The River
W.W. Jacobs' »The Monkey's Paw« is typical with respect to the way in which it establishes its fantastic ambivalence: all the essential events may be interpreted as belonging to either the natural or the supernatural order, and it is impossible to be certain about the interpretation. »The Monkey's Paw« may almost be regarded as the archetypal fantastic tale. The monkey's paw is invested with a specific ambiguity as a natural-supernatural object: it may or it may not possess the powers claimed for it by Sergeant-Major Morris. Anyway, the paw is a pawn in a cruel game of life and death comparable to the game of chess played by father and son at the beginning. The monkey's paw is associated with the Orient (India) and thus with an alien culture, a culture where th
e belief in magic is presumably stronger than in Europe where the action of the story takes place. A man wishes for two-hundred pounds, and presto, someone delivers a two-hundred pound check -- as compensation for his son's death in an industrial accident. The man's wife makes him wish for his son back alive, but when he hears horrific scratchings at his door, he re-thinks the whole endeavor and wishes his son dead again. The "Plot" A couple and their son are visited by a family friend, a soldier who has just returned from India. White thinks the paw moves when he pronounces his first wish, the wish seems to be fulfilled when the elderly couple get two hundred pounds as »compensation« for their son's death, and the knocking on the door at the end may or may not be their son's knocking after he has returned from the grave (nobody sees him). Against the soldier's wishes, the father decides to keep the paw and wishes that he would receive two hundred pounds. He shows them a monkey's paw which, it is claimed, has the power to grant three wishes but always ends up causing ill fortune. Jacobs' creepy, circa-junior high short story "The Monkey's Paw" warns the reader, imploring that you should be careful what you wish for. Weeks later, the mother decides to wish to bring the son back to life - with horrific results&ldots;In "The Monkey's Paw," what evidence of foreshadowing is given in the conversation between the Sergeant and the Whites?What might the faces that Herbert observes in the fire foreshadow?Fate will have its say, and there's little that one's will can do about it. The sum arrives the next day as compensation after his son is killed in an industrial accident. "The Monkey's Paw", it concerns a monkey's paw brough back from India that allegedly has the power to grant three wishes -- but at a great price. The story seems to »prove« that you cannot dismiss magic altogether, but the evidence of its reality is doubtful.
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Acceptance Essays
