where to go and definitely does not want to
deliver the tragic news of Herbert's death.

The representative is another example of an intrusion from the

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Plot Analysis 10

Plot Diagram

Climax

7
Falling Action
6
Rising Action
5 8

4
9
3
Resolution
2
1

Introduction

7. Mr. White wishes for Herbert to return from the dead.

Introduction

1. Sergeant-Major Morris comes to visit the Whites.

Falling Action

8. When they hear knocking, Mrs. White tries to open the door.

Rising Action

2. Morris tells stories of his travels in India.

Resolution
3. Mr. White buys the magic monkey's paw from him.
9. Mr. White uses the third wish, and the knocking stops.
4. Mr. White wishes for £200 to pay off the mortgage.

5. The next day, Herbert is killed in a factory accident.

6. A company representative gives the Whites £200.

Climax

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Plot Analysis 11

Timeline of Events

One evening around 1900

Mr. White and his son Herbert White are playing chess.

After the chess game

Sergeant-Major Morris arrives and tells stories about his

travels.

Later that evening

Morris tells the Whites about the monkey's paw.

Afterward

Sergeant-Major Morris sells Mr. White the paw.

After Morris leaves

Mr. White wishes for £200 to pay off the mortgage.

The next morning

The Whites laugh at their credulity regarding the paw's

magic.

Dinner time

A representative from Herbert's work arrives to inform

the Whites Herbert is dead.

A few minutes later

The representative gives them £200 in sympathy, and

the Whites collapse in sorrow.

Ten days later

Mrs. White thinks of wishing for their son to come back

from the dead using the monkey's paw.

Later that night

She compels her husband to make the wish.

A few hours later

The Whites hear knocking at the door.

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Plot Analysis 12

Then

Mrs. White tries to rush to the door, but her husband

holds her back.

After a struggle

Mrs. White gets free but cannot unbolt the door; she
calls to Mr. White to help her.

A few minutes later

Still in their bedroom, Mr. White makes the third wish.

Immediately

The knocking ceases. Nothing is there when Mrs. White

opens the door.

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Quotes 13

exchange between Mr. White and his visitor sums up the two
g Quotes perspectives on the exotic, magical side of the world. By all
appearances Mr. White has spent his entire life in
England—and on the outskirts of a small village at that. He is
"Without, the night was cold and eager to hear stories about India and other exotic locales,
while Morris, who has actually been there, sees the quiet,
wet, but [inside] the blinds were
innocent domesticity of English village life as better. The
drawn and the fire burned themes of domestic happiness and the nature and limits of
desire are both evident here.
brightly."

— Narrator
"To show that fate ruled people's

This opening line to the story establishes several elements

lives, and that those who
immediately. Specifically, it introduces the symbols darkness interfered with it did so to their
and light, as well as the theme of domestic happiness. These
tensions run throughout the story. The clear distinction of them
sorrow."
in this first sentence sets the stage for the conflict that is to
come. — Sergeant-Major Morris

Here Morris explicitly explains why the fakir, a wandering

"Never mind, dear ... perhaps you'll Hindu holy man, put a spell on the monkey's paw. Even though
he tells Mr. White that using the paw will bring "sorrow," Mr.
win the next one."
White does not listen. This suggests another possible meaning
for this line: if fate rules people's lives, as the fakir says, then
— Mrs. White
Mr. White may be fated to use the paw, lose his son, and risk
his own life.
Mrs. White says this to her husband after he loses—because of
his own mistake—the game of chess he is playing with their
son Herbert White. On the literal level she is soothing and "I don't know what the first two
reassuring her husband. On the emotional level the "knowing
glance" she exchanges with her son indicates she knows her
were, but the third was for death."
reassurance is in some ways fictional: she's playing her role as
a supportive wife. On the symbolic and structural level this — Sergeant-Major Morris
comment is a kind of ironic and tragic foreshadowing. The next
game her husband will play will be with the monkey's paw, and
Here again, Morris explicitly warns Mr. White that using the
he'll lose that one even more stupidly than he lost the chess
paw is a terrible idea. This is a magical paw, one that grants
game with his son.
wishes, but the first two wishes the previous owner made had
such terrible results that death seemed preferable. That the
Whites continue at this point, moving forward on their path to
"Better where you are." use the paw, says a lot about human nature in general. They
trust their visitor enough to believe in the magic the paw
— Sergeant-Major Morris carries, but they reject his very explicit and serious warning
about how dangerous it is. This is human folly.

Morris is responding to Mr. White's statement that he would

like to go India himself, "just to look around a bit." This

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Quotes 14

don't believe in it.

