The Monkey's Paw
A family is given a mummified paw that grants three wishes, and they learn too late that fate exacts a terrible price for every desire.
An old sergeant brings a cursed monkey’s paw to a cozy English home, warning that its three wishes come at a deadly cost. The family wishes for two hundred pounds, and the next day they receive exactly that sum as compensation for their son, killed in a factory accident. Then the grieving mother wishes him back, and something begins knocking at the door.
What happens
On a stormy night, Sergeant-Major Morris visits the White family and tells them of a monkey’s paw enchanted by an old fakir to grant three men three wishes each, as a lesson that meddling with fate brings sorrow. Despite his warnings, Mr. White keeps the paw and wishes for two hundred pounds to clear his house. The next day a company representative arrives to report that the Whites’ son Herbert has been killed in the factory machinery, and the firm offers compensation of exactly two hundred pounds. Devastated, the Whites bury their son. About a week later, Mrs. White, half-mad with grief, demands her husband use the second wish to bring Herbert back to life. Soon a quiet, then frantic, knocking begins at the door. As his wife rushes to open it, Mr. White, terrified of what mangled thing stands outside, frantically uses the third and final wish. The knocking stops. When the door opens, the road is empty and silent.
Timeline the story arc, beat by beat
- 1 The visit
Sergeant-Major Morris arrives on a stormy night and tells the Whites of the cursed, wish-granting paw.
- 2 The warning
Morris insists the paw brings grief and tries to throw it on the fire, but Mr. White retrieves it.
- 3 The first wish
Half in jest, Mr. White wishes for two hundred pounds; the paw twists in his hand.
- 4 The price
A company man arrives to report Herbert killed in machinery and offers exactly two hundred pounds compensation.
- 5 The grief
The Whites bury their son and sink into mourning over the following days.
- 6 The second wish
Driven by grief, Mrs. White makes her husband wish Herbert alive again.
- 7 The third wish
As frantic knocking fills the house, Mr. White wishes it away; the door opens onto an empty road.
Characters and how they connect
Mr. White
The father
An ordinary man whose idle wish unleashes catastrophe and whose final wish ends the horror he caused.
Mrs. White
The mother
A loving wife whose grief-maddened demand to revive her son nearly invites a nightmare across the threshold.
Herbert White
The son
A cheerful young man killed by the first wish, whose possible return becomes the story’s central dread.
Sergeant-Major Morris
The bearer of the paw
A worldly soldier who carries the curse from India and warns, in vain, against using it.
The company representative
Messenger of doom
The firm’s nervous agent who delivers news of Herbert’s death and the fatal sum of compensation.
Relationship map
- Sergeant-Major Morrispasses on the cursed pawMr. White
- Mr. Whitefather and sonHerbert White
- Mrs. Whitegrieving motherHerbert White
- Mrs. Whitedemands the second wishMr. White
- The company representativedelivers the death noticeThe White family
Themes what the story is really about
The danger of tempting fate
The paw embodies the fakir’s moral that interfering with destiny brings ruin, and each wish proves it.
Be careful what you wish for
Every desire is granted in a twisted, monkey’s-paw way, turning gain into devastating loss.
Greed and consequence
A small, casual wish for money triggers a chain of irreversible suffering far beyond its worth.
Grief and denial
Mrs. White’s refusal to accept her son’s death drives her to a wish more terrible than the loss itself.
Symbols & motifs
The monkey’s paw
A grotesque emblem of fate and the human urge to control it, punishing every attempt to bend destiny.
The number three
Three owners, three wishes each, marking the ritual structure of temptation and doom.
The fire
The hearth offers warmth and the chance to destroy the paw, symbolizing the safety the Whites refuse.
The knocking at the door
The unseen sound stands for the unbearable, unnatural thing that wishing against death may summon.
Recurring motifs
Storm and weather. Wind, rain, and cold recur to mirror the family’s mounting fear and isolation.
Warnings ignored. Morris’s repeated cautions go unheeded, a pattern that seals the family’s fate.
The wish twisting. Each granted wish arrives in a cruelly literal, perverted form, the paw’s signature.
