The Monkey's Paw

"The Monkey's Paw" is a supernatural short story by author W. W. Jacobs, first published in England in the collection The Lady of the Barge in 1902.[1] In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey's Paw, but the wishes come with an enormous price for interfering with fate.[2]

This article is about the short story by W. W. Jacobs. For other uses, see The Monkey's Paw (disambiguation).
"The Monkey's Paw"
AuthorW. W. Jacobs
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Horror, short story
Publication dateSeptember 1902

It has been adapted many times in other media, including plays, films, TV series, operas, stories and comics, as early as 1903 and as recently as 2019.[3] It was first adapted to film in 1915 as a British silent film directed by Sidney Northcote. The film (now lost) starred John Lawson, who also played the main character in Louis N. Parker's 1907 stage play.[4]

Plot
Illustration for "The Monkey's Paw" from Jacobs' short story collection The Lady of the Barge (1902)

The short story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their adult son, Herbert. They are sitting by the fire one evening, Mrs. White getting food ready and Mr. White playing chess with Herbert, when Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend who served with the British Army in India, comes by for dinner and introduces them to a mummified monkey's paw. An old fakir placed a spell on the paw, so that it would grant three wishes. These three wishes are granted to the owner with hellish consequences as punishment for tampering with fate. Morris, having had a horrible experience using the paw, throws it into the fire. Mr. White, not believing Morris, retrieves it. Before leaving, Morris warns Mr. White that should he use the paw, he might as well be digging his own grave.

At Herbert's suggestion, Mr. White flippantly wishes for £200 (the equivalent of over £24,000 in 2020[5]), which will enable him to make the final mortgage payment for his house, as though he believes he has everything he wants. When he makes his wish, Mr. White suddenly drops the paw in surprise, claiming that it moved and twisted like a snake, just as he was making the wish. That night, after Mr. and Mrs. White have gone to bed, Herbert stays up later and while gazing at the dying fire, sees what eerily appears to be a horrible, monkey-like face, burned into the soot. The next day, Herbert leaves for work at a local factory. A few minutes after Herbert has left, an employee arrives at the Whites's home, pronouncing that Herbert has been killed in a terrible machine accident, mutilating his body. Although the company denies responsibility for the incident, the firm has decided to make a goodwill payment to the family of the deceased. The payment is £200, which is what Mr. White had wished for.

Ten days after their son's death and a week after the funeral, Mrs. White, mad with grief, insists that her husband use the paw to wish Herbert back to life. Reluctantly, he does so, despite remembering a premonition he had of summoning his son's mutilated and decomposing body. An hour or so later—the cemetery being two miles away—there is a knock at the door. As Mrs. White fumbles at the locks in a desperate attempt to open the door, Mr. White becomes terrified and fears "the thing outside" is not the son he loved and remembers. He makes his third wish. The knocking stops suddenly and Mrs. White opens the door to find no one is there. She wails in disappointment and misery.

Notable versions in other media
Nina Quartero in a publicity still from the 1933 film version

The story has been adapted into other media many times, including:

Variations and parodies
Main article: List of adaptations of The Monkey's Paw

A great number of novels, stories, movies, plays and comics are variations or adaptations of the story, featuring similar plots built around wishes that go awry in macabre ways, occasionally with references to monkeys' paws or to the story itself.

The story is frequently parodied on television shows and in comic books.

gollark: And then use that.
gollark: I can't respect people who don't make their own custom CPU using photolithography™.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: You can, but you would *probably* have to do it deliberately, or at least deliberately do an overly risky thing.
gollark: Very unlikely.

See also

References
  1. "The Monkey's Paw - story by Jacobs". Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  2. "David Mitchell on The Monkey's Paw by WW Jacobs – short story podcast". The Guardian. Presented by Claire Armitstead, Story read by Ben Hicks, Produced by Susannah Tresilian. 5 January 2018.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. "The Eternal Grip of Creepshow's 'Night of the Paw' (S1E5)". 25YL. 24 October 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  4. Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
  5. "UK Inflation Calculator on In2013Dollars.com".
  6. Jacobs, W. W.; Parker, Louis N. (1910). The Monkey's Paw: A Story in Three Scenes. London: Samuel French, Ltd. p. 5.
  7. Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
  8. Richard J. Hand (5 June 2014). Listen in Terror: British Horror Radio from the Advent of Broadcasting to the Digital Age. Oxford University Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0-7190-8148-4.
  9. Alan Goble (1 January 1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. p. 241. ISBN 978-3-11-095194-3.
  10. Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
  11. Jewell, Richard B.; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. New York: Arlington House. p. 57. ISBN 0-517-546566.
  12. "Not lost !". NitrateVille.com. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  13. Soister, John T. (2004). Up from the Vault: Rare thrillers of the 1920s and 1930s. McPharland. p. 133.
  14. "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Monkey's Paw - A Retelling (1965) - Robert Stevens - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie.
  15. "BBC Radio 4 Extra - Christopher Lee's Fireside Tales, The Monkey's Paw". BBC.

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