"As I wished, it twisted in my hand
like a snake."
"The idea of our listening to such
— Mr. White
nonsense! How could wishes be
This line communicates three crucial messages, all of which
granted in these days?"
build on one another. First, the paw is not just dead and
mummified, as it appears. It is active and in some sense alive. — Mrs. White
Second, the paw "twisted" in Mr. White's hand. In the same way
the magic of the paw will twist his wish for £200, which
Mrs. White here sums up the mood of the beginning of Part 2.
seemed innocent and positive, into something horrific. The
This story was written in the early 20th century, after England
Whites will get the £200 they wished for—but at the price of
had enjoyed a long stretch of scientific development and
their son's life. And third, there is a tradition in English and
industrialization. It was also a century of exploration, when
European literature of snakes being negative and
British explorers filled in many of the blank spaces on the map.
untrustworthy. This goes back to the biblical story of the
By all rational thinking, the paw should have no power. Since
Garden of Eden, in which the serpent tempts Eve into original
the reverse turns out to be true, it is as if the story is
sin. The paw brings into the Whites' lives a similar temptation to
underscoring the limits to human understanding of the world.
explore the unknown.

"I'm afraid it'll turn you into a mean,

"There was an air of prosaic
avaricious man, and we shall have
wholesomeness about the room ...
to disown you."
and the dirty, shriveled little paw
was pitched on the side-board — Herbert White

with a carelessness."
A number of the lines in this story are full of foreshadowing,

— Narrator and this is one of them. Mr. White is so far from being "greedy"
he has to be nudged to wish for money at the start of the story.
He is sad and emotionally broken by his son's death, and he is
The ancient great Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–22 BCE) so far from being mean that he can't deny his wife that second
argued that dramatic or fictional plots are built around wish, even when it seems wrongheaded. And it isn't Mr. White
peripeteia, which means reversal. Jacobs incorporates several who must be disowned after the wish. It is Herbert who is later
such reversals in this story and communicates both a reversal disowned and denied because of his postmortem
and situational irony in this line. The night before, in the stormy transformation.
dark, the paw had seemed alien and threatening. In the light of
the morning the same room seems much more wholesome,
and that "wholesomeness" has power over the paw in a way it
"Badly hurt ... but he is not in any
did not the night before. The previous night Morris had
introduced the paw and its framing story very carefully. Now pain."
the Whites treat the paw casually. The irony comes from the
fact that the Whites don't believe in the paw's power, but at no — The representative
point does Morris indicate faith is crucial to the paw's
function—and the paw works on the Whites even though they
Throughout the story the author has key dramatic scenes

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Quotes 15

happen offstage, so readers must imagine them. Here the of foresight Mr. White displayed when playing chess. This line,
factory representative uses a euphemism to do the same thing as straightforward as it seems, betrays a similar lack of
verbally: he is saying that Herbert White was killed but he's foresight. It was Mr. White who had identified his son's body.
doing so without saying it. This stretches out the moment of He was only able to do so from the clothes he was wearing.
communication, making it more dramatic, and in the end more Despite this, he makes this wish as if it were a completely good
painful for Mrs. White. thing for his son to live again.

"He has been dead ten days, and "For God's sake don't let it in."
besides ... I could only recognize
— Mr. White
him by his clothing."
The Whites are a very close family, or at least they were before
— Mr. White their son's death. They lived together, ate together, and passed
their leisure time together playing games, even though Herbert
This is another instance where the author uses suggestion and was old enough to live on his own. For Mr. White to call his son
implication to evoke an image. If his father who knew him so "it" shows just how far he imagines his son is transformed by
well could recognize Herbert only by his clothes, then he was what he's gone through. He is no longer their beloved boy, as
not just killed in an industrial accident, he was grotesquely Mrs. White sees him. Instead, he is "it," a thing to be feared and
mangled. By not saying this directly, the author allows and denied entry into their home. This is another place where the
requires readers to imagine just how terrible he looked. theme of domestic happiness plays out.

"It is foolish and wicked." "The street lamp flickering

opposite shone on a quiet and
— Mr. White
deserted road."
This is Mr. White's first response to his wife's command to
— Narrator
wish. Husband and wife are almost battling over the limits of
desire. Mrs. White wants her son back so powerfully that when
her husband says it is "foolish and wicked," it has no effect on When the story started, the road was empty but dramatically
her. This story is set in a time when men were considered the noisy because of a storm. Now it is empty again but quiet. The
heads of their households. Women had few legal rights and threat and trauma that they have been through has passed.
only limited political power. Despite this, Mr. White can't Early in the story the empty road disappointed them: they were
convince his wife not to make this wish. looking forward to welcoming Sergeant-Major Morris. Now the
empty road is a tremendous relief to Mr. White. The fact that it
is empty means the unnatural creature that used to be his son
"I wish my son alive again." will not come in to threaten and repulse them. It is a bitter
triumph, and in many ways an empty one, like the street. But it
is still a relief.
— Mr. White

When Mr. White made his first wish, it was for money, but he
gave little thought to what this might cost him (and how the
money might arrive). This parallels the "fatal mistake" and lack

