The Monkey’s Paw is a story set back in the 1900’s were it revolves around an unfortunate event of slight greed. As the three main characters are named Old Man , Old Woman (, yet it does sometimes refer to them as Mrs or Mr White) and Herbet White that is their son. The story starts in the place the story stays in for the whole story, for it’s the main character's house. So they have a visitor/friend that had previously told them a bit about a monkey’s paw. Now Mr White deliberately brings it up to hear the story, but at first he is reluctant but he says the story that is ‘It had a spell put on it by an old fakir, a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it.’ So after saying that he gets doubtful saying that he would actually rather burn the paw. Curious Mr White convinces him to give it to him as he gets told how to use the three wishes. Then he wishes for the small sum of 200￡ beliving it’s false, but the curse he regretted will bring great sorrow. The next day Herbet leaves for his job in the factory, for later that day a man come to the whites residence and informs them of the unfortunate death of Herbert cause by him being caught in the machinery and gives them the sum of 200￡ for their son’s commitment to the company (that’s the same amount they wished for)! A few day later Mrs White has a idea. That is to use the second wish to bring herbert back to life, so they make the wish. Moments later a sound of a scurry rat is heard from outside. Quickly they try to find it as the suspect it’s herbet. Mrs white opens the door to see… a barren street. As the streetlights flicker…
The Monkey's paw is done from a Third person omniscient as the narrator can see into the other minds as ‘his hearers were conscious that their light laughter jarred’ that suggests that the narrator can see into their minds. This also backs up the story being fiction as ‘Curses’, ‘Magic’ and generally unnatural powers don’t exist so it has to be a fiction. How the claim earlier makes even more sense is that the narrator knew Herbert's thoughts that would mean that he would of had to keep a record of what he thinks that is highly unlikely!
The theme is in my opinion is hard to identify as it doesn’t definitely fall into a singular category, for more or less it is science fiction as it is impossible for ‘curses’ to exist and an extremely slightly a horror as at the end it is very deliberately worded for the sounds outside. The moral is to not tamper with something that is exceptionally good and to not be greedy. As it deliberately emphasizes that they are living life at the fullest, yet their urge for more causes their son's unfortunate demise.
The characters in this story are dynamic as Mrs White, Mr White and Herbert all change in opinion, for Herbet jokes about it showing it influenced his mood. Then Mr and Mrs White grew scared and made many radical choice for their sons reviving. Also Sergeant Major/Morris changes mood when talking about the paw, yet he suddenly has the urge to burn it when he says too much about it. The protagonists are Mr and Mrs White with the antagonists being Fate, the Monkey’s paw , the fakir and themselves for causing it. The conflict In my opinion is two things, Man vs Supernatural and Man vs Himself, for Mr White causes this to happen in the first place and ‘curses’ are supernatural.
In my opinion this is a good piece, it is perfect to cretic and find the aspects that are hidden inside of the text. As the problem in my opinion is that some words and techniques used don’t make sense as they are outdated or are vague. Also it uses the same vocabulary over and over again that makes it loses it’s effect . While the mistakes and barriers in writing it tells a story with a strong moral, I’ve already covered it though I’ll repeat it. It is to not seek more when you have all you need. Overall this short story has a strong message, for it has hidden clues to what type of themes, views and morals this story conveys. I would not recommend this to someone else. Because it uses quite a lot of old phares and pieces of literature, that unfortunately doesn’t make too much sense. If it had a newer version, with more modern spelling I would most likely recommend it.
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