Conflicts
Person vs. fate
The Whites pit their desires against destiny and are punished for every attempt to override it.
Person vs. self
Mr. White wrestles his own greed, fear, and guilt as the consequences of his wishes unfold.
Person vs. person
Husband and wife clash over the second and third wishes, divided by grief and terror.
Literary devices
- Foreshadowing
- Morris’s warnings and the first owner’s wish for death plant dread that the wishes will end in horror.
- Twist ending
- The final wish empties the doorway, leaving it forever uncertain and dreadful what stood outside.
- Situational irony
- The wish for money is granted as compensation for the wisher’s own son’s death.
- Suspense
- The slow, building knocking and the race to find the paw create unbearable tension at the climax.
- Symbolism
- The withered paw and the rule of three encode the story’s warning about fate into objects and structure.
Important quotes
““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.””
““I wish for two hundred pounds,” says Mr. White, the careless wish that costs his son’s life.”
““He has been in the habit of frightening you so that the first wish would seem the result of coincidence.””
““The candle end, which had burnt below the rim of the china candlestick, was throwing pulsating shadows on the ceiling and walls.””
The horror of the ending lies in what is never shown. After the first wish kills Herbert and brings two hundred pounds as compensation, Mrs. White forces her husband to wish their son alive again. About ten days have passed since the burial, and Herbert was mangled in the factory machinery, so whatever might answer the wish would be a horror. When the knocking starts and grows frantic, Mr. White is paralyzed by terror at the thought of the disfigured thing his wish has summoned, while his wife rushes to fling open the door. He finds the paw and makes his third wish in the instant before she can reach the latch. The knocking stops at once. When the door finally opens, the road is empty and quiet. Jacobs never confirms whether the resurrected Herbert truly stood outside, leaving the reader to imagine the worst. The twist is the empty doorway: relief and dread fused, the family spared a reunion too horrible to witness.
Common misreadings
MythThe Whites end up rich from the wishes.
ActuallyThe two hundred pounds arrives only as compensation for their son’s death, a devastating loss disguised as a gain.
MythHerbert returns and is seen at the door.
ActuallyNothing is ever shown; the third wish empties the doorway before anyone sees what knocked.
MythThe paw’s power is clearly proven supernatural.
ActuallyJacobs keeps it ambiguous, allowing each event to read as either curse or coincidence.
Test yourself
1. What does Mr. White wish for first?
He wishes for two hundred pounds to pay off the house, the wish that triggers the tragedy.
2. How is the first wish granted?
The exact sum comes as the firm’s compensation for Herbert being killed in the machinery.
3. What happens when the door is finally opened at the end?
The third wish empties the doorway, leaving a quiet, empty road and unresolved dread.
A soldier gives a family a dried monkey’s paw that grants three wishes, but warns it always brings sorrow. The father wishes for two hundred pounds, and the next day they get exactly that money, but only because their son was killed in an accident at work. Heartbroken, the mother makes the father wish their son alive again. Soon something starts knocking at the door. Terrified of what their mangled son might look like now, the father uses the last wish to make the knocking stop, and when they open the door, no one is there. The lesson is that you should never try to cheat fate.
Ask the story
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Compare & connect the story universe
The Open Window
Both build dread around a return through a door or window, though Jacobs delivers true horror where Saki delivers a prank.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Both end with a sudden, dark reversal that turns a longed-for outcome into devastation.
A Rose for Emily
Both are gothic tales of grief and death that withhold their final horror until a chilling close.
The Most Dangerous Game
Both wring suspense from a deadly threat closing in, building tension toward a shocking final confrontation.
Adaptation. The Monkey's Paw (1933, Film).
Key questions students ask
- What is the twist ending of The Monkey's Paw?
- What are the three wishes in The Monkey's Paw?
- What is the theme of The Monkey's Paw?
- Who or what is at the door at the end of The Monkey's Paw?
- What does the monkey's paw symbolize?
- Why does Mr. White make the third wish?
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. Quotations are from W.W. Jacobs’s The Monkey’s Paw (1902), which is in the public domain.