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Symbols 16

l Symbols Darkness and Light

The Monkey's Paw Jacobs's story is full of interplay between darkness and light,
both literal and figurative, which symbolize the conflict of
passions and intentions at the heart of the story. It starts at
night, but there is a bright fire burning in Whites' parlor. As
The monkey's paw that gives the story its title is also its central Morris has a few drinks, his eyes get brighter. Once he tells
symbol. It is dark, ugly, and withered, but impossible to resist. them about the monkey's paw, his manner is so serious that
Monkeys have hands that are almost like humans', with fingers their "light laughter" seems jarringly inappropriate. After the
and opposable thumbs. However, this hand is explicitly labeled family makes their first wish, the next morning dawns bright.
as a paw, emphasizing the animal side of monkeys and But after their son's death Mr. White wakes in the night and
suggesting that those using it will be acting stupidly, like finds himself alone in the dark. When they finally make the
animals with paws. Once the Whites start to manipulate the second wish, Mr. White must go "down in the darkness" to get
paw, it manipulates them in turn, changing their lives forever. the paw again. After he does, they wait in a darkness that is
"oppressive." This descent of the Whites into darkness
Jacobs emphasizes the centrality of the paw by continually
emphasizes the nature of the forces at work in the story.
referring to it directly but also by incorporating references to
hands throughout the story. In the opening scene Mr. White
and his son both stretch their hands over the chess board.
When the company representative comes to deliver the news
of Herbert's death, he pauses with his hand on his gate. When
m Themes
Mrs. White realizes what news the man brought, she puts her
hand on Mr. White's. When Mrs. White leaves Mr. White in the
bed, he finds this out by stretching out a hand, and so on. Fate
These references to hands stand in contrast to the monkey's
paw, which symbolizes the intrusion of the unknown into
peaceful domestic life as well as the allure of riches. The Indian fakir (wandering Hindu holy man) who gave the
monkey's paw its magic did so with an explicit purpose: to
show that fate rules human life and that challenging this reality
leads to pain. Although Sergeant-Major Morris says this early
Chess in the story, fate had already made an appearance in the story:
in the second paragraph Jacobs describes Mr. White as having
made a "fatal mistake" while playing chess with his son. When
something is fatal in a game, it is only a metaphor. In the rest of
When the story opens, Mr. White and his son are playing chess.
the story fate plays a literally deadly role. Jacobs links these
This is not unrelated to the decisions around the monkey's
two words intentionally. And the Whites continue to make
paw, as Jacobs explicitly says the father's view of chess
mistakes as they try to play on this larger board of fate: they
involves taking "radical chances" that put his king into "sharp
disregard the advice from their expert guide Morris and buy
and unnecessary perils" so intense that his wife feels
the paw, which they then use.
compelled to comment on this approach. He overreaches in his
strategic choices so badly that Jacobs labels his play "a fatal
mistake." This poor play foreshadows the Whites' bad choices
involving the paw itself; thus chess represents the Whites' rash
decision-making.

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The Monkey's Paw Study Guide Symbols 17

out.
Nature and Limits of Desire

When the story opens, the White family is relatively content.

They are not rich, but they have a warm and comfortable home,
and their son has a job. As Mr. White says, he has all he wants.
However, once Morris shares his stories, the family's balance is
upset, specifically by desire. White begins to wish that he too
could have traveled to India. Once White buys the paw, he is at
first at a loss as to what to wish for. At his son's suggestion he
wishes for enough money to pay off the home's mortgage. This
suggests a pattern that Jacobs continues throughout the
story: those who accept their limits will be content and
safe—as the Whites are early in the story. Once desire enters
the story, it unbalances their lives, leading to greater and more
tragic disorder.

Domestic Happiness

Throughout the story the relationship of inside and

outside—and how that which comes from without (outside) can
disrupt the home—is continually underscored. The story starts
with the word without and then goes on to describe first the
weather outside and then the condition inside the house.
Outside it is "cold and wet," while inside it is warm and bright.
Mr. White then keeps watch on the outside world, anticipating
their visitor's arrival—but seeming a tad too eager for the
intrusion from the outside world. When Morris does come, he
brings stories from a distant land. He also brings the monkey's
paw into the house, which changes it and its inhabitants
forever.

In Part 2 Herbert White leaves the house, the first time in the
story a family member does so. Within just a few lines Mrs.
White observes a well-dressed stranger on the boundary to
their property. She thinks he seems lost, but he is really
gathering his courage to enter the house. When he does enter,
he, like Morris, changes the inside of the house forever: he
brings the horrific news of their son's death and the money the
company is giving them in condolence. Part 3 starts with the
Whites returning home from the cemetery where their son is
buried, and then almost the whole of the section is dedicated
to two things: calling their dead son in, and then keeping him

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