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''The Monkey's Paw''

Author	W. W. Jacobs
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror, Short story
Publication date	1902

"The Monkey's Paw" is a horror short story by author W. W. Jacobs. It was published in England in 1902.

The story is based on traditional stories in which three wishes are granted. In the story, the paw of a dead monkey is a talisman that grants its possessor three wishes, but the wishes come with such an enormous price that the final wish is to undo all the previous ones.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Literary basis/analysis 3 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations 3.1 Adaptations of the story 3.2 Similar stories 3.2.1 Parodies 3.3 Music 4 External links

Heedless of the Segeant Major's warnings about the cursed nature of the paw, Mr. White, encouraged by his son, Herbert, carelessly asks for £200 for the house payment. His wish is granted, but in a horrific manner: he receives a payment of £200 compensation as the result of the death of his son, who is "caught in the machinery" and mangled at his workplace.

Following their son's funeral, the Whites settle into a dull and depressed existence. One night, Mrs. White is seized by a sudden idea and tries to convince her husband to wish their son back to life. At first he refuses, telling his wife, "You don't know what you are saying....He has been dead ten days." He allows himself to be swayed and wishes his son back to life. Nothing happens, and the couple, crushed by the disappointment, retire to bed.

Later, they are shocked to hear a knocking at the door, whereupon the wife realises that Herbert had to journey two miles from the cemetery to their house, accounting for the delay. She rushes downstairs to open the door, nearly hysterical with joy. Mr. White, meanwhile, has been seized by terror, recognizing the horrible creature that must wait upon their doorstep - unlike his wife, he had seen the grotesquely mutilated body prior to its burial, and was able to identify it only by the clothing.

Desperately groping for the cursed paw, he makes a third wish, and the knocking at the door ceases. Responding to his wife's cry of disappointment, he staggers downstairs to join her, looking out at the empty street.

The theme of the story resembles the Faust stories, in which there is no way to craft a wish finely enough to prevent the Devil from thwarting the wisher. A milder version is the many variants of the three wishes joke.

The story is standard fare for middle and early high schoolers, where textbooks typically use the story to teach literary elements such as setting, plot, or irony.

A great number of novels, stories, movies and plays are variations of the story or have similar plots, involving wishes that go awry in macabre ways. The original story has been filmed a number of times. The following is only a partial list:

• A one-act play was first performed in 1907.
• There were numerous film adaptations in the silent era, as well as a 1933 talkie co-directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, which is now a lost film.
• Michael Scott directed and starred in a short film version.
• Short film directed by James Henschen in 2003. Tribalfilm

• "The Monkey's Paw" shares its plot device with the 1831 novel La Peau de chagrin by Honoré de Balzac. That story features a talisman (skin of a wild ass) obtained at a curiosity shop, imbued with corrupt magic capable of granting wishes. The talisman shrinks when used. Once the entire talisman is used up, the owner must die.
• In an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawn makes a pact with a demon that grants her a wish. She wishes for her dead mother to return to life, with results very similar to the story.
• In the TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the episode "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" is heavily based on "The Monkey's Paw".
• In the manga xxxHolic, a teaching student buys the monkey's paw from the character Yuuko, even though she is advised against it. Unlike other adaptions, the student is aware of the paw's notoriety as something evil and dangerous, but she remains confident her exceptional luck will keep her from harm until it's too late.
• In the Japanese TV drama Nobuta wo Produce, with the monkey's paw, Nobuta wished for Bando to disappear from the world. However once she saw that Shunji's wish came true, she asked for her wish to be canceled.
• In the 1972 horror movie Tales from the Crypt, the segment Wish You Were Here is a story about a financially troubled couple who make three wishes on a oriental statue with similar dire consequences. The tales of the Monkey's Paw is also directly referenced by one of the main characters in this segment.
• Stephen King's 1983 novel Pet Sematary has a similar plot. In it, a man's cat is killed. Buried in an Indian burial ground, it comes back to life, albeit much nastier. The consequences are worse when the man buries his dead son in the same ground.
• In Anna Brzezińska's fantasy story "The Wish" ("Życzenie"), a boy can make one wish and it will be granted as reward for his great-grandfather's killing of a dragon. When he makes a wish to become a ruler and marry a princess, it will be granted; however, all the people he loves will have to die before it can happen. The boy realises that the wish was the dragon's revenge.
• An episode from the second season of the original The Twilight Zone entitled "The Man in the Bottle", tells of an elderly couple who own a curio shop. They purchase an old bottle which turns out to hold a genie, who grants them 4 wishes. Their wishes all backfire on them, and the final wish is to make things as they originally were.

• The Simpsons Halloween special, Treehouse of Horror II includes a parody.
• The season seven episode Je Souhaite of The X-Files is centered around a Djinn who can grant three wishes, but which tend to turn out in an unexpected manner.
• The story was the subject of a humorous song by the same name on Laurie Anderson's 1989 album Strange Angels.
• In an episode of The Monkees, titled "The Monkee's Paw", a nightclub magician sells the band a cursed monkey's paw.
• The Ripping Yarns story "The Curse of the Claw", broadcast in 1977 and starring Michael Palin, is a spoof in the style of Monty Python loosely inspired by The Monkey's Paw.
• The film La Classe de Neige by Claude Miller has a scene based on The Monkey's Paw.
• The short story is briefly parodied in an episode of South Park, titled Marjorine.
• The first issue of Batton Lash's Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre featured a parody of "The Monkey's Paw" entitled "Herbert Has Risen from the Grave", collected in Tales of Supernatural Law, published by Exhibit A Press.

• Industrial/goth band the Electric Hellfire Club released a song called "The Monkey's Paw" on their album Witness.
• Comedy singer/songwriter Pat McCurdy recorded a song called "Monkey Paw" on his 2007 release "15 Favorites."

• "The Monkey's Paw"; Full Short Story Text
• Gaslight edition of the story
• Monkey's Paw Radio Play
• The monkey's paw PDF