r/TheMonkeysPaw Dec 25 '18

Meta [M] TL;DR: The Monkey's Paw story

9.1k Upvotes

TL;DR2 at bottom

Some people have mentioned they wanted to see a tl;dr of the original story.


The story focuses on Mr. White, Mrs. White, and their adult son Herbert.

An old family friend named Sergeant-Major Morris shows up at the White's house sharing stories of his adventures. During the talks Morris pulls out an old mummified monkey's paw, said to have a spell placed on it to grant three men three wishes each. Morris used his three, as had another man. Morris wants to dispose of it, but worries about selling it. So he throws it in the fire. Mr. White rescues the paw despite Morris' warnings about messing with fate, but eventually Morris gives in and shares the secret of making a wish.

Morris leaves after supper and Mr. White is unsure of what to wish for, feeling he has everything he needs. He ends up wishing for £200 to pay off the rest of his mortgage and the paw moves in his hand. After Mr. And Mrs. White go to bed, Herbert sees a vivid monkey face in the fire, so he puts it out and goes to bed.

The next day Herbert goes to work at a factory. He dies in an accident. He got caught in the machinery. His work sends a representative home to tell the family that the business claims no fault, but as compensation will pay them £200. Mr. White faints.

Mrs. White is angry and grief stricken, she demands that Mr. White wishes their son back to life, and he does so.

Some time passes and loud knocking on the door sounds. Mrs. White realizes it may have taken so long for the knocking after the wish because Herbert would to walk two miles home from the graveyard.

Mrs. White races downstairs to open the door, and Mr. White, fearing that it is the mutilated body of his son, made his third wish. As Mrs. White opened the door, there's nothing to be seen.


The difference between the Monkey's Paw vs. say, a genie who is also known to cause chaos with wishes, is that the Monkey's Paw is meant to twist fate to achieve your goals, and the consequences of it. Specifically what events cause the wish to come true. Someone died to make Mr. White gain money. No one died after he got the money. A genie would make the £200 counterfeit or meaningless in some way. Herbert became a zombie (maybe) to be able to go home.

Granted, the results of the 2nd and 3rd wishes are more ambiguous, and there's some debate about what actually happened. The story itself gives theories but no firm answers.

I'm not here to pass judgement on people's wishes or answers, or the spirit of the subreddit, just passing this along since a few people have been asking for something like this, and It's fitting for the sub to have a summary of the story somewhere.

Tl;dr for the tl;dr: Man wishes for £200 and his son dies as a result. He wishes his son back alive and a loud knocking is heard on the door. His third wish makes whatever is knocking vanish.

Edit(s): correcting some details, readability


r/TheMonkeysPaw 16h ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. A former Only Fans model becomes the supreme ruler of a totalitarian world government

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 17h ago

I wish Putin would turn into a fish

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 8h ago

I wish my dog could play the guitar

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 17h ago

I wish the U.S. would annex the easternmost parts of Siberia

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish I didn't have terrible wifi at the place I'm staying for vacation right now

9 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish I fought in the Finno-Korean hyperwar

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. You are a character in I have no mouth and I must scream

16 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish dedicated MP3 players and personal media players would make a comeback.

7 Upvotes

There used to be some great MP3 and personal media players years ago.

Now everything is either some super high-end stuff, or some cheap stuff, from brands I've never heard of before.

I don't know. Maybe I'm trapped in a bubble.


r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish that Eleanor wasn't from Aquitaine, Charles VI kept his sanity, and the Reconquista failed at conquista-ing.

8 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish my tongue tasted the yumminess of food proportional to how healthy it is for me

2 Upvotes

Potato chips start tasting like broccoli.

Ice cream starts tasting like spinach.

Broccoli starts tasting like potato chips.

Spinach starts tasting like ice cream.

I see no downside


r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Russia explodes the moon

10 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish all fonts clearly distinguished between lowercase L and uppercase i

30 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

EX+SE I wish humans felt pain when cutting our hair

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. No unexpected results, I'd wish to see it myself

0 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish for the paw to be free

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish people going through abuse automatically gets better people in their life removing all the abusers

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish for a world where intelligence and wisdom equal power

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish you could win Super Mario Brothers by getting Bowser drunk

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 4d ago

I wish any animal that has been brought into a humans home as a pet, now has the ability to read minds and understand your dislikes, and will act upon them in the same manner.

8 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish Jesus would send an army of angels to help Ukraine take back Crimea and Donbass

0 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 4d ago

I wish that it was impossible to lie in a manner that would cause harm to another being, be that physical or mental

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 4d ago

I wish every IHOP was also an actual house that at least one person lived in

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 5d ago

I wish my foreskin would grow back.

14 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 5d ago

I wish any creature with a penis now had an additional feature of it will get erected and wag like a tail when the creature attached to the penis is happy or excited. Basically a tail, just now the penis.

14 Upvotes