Monkey’s Paw Notes

Setting: Describe Where and When the story takes place. Be sure to fill in completely.

Throughout story:
● Early 1900’s
● England
● Winter

Part 1:
● 105 - fire inside the house, cold and wet outside
● 106 - pathway’s a bog, road’s a torrent
● 105 - Night time
● 105 - Parlor

Part 2:
● 110 - Morning, bright wintry sun
● 110 - Breakfast table, kitchen?
● 111 - Dinner time = lunch
● 111 - Parlor

Part 3:
● 113 - Day time, cemetery 2 miles away
● 113 - Night time, house in shadow and silence
● 113 - Week later, bedroom, night
● 114 - Cold
● 114 - Parlor to get paw at night

Characters: Describe characters. What do the look like? What do they act like?

Mr. White Mrs. White Herbert Sgt. Morris

● 107 - ● 105 - Old, white ● 107 - Curious, ● 107 - Middle

adventurous, hair wants to see aged, blotchy
would like to go ● 106 - Soothing the paw face
to India to her husband ● 106 - Calm ● 107 - Paranoid,
● 106 - old, grey ● 106 - Close ● 111 - Frivolous, Morris
beard relationship with jokes about encourages
● 106 - Doesn’t Herbert money dropping White not to
like losing at ● 106 - Polite to on Dad’s head travel
chess, but can Sgt. Morris’s ● 111 - Mom ● 107 - Afraid of
laugh at himself looks. mentions paw
● 109 - Satisfied ● 107 - Curious, Herbert’s sense ● 108 - Wants to
with his life, “It asks about the of humor destroy paw
seems to me paw ● 106 - Tall, burly
I’ve got all I ● 109 - Greedy, ● 106 - Has
want.” makes the gotten old and
● 110 - Fearful husband wish bigger, fat or
 after making the for money muscle
wish ● 111 - Feels ● 107 - Good
guilty about manners
getting money
from Herbert’s
death
● 115-116 -
Hopeful that
Herbert can
come back

Events: What are the events in order?

● 105 - Playing chess
● 106 - Sgt. Morris comes over
● 106 - Mr. White wants to India
● 107 - Monkey’s paw explained
● 108 - Sgt. Morris, warns family about using it
● 108 - Morris throws paw in fire
● 108 - White gets paw out of fire
● 109 - Make first wish of 200 pounds
● 110 - White says the paw moved when he wished
● 110 - Mrs. White and son not taking it seriously
● 111 - Mrs. White hoping mailman brought money, but he brought bill
● 112 - Herbert dies in machine accident
● 112 - Herbert’s company gives them 200 pounds, granting first wish
● 113 - Buried Herbert 2 miles away
● 114 - Mrs. White wants to use the second wish
● 116 - Herbert comes back as a zombie
● 116 - Mr. White makes third wish to remove Herbert

Possible Themes:

1. Don’t play with monkey’s paws.

2. Don’t mess with fate.
3. Don’t make stupid wishes.
4. Take advice from others.
5. Don’t be greedy.
6. Be careful what you wish for.

UNIVERSAL THEME - Found in multiple stories.

a. Don’t mess with fate, be careful what you wish for.

Foreshadowing: Quotes from the story that help us know what’s coming next.

Page Quotes
110 “Well, I don’t see the money,” said his son, as he picked it up and placed it on the
table, “and I bet I never shall.”

“Herbert will have some more of his funny remarks, I expect, when he comes home,”
111

110 “I expect you’ll find the cash tied up in a big bag in the middle of your bed,” said
Herbert

“Might drop on his head from the sky,” said the frivolous Herbert.
111

107 “It had a spell put on it by an old fakir,” said the sergeant-
major, “a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled
people’s lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to
their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men
could each have three wishes from it.”

111 She brought the stranger, who seemed ill at ease, into the
room. He gazed at her furtively, and listened in a preoccupied
fashion as the old lady apologized for the appearance of the
room, and her husband’s coat, a garment which he usually
reserved for the garden. She then waited patiently for him to
broach his business, but he was at first strangely silent.

111 His wife made no reply. She was watching the mysterious
movements of a man outside, who, peering in an undecided
fashion at the house, appeared to be trying to make up his
mind to enter.

Foreshadowing: Horror Conventions - Things that make us know it’s horror

105 Without, the night was cold and wet.

“and something horrible squatting up on top of the wardrobe watching you as you
110 pocket your ill-gotten gains.”

“The first man had his three wishes. Yes,” was the reply;
108 “I don’t know what the first two were, but the third was for
death. That’s how I got the paw.”

113
In the huge new cemetery, some two miles distant, the
 old people buried their dead, and came back to a house
steeped in shadow and silence.

At the foot of the stairs the match went out, and he paused
115 to strike another; and at the same moment a knock, so quiet
and stealthy as to be scarcely audible, sounded on the front
door.
The matches fell from his hand. He stood motionless,
his breath suspended until the knock was repeated. Then he
turned and fled swiftly back to his room, and closed the door
behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.

The room was in darkness, and the sound of

113 subdued weeping came from the window. He raised himself
in bed and listened.

“They admit no liability at all, but in consideration of your son’s services, they wish
113 to present you with a certain sum as compensation.”