The Monkey’s Paw is a short story written by W.W. Jacobs. The first element of literature that I’ll be analyzing will be theme, which I think is that you should be careful what you wish for. Mr. White certainly realized that when he wished for two hundred pounds and the way he received it was through the compensation money because of the death of his son, despite the soldier friend’s warnings that he wasn't going to get the wish like he expects, and it's better to burn the monkey’s paw.
The voice in the story is in third person, meaning the author who is Jacobs, who is omniscient and lets the readers know everything about the characters, like their feelings, the settings, the atmosphere, the noises and what they are doing.
The next elements I'll be analyzing are mood and tone, which are ominous and suspenseful respectively. The reason for the mood being ominous is that the characters are always saying things that give you the impression that something wrong is going to happen, and example
is when Herbert starts seeing simian figures in the fireplace after his father had wished for money, and we can later find out that this was foreshadowing he would lager die because of that wish. The tone is suspenseful because the characters are always there is always a feeling of uncertainty of what's to come, like when the father starts wondering how the money would come giving an example that it would drop in his head, with this idea the readers can start imagining thinking something bad is going to happen.
The inner conflict in this short story is whether Mr. White can bring some good in his family’s life wishing two hundred pounds. This is reflected when Mr. White hesitates weather he should take a wish or not, because he feels like he has everything he could ever have wanted but because his son wanted two hundred pounds to help the family he decides to do so, but after his sons death he realizes the monkey’s paw gives you want you want with the cost of something you value. The external conflict is Mr. White vs the monkey’s paw power, this is seen when Mr. White doesn't want to make the second wish to revive his son despite him evidently missing him and feeling guilty about his death yet he doesn’t want anything bad happening but because pf his wife he takes the paw out of his hiding place and makes the wish.
The climax of the story occurs when the Maw and Meggins representative announces to Herbert’s family his death and gives them two hundred pounds. This is announcement made the family know that they shouldn't have messed with the monkey's paw, and because of their greediness of making a wish, Herbert died when he should have lived a longer life.
The resolution of the story is that you should be careful what you wish for, the family didn't need the two hundred pounds yet out of curiosity and greediness they made a wish that would kill Herbert in the process.
By Dasha Nino, Step 10
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