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The Monkey's Paw
W.W. Jacobs's masterful diction suggests that the paw is a frightening, sinister force with which no one should tamper. When he provides Sergeant Major Morris's initial descriptions of the paw, he...
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The Monkey's Paw
Paragraph six of "The Monkey's Paw" helps to illuminate the impulsive nature of Mr. White. While Mr. White plays chess with his son, he tries to divert Herbert's attention away from the board...
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The Monkey's Paw
In W.W. Jacobs short story "The Monkey's Paw" Mr. White is quite intrigued by the talisman and the idea it can grant wishes. In fact, he introduces the topic into the discussion when Sergeant Major...
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The Monkey's Paw
Often typical of horror stories, W.W. Jacobs short story "The Monkey's Paw" is about a group of seemingly good people who are drawn into evil by temptation. In this case, the Whites are a happy...
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The Monkey's Paw
In W. W. Jacobs's short story "The Monkey's Paw," the White family, mother, father and son, come to be in possession of a supposedly magical monkey's paw. According to Sergeant Major Morris, the...
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The Monkey's Paw
One of the first examples is the description of the way that Mr. White plays chess. His style is reckless to the point that others comment on it. In the game they are playing as the story opens,...
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The Monkey's Paw
Immediately after Mr. White makes the wish for two hundred pounds, three things happen: A fine crash from the piano greeted the words, interrupted by a shuddering cry from the old man. His wife...
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The Monkey's Paw
The sergeant-major is world-weary and Mr. White is quite unworldly. Sergeant–Major Morris arrives at the White home after having traveled around the world. He has spent twenty-one years in...
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The Monkey's Paw
The author of "The Monkey's Paw," W. W. Jacobs, sets the tone and mood of his story with descriptions of the weather and with foreshadowing. In the exposition of his narrative, Jacobs writes that...
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The Monkey's Paw
The Whites appear to be a normal, happy family in the beginning of W. W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw." There are, however, hints that evil lurks including the fact that they live at...
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The Monkey's Paw
The theme for Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw" can be taken from what Morris says about the reason that the fakir creates the talisman: "He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those...
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The Monkey's Paw
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...
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The Monkey's Paw
Mr. White says, "I should hardly think that he'd come to-night" mainly because of the bad weather conditions outside. A bit later he describes those conditions to his son and his wife: Of all the...
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The Monkey's Paw
The characters of Mr. and Mrs. White seem to change in opposite ways in W.W. Jacobs's short story "The Monkey's Paw." In the beginning of the story, Mr. White appears to be something of a risk...
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The Monkey's Paw
In W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw," tension and suspense are created through foreshadowing, characterization, and mood. First, when Mrs. White asks Sergeant Major Morris if his three wishes were...
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The Monkey's Paw
In the beginning of the story, the father, Mr. White, complains the house is located on property that is too remote or far away from other habitations. According to Mr. White, the place where the...
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The Monkey's Paw
When Mr. White makes his first wish he does not have much faith in the power of the monkey's paw. He did, however, pay Sergeant-Major Morris a small sum of money for it, so he must have some small...
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The Monkey's Paw
The Whites are a content family of father, mother, and adult son who live in the countryside. But, a visit from a friend changes their lives forever. Before Sergeant Major Morris shows the monkey's...
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The Monkey's Paw
You could make a case that W. W. Jacobs characterizes Sergeant-Major Morris as an untrustworthy person in the short story "The Monkey's Paw."Jacobs' description of Morris's physical looks serves as...
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The Monkey's Paw
The monkey’s paw is a disembodied mummified monkey’s paw. The monkey’s paw is a talisman that supposedly had a spell put on it by a fakir in India. You can wish on it, and your wish will...
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The Monkey's Paw
The University of Tennessee's William Robinson created a list of elements which look to define the horror story as its own particular genre. W.W. Jacobs's short story, "The Monkeys Paw," fits most...
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The Monkey's Paw
The Whites’ three wishes are granted, but not always in the way that they wanted. The Whites do not really take the monkey’s paw seriously. The Sargent-Major explains the paw is dangerous, and...
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The Monkey's Paw
Herbert worked for Maw and Meggins. When the Whites wish on the mysterious monkey’s paw, they have no idea what it would lead to. Morris tells them not to. Mr. White’s son Herbert encourages...
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The Monkey's Paw
The description of the fakir’s motives demonstrates that the Whites are soon going to be ruled by the fate of the monkey’s paw. The Whites are curious about the monkey’s paw when their old...
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The Monkey's Paw
Once Mr. White has gotten possession of the monkey's paw and their visitor Sergeant-Major Morris has left the family to themselves, the old man feels tempted to make a wish. "I don't know what to...
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The Monkey's Paw
Morris gives Mr. White a magical monkey’s paw that grants three wishes. It is a dark and stormy night when the White family is visited by an old friend, Sergeant-Major Morris. He brings with him...
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The Monkey's Paw
In the opening of "The Monkey's Paw," the father plays chess with the belief that the game involves "radical changes," such as those that endanger the king. This action indicates that he takes...
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The Monkey's Paw
I think we can agree that The Monkey's Paw is a pretty spooky/creepy story. So let's read over the first chunk of it and look for words that give us a spooky or uneasy feeling. I find that...
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The Monkey's Paw
In "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs, Mr. White's first wish seems sensible enough. He is not sure that he actually believes what the Sergeant Major has told him about it anyway, but he does heed...
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The Monkey's Paw
The most frightening section of W.W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw" is just after Mr. White has acquiesced to his wife and used the second wish to bring Herbert back from the dead. At first...
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The Monkey's Paw
The denouement or resolution of a story is the way the story turns out--the conflict is solved in some way, and the story ends. In "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs, we read about Mr. White, who...
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The Monkey's Paw
The principal conflict in W.W. Jacobs short story "The Monkey's Paw" could be described as man vs. fate. Because the Whites accept the monkey's paw from the Sergeant-Major they become entwined in...
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The Monkey's Paw
The mood changes from one of simple domestic harmony to one of sorrow and dread right after Part II of the story ends with the announcement by the man from Maw and Meggins that the company is...
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The Monkey's Paw
The author of "The Monkey's Paw" deliberately leaves the reader wondering whether the person who has been standing outside knocking more and more insistently is the horribly mutilated and partially...
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The Monkey's Paw
When Sergeant Major Morris first tells the Whites about his monkey's paw in W. W. Jacob's short story "The Monkey's Paw," the White family members think it's just a fantastical story. They are...
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The Monkey's Paw
In the story "The Monkey's Paw," the setting is an isolated, out-of-the-way place that floods with heavy rainfalls. This deserted setting contributes to the Gothic atmosphere of the narrative as...
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The Monkey's Paw
The text of the story does not explicitly say how Sergeant Major Morris knows the White family; but, the connection is implied by the way Mr. White acts when he sees his old friend coming up the...
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The Monkey's Paw
The feeling or mood in the opening sentence of W.W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw" is one of safety and optimism, despite the cold, impartial and potentially evil world outside. Inside,...
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The Monkey's Paw
There is no way of knowing whether any of the events detailed in "The Monkey's Paw" were supernatural in nature. The author W. w. Jacobs intentionally cautions the reader that all of them could...
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The Monkey's Paw
Suspense is created by Mr. White’s desperation to get his wife’s wish cancelled with his wish. Suspense is excitement created by the reader knowing that something is going to happen. The...
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The Monkey's Paw
One social issue found in W. W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw" concerns British colonial rule in India, which lasted until 1947. The short story was published in 1902, and the British colonial period,...
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The Monkey's Paw
The main point the author wants to make about the second wish is that Mrs. White has never seen her son since his accident at the textile mill, but Mr. White had to go there to identify the corpse....
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The Monkey's Paw
Dark romanticism was a literary offshoot of the 19th century philosophy of Transcendentalism. Dark romantics believed the Transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau was way too optimistic about life...
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The Monkey's Paw
W.W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw" is about an English family who come into possession of an Eastern "talisman" which destroys their lives. Foreshadowing is the use of clues and hints that...
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The Monkey's Paw
Mr. White is a risk taker and excitable. Most of the characterization is indirect. Indirect characterization means that characters are described through their words and actions. Direct...
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The Monkey's Paw
When Herbert was killed at the textile mill where he was employed, his father had to come down and identify the body. Herbert was horribly mangled by the machinery. Mr. White tells his wife that he...
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The Monkey's Paw
The reference to the Arabian Nights reinforces the idea that the tale of the monkey’s paw seems like fantasy instead of reality. One Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights contains stories...
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The Monkey's Paw
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs is a strange tale about the White family, who make three wishes on a monkey's paw. All of their wishes come true, but not in the way one might expect. The story...
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The Monkey's Paw
Three things happen immediately after Mr. White makes his wish for two hundred pounds. A fine crash from the piano greeted the words, interrupted by a shuddering cry from the old man. His wife and...
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The Monkey's Paw
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...
