Message And Moral Of The Story The Monkey’s Paw
It is a common mindset that when wishes are made with good and not selfish intentions, they are likely to come true and impact positively on our lives. The monkey’s paw is a short story which was written by Jacobs in 1902, the story involves a family set-up.
The author w.w. Jacobs begins the story by setting the scene and the atmosphere by describing the area in which the Whites live. Jacobs describes the night as cold and wet, while inside the house the blinds are drawn and the fire is burning brightly. This is a good contrast , as the house seems to have a warm and safe atmosphere inside , even though the cottage is located in a remote area of the country, with extremely unpleasant and harsh weather. Before Sergeant Major Morris arrives, the atmosphere of the house seems quite tense and dull. Jacobs shows how tense Mr. white is when he writes, “Mr. white, with sudden and unlooked-for violence.” You can easily see that mr.white doesn’t seem to be concentrating on his game of chess. As ”The Monkey’s Paw,” was written over a century ago, Jacobs doesn’t use explicit gory details to create horror like modern scary films and books, instead, he uses subtle hints in most aspects of the story to build up an element of terror and one of these aspects is the way that the author uses setting.
When Sergeant major Morris arrives he begins to tell the family about the monkey’s paw origin, and how he possessed it and that it has the ability to grant wishes. The sergeant throws the monkey paw in to the fire; however Mr. White retrieves it, and insists that he would want to possess the paw since the sergeant did not require its services. However, the sergeant warns Mr. White against blaming him for the consequences that will follow if he uses the monkey paw to grant his wishes.
The monkey’s paw is an interesting story, which creates suspicion for the readers; the flow of events is systematic which creates quality of the contents of the story. The main lesson learnt from the story is that everything comes at a price, and when the deal is too good, the recipient should think through before making any hasty decisions. However, it is disappointing to learn that Mr. White used all the three wishes with genuine intentions but all the consequences were regrettable.
