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English–I

Notes Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
1. The full name of W.W. Jacobs is William Wordsworth Jacobs.
2. Jacobs born in London in 1863.
3. The writer of ‘One Act Play’ is Wordsworth.

4. ‘Monkey’s Paw’ was written by Jacobs.

24.5 The Monkey’s Paw

The monkey’s paw is a symbol of desire and greed—everything that its owner could possibly
wish for and the unrestricted ability to make it happen. This power makes the paw alluring,
even to unselfish people who desire nothing and have everything they need. Mr. White, for
example, hastily retrieves the paw from the fire, even though he himself admits that he wouldn’t
know what to wish for if he owned the paw. Its potential also prompts Herbert to half-
jokingly suggest wishing for money the Whites don’t really need, ostensibly just to see what
happens. The paw grants Mr. White’s wishes by killing Herbert and raising his corpse from
the grave in an unexpected and highly sinister twist. At the same time, however, the paw’s
omnipotent power may be misperceived, because Herbert’s death may have been entirely
coincidental and the knocks on the door may be from someone other than his living corpse.

Chess

Chess symbolizes life in “The Monkey’s Paw.” Those who play a daring, risky game of chess,
for example, will lose, just as those who take unnecessary risks in life will die. When the story
opens, Mr. White and Herbert play chess by the fire, and the game’s outcome mirrors the
story’s outcome. Mr. White, the narrator explains, has a theory of “radical changes” concerning
chess. He takes terrible, unnecessary risks with his king, risks that make his wife nervous as
she watches the game unfold. As he plays, he notices that he has made a mistake that will
prove deadly. The risks and mistakes Mr. White makes playing chess parallel the risks and
mistakes he makes wishing on the monkey’s paw. These mistakes ultimately lead to Herbert’s
death, the most “radical change” of all.

The Horror Genre

“The Monkey’s Paw” is a classic of the horror genre that has been copied and adapted numerous
times in the century since it was first published. Jacobs wove many common and recognizable
elements of the genre into the story: the story opens on a dark and stormy night, the Whites
live on a deserted street, doors bang unexpectedly, stairs squeak, and silences are interrupted
by the ticking of the clock. These elements heighten the tension and inform readers that
something dreadful could occur at any moment. Another element of classic horror is Jacobs’s
transformation of the happy, loving White family into people who live amidst death and
misery. Herbert’s transformation is the most obvious, from a joking and playful son to a living
corpse. Parts of Mr. and Mrs. White also die after Herbert’s accident, and they become obsessed
with death and the loss in their lives. Jacobs also draws from classic horror fiction when he
plays off the White family’s happiness with readers’ sense of impending doom. As the Whites
make light-hearted jokes about the monkey’s paw, for example, readers cringe, sensing that
disaster will soon strike.

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