The Monkey's Paw Essay

“The Monkeys Paw” is a heavy gothic short story that teaches a grave lesson. This story is jam-packed with foreshadowing and irony. It also teaches the important lesson on being grateful for what you have, and to be careful for what you wish for.

Every year movies come into theaters that are based on popular books and stories. In these movie blockbusters, the general ideas are the same as in the written stories, but the details may contrast from the original plot in the text. In the short story, “The Monkey’s Paw” written by W. W. Jacobs, circles around the idea that this paw of monkeys' holds a special capability to grant three wishes to the person who receives the paw. Coming from India, Sergeant-Major Morris visits the White family and brings the intriguing paw with him. Explaining its purpose and use to them, they are all very fascinated with the idea of what potential power it holds within. Disregarding the warning Sergeant-Major Morris supplied, Mr. White wishes for 200 pounds in the short story, and 300 pounds in the cinematic production.. The consequences would soon become known and affect the White’s stable lives forever. Two other wishes are made to try to reverse the repercussions of the first wish, leaving the White family in despair. When comparing two tellings of the same story there may be many similarities and differences that emerge, providing distinct examples of what is relatively the same and what is definitely not.

The night is crisp and black as the moon lets off an eerie glow, leaves rustle and fall somewhere in the distance. A silhouette dwarfs the blackberry bush in the corner as one’s footsteps refrain, they move closer; you run. Suspense is a state of tension and anxiety which was used in the sentence above and is common in books and short stories. In the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W Jacobs suspense is created in a variety of ways. Jacobs demonstrates this by using foreshadowing, conflict and surprise endings.

When comparing Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” with W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw”, I find the ‘The Tale Tell Heart” to best represent the horror genre because of the use of the point of view of a crazy person. The narrator’s way of telling the story lets you infer that something bad will happen. The story is so suspenseful because the narrator is a madman who cannot be trusted. The way the author frequently repeats words increases the suspense, makes it sound scarier and more mysterious. In the article “What is a horror genre?” written by Sharon A. Russell, she tells us that our knowledge of a genre creates suspense because we can anticipate what is going to happen (Russell 37). When the narrator mentions that he suffers from a disease

Horror books have been a favorite amongst many people. In Will Hill’s Department 19 The Rising multiple literacy tools to express fear and uncertainty. Hill uses imagery of sight, sound, and smell to spread fear through the reader. “Whether fiction or nonfiction, imagery is what provides the color, or what a reader can see in his or her mind’s eye about a particular written work.” (Examples of imagery) Since the book is about hunting vampires the setting is often dark and mysterious which adds to the horror. Will Hill Exercises sight, sound, and smell to display the horror of the book, applying imagery to add a feeling of uncertainty and fear.

In the short story, “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W Jacobs, the main character’s son dies due to a mishap at his work. They get this monkey paw and it grants them three wishes. Mr. (Herbert’s dad) and Mrs. White (Herbert’s mom) makes the second wish to bring Herbert back, which is when the knocking started. Mr. White then makes the third wish, which is unknown to us, the reader, and the knocking then stops. Question is, was Herbert at the door and in what form was he in?

The story begins on a rainy evening with Mrs. White, Mr. White, and their son Herbert gathered in the parlor. Mrs. White is sitting in her chair knitting as she looks on as her husband is losing to Herbert in a game of chess. From the inside, Mr. White can hear the footsteps of someone walking along their walkway and onto their porch. Mr. White immediately gets up to answer the door and is happy to see his longtime friend Sergeant-major Morris. Mr. White introduces Sergeant-major Morris to his wife and son and invites him into the parlor where they could have drinks. After a couple of drinks, Sergeant-major Morris begins entertaining the family about his adventures in India, when Mr. White

Both “Knocking” by Rick Hautala and “The Road Virus Heads North” by Stephen King are masterfully crafted horror stories that lead readers on a psychological rollercoaster. The authors are able to generate such a detailed and in-depth atmosphere that it causes readers to picture themselves in the terrifying situations that they have devised for those reading. Through the evolution of “monsters”, point-of-view and atmospheric conditions which help to create a mood that engulfs readers both King and Hautala are able to write brilliant horror stories.

Horror is the genre that keeps the reader on their toes for nights upon end. It keeps them thinking. Thinking about how cruel and disturbing someone, or something, could possibly be. Thinking about what in the world happens to a character after the story drops off in a cliffhanger. Thinking about the probability that the events in the narrative could transpire in real life. Thinking about how likely it is for those things to happen to the reader. Refusing to look out their window in fear of seeing the glimpse of a murderous face, and listening to every sound with acute accuracy, praying that the noise is not one of a stranger creeping up the stairs. Scary accounts make the reader live in fear whenever the

"The Monkey" has many magical elements. The beginning of the story mentioned a purple-eyed young fallow deer (109). The element appears to me as being a magical element rather than an element of the sublime. Another magical element was the tortoise being more than one hundred years old (109). A person knows that no tortoise is capable of living to be more than one hundred years old. Aunt Cathinka says that she will give Boris her experience of life

W. W. Jacobs wrote the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” in 1902. A great number of adaptations of the story have since been created using different forms of media. The two which are being compared here are the play adaptation The Monkey’s Paw dramatized by Mara Rockliff and the 2011 film version The Monkey’s Paw by Ricky Lewis Jr. Both the play and film feature the White family receiving a monkey’s paw by which three wishes may be granted. The paw had a spell put on it by a holy man who wanted to show that fate rules people’s lives and that if people try to interfere, they will be sorry. The main differences between the play and the film are that film gives more background information about how and why the paw was obtained, uses more

Although there are many subgenres of horror fiction, including bizarro, fantasy, surrealism, and magic realism, there are certain aspects that a story must encompass to be considered, “weird.” Magic realism is a branch of fiction that is often mistaken to be a work of the, “weird.” What differentiates the two genres explicitly include the authors concentration on setting and overall atmosphere, and the embodiment of themes that disrupt the readers perception of time, space, and their natural world. “The Werewolf,” by Angela Carter exhibits strong characteristics of magic realism, while H.F. Arnold’s, “The Night Wire,” is a genuine work of, “weird,” fiction.

The Horror!”, the horror he is referring to is the horror that he turned around his life to be like the natives. Which at first seemed like a “horror”, but now he thinks it is a “horror” that he thought it would be bad. He thought that giving up his high style of living to come to the Congo would effect him negatively, but in fact it did the opposite. He brings the natives new ideas that they really appreciate. When he is sick and about to die the natives try to do anything to save him and talk about how wonderful he was to them.

Monkey: Journey to the West is a story of an adventure for enlightenment to India in order to find ancient Buddhist scriptures. The story consists of Chinese legends, tales, and superstitions. Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism play a huge role throughout this story. Monkey: Journey to the West is a story that discusses religion, and moral issues. The monkey acts the way he does due to underlying religious themes played throughout the story. At first understanding why the Monkey acts the way he does may seem difficult. However, after reading deeper through the story one learns that social satire in the Monkey is what gives him his rebellious personality. The end of the story reveals the hidden spiritual meaning behind the monkeys change in

The familiar unveils its association with the unfamiliar. M.R. James argues that the rooting of a story in the common world of habits and timetables would aid the process of sympathetic identification between the reader and the haunted one. This rapport was one more of the genre’s correlations, and the key to its power to frighten.