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The Monkey's Paw Research Paper

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Frightful Fate An anonymous author once said, “Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it.” The Monkey's Paw is an unnerving and frightful short story because of the realistic idea of fate's consistent consequences, the unnaturally natural way the wishes come true, and the surprisingly fearful stress of being able to make anything happen. The strangeness that thrives in this story literally proves it “creepy”. Although little has been studied for the type of fear that is terror (creepiness), the principