The Monkey's Paw

Unfortunately you have asked too many questions here - remember, enotes specifies that you are only allowed to ask one question, so I have edited this question down for you to focus on the ending...

Initially, Herbert White has a playful, humorous attitude toward the monkey's paw. This is shown through Herbert's reaction when the sergeant-major tells the family about the fakir's spell, which...

In literature, the climax can be described as the most dramatic and tense moment of a story. In "The Monkey's Paw," this occurs when Mr. and Mrs. White learn of the workplace accident that led to...

Situational irony is when the outcome of a specific situation is the exact opposite of what people expected. “The Monkey's Paw” is built on situational irony in that the Whites believe that the...

"The Monkey's Paw," by William Wymark Jacobs (known as W. W. Jacobs) is a gothic short story first published in 1902 in a collection of short stories entitled The Lady of the Barge. There's no...

Initially, Mr. White does not believe Sergeant-Major Morris's story about the monkey's paw and its magical powers. After rescuing the paw from the fire, Mr. White struggles to think of what to wish...

The author of "The Monkey's Paw" uses the words and behavior of Sergeant-Major Morris as ominous foreshadowing of what is likely to happen to the person who possesses the mummified paw on which an...

First things first: let's define rising action. This is the part of a story that happens after the exposition and before the climax. It is an event, or series of events, that creates suspense and...

The White family is inside their home on a stormy night. Mr. White and his son Herbert are playing chess. They are waiting for a visitor to arrive. Their guest, Sergeant-Major Morris, arrives, and...

The author does not spell out Mr. White's third and last wish, but the reader can easily imagine what the old man wished for. He wished for the knocking to stop and for the knocker to go away...

Actually, the last wish was only Mr. White's. Both husband and wife believed their son Herbert had come back from the dead as a result of their second wish. Mr. White was horrified at the prospect...

The biggest conflict would seem to be man versus the supernatural. The monkey's paw itself is endowed with magic powers the rational mind cannot comprehend or explain. While the Whites all seem to...

The setting creates suspense because the weather is stormy and the house is isolated. Suspense is the feeling that something is about to happen. Usually it means that something exciting or...

Since the story "The Monkey's Paw" opens with foreshadowing in references to son, the White's family circle, an unnamed "he" coming, and warnings to wish sensibly, an alternate ending would need to...

After Sergeant-Major Morris visits the White residence and leaves the monkey's paw at their home, Mr. White casually holds the paw and wishes for two hundred pounds to pay off his mortgage....

"The Monkey's Paw" is a story all about fate and the destructive consequences that befall those who would wish to manipulate fate to their own self-interest. As the story opens, the White family is...

In the short story "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs, a family consisting of Mr. White, Mrs. White, and their son, Herbert, obtains a cursed talisman, a mummified monkey's paw, which grants three...

Sergeant-Major Morris knows firsthand the disastrous effects of wishing upon the evil monkey's paw, which is why he throws it into the fire. From the moment Mr. White brings up the monkey's paw,...

In order to isolate figurative language in "The Monkey's Paw,"we need to establish what figurative language is. Figurative language refers to words or phrases used (often in a non-literal way) to...

The details surrounding the monkey's paw contribute to the eerie and foreboding tone of the short story, and the sense of darkness surrounding the monkey's paw increases just after Mr. White makes...

In the short story "The Monkey's Paw," an ominous mood is established at the very beginning of the story. However, even though the weather outside is "cold and wet," inside the White's house, the...

In W. W. Jacobs's classic short story "The Monkey's Paw," Sergeant-Major Morris brings an enchanted monkey's paw to the White residence and explains that an old fakir placed a spell on the talisman...

The short story "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs begins on a cold, wet, and windy night. The White family is in the parlor of their home. Mr. White and his son Herbert are playing chess while...

As was mentioned in the previous post, the climax of a story is the moment in the plot where tension reaches its highest point. Although it could be argued that the climax of "The Monkey's Paw"...

The author takes pains to establish that only Mr. White can make wishes with the monkey's paw. The Sergeant-Major tells the family: "He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have...

The resolution of a story occurs when the main conflict is worked out. A resolution usually coincides with a story's end. The conflict in "The Monkey's Paw" is between the danger the paw represents...

As the story opens, Mr. White and his son are playing a game of chess. We learn that Mr. White thinks playing the game involves "radical changes." We realize as well that he is a careless risk...

The Monkey's Paw is a tale of warning. The short story is a warning to us all about what is really important in life. It makes us question our moral values. The Whites have a good life. Once the...

Author W. W. Jacobs makes use of characterization, setting, foreshadowing, mood, and imagery to create tension and suspense in "The Monkey's Paw." Initially, the weather is foreboding as Mr. White...

Mrs. White actually has no clue who the stranger is who comes to her door in Chapter II of "The Monkey's Paw." She had noticed the man lingering outside their home, and three times he had passed...

The elements of a short story include, setting, plot, conflict, point of view, theme and character. The setting of the story is England, the White's modest home in a rural part of the country. The...

W. W. Jacobs uses metaphors and imagery to help set the mood and tone of "The Monkey's Paw." For example, Mr. White describes the weather outside as "beastly, slushy, . . . [the] Pathway's a bog,...

"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs is written in the third person point of view. We can tell this because of the pronouns the narrator uses throughout. If he/she used the pronouns "I, me, we, and...

While "The Monkey's Paw" is a story which has "Dame Fortuna" as its motif, the macabre paw and the outcomes of the wishes are what lend the suspense to the narrative.Despite...

If one were to search for meaning in "The Monkey's Paw," it could be argued that the story is meant to teach readers that the grass is not always greener on the side, and there are always certain...

When Sergeant-Major Morris visits the White family at the beginning of the short story, Mr. White urges him to talk about the monkey's paw from India. Sergeant-Major Morris immediately attempts to...

At the beginning of the story, Mr. White plays Herbert in a game of chess and continually puts his king in "sharp and unnecessary perils." After making a fatal mistake, Mr. White attempts to...

The first clue is provided for us when Sergeant-Major Morris throws the monkey's paw onto the fire. He knows how dangerous it is and how tempting it will be for the Whites to make three wishes on...

I am struggling to come up with an example of dramatic irony in this excellent short story. It is certainly a brilliant example of situational irony, but I don't think we can identify any instance...

It occurs to me that the author has the bit of dialogue in which Sergeant-Major Morris tells Mr. White to wish for something sensible because it is essential to the way W. W. Jacobs wants to...

One more thing about the wishes, actually, three more things: The first wish is done mostly in disbelief, sort of as a joke. Mr. White holds the paw up... as his son, with a solemn face, somewhat...

The arrival of Sergeant Major Morris, who has probably been in the English colony of India [this story was published in 1902], brings with him a monkey's paw that he has acquired from a fakir, or...

A great example of foreshadowing comes early on in the story when Sergeant-Major Morris consigns the monkey's paw to the fire. He's been telling the Whites about the malevolent power that this...

The exposition of "The Monkey's Paw" begins with the genial White family receiving a visit from their old friend, Sargent-Major Morris, who regales them with tales from India, including one...

The purpose of the story "The Monkey's Paw" is to express the power of fate. In the story, Morris relays that the man who put the spell on the paw told him that, "Fate rules people's lives and...

Mr. White's first wish is fulfilled because he receives the money that he has wished for. For lack of anything more interesting, White ends up wishing for "200 pounds." This actually seems to be...