Literary Analysis of The Monkey’s Paw Essay Example

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W. W. Jacobs runs with two themes: be careful what you wish for and you can't get something for nothing. Jacobs illustrates both themes when Herbert urges his father to wish for two hundred pounds. Everything seems to be going fine the next day until Herbert leaves for work. Not long after he is gone, a strange man comes to their house and informs Mr. and Mrs. White their son has been in an accident involving the machinery he was working with and he was instantly killed.

The company Herbert was working for offers to help pay for his funeral expenses by providing Mr. and Mrs. White a sum of two hundred pounds. Another example would be when Mrs. White was so grief stricken she encouraged and begged her husband to use his second wish to bring Herbert back from the grave. After the first wish, Mr. White knew something was wrong with the monkey's paw and tried to convince his wife it would be a bad idea because their son may not come back the same person.

The second wish alone puts the idea in the reader's mind it will be impossible for the son to come back the same, especially after being decapitated; therefore, the question of what will be the price for bring Herbert back from the dead. Jacobs also plays with the idea of irony because when you think of something having the ability to grant wishes, you automatically assume because you have good intentions your wishes will bring you nothing but happiness and enhance your life for the better.

But when Mr. White makes his wish

for money, regardless of how innocent it was, it ends up costing him his son's life in the end-the give and take method. This bringing us back full circle that you can't get something for nothing. No matter how innocent Mr. White's wish was, it came with a price. Again, with the second wish, despite their good intentions, wishing Herbert back from the dead would bring back the Herbert they knew before he died; it would be something "evil" that would return to them and Mr. White knew it and he quickly acted on what he knew by wishing Herbert dead again.

The themes which occurred in W. W. Jacobs’s story are nothing humanity has not been plagued with before. We all know if something is too good to be true it probably is and nothing in life is free, but regardless of the possible consequences, we as human beings still want the chance to get something for nothing. Everything comes with a price and in The Monkey's Paw, W. W. Jacobs makes the point to bring this message to readers; if there was something you could get for free, would you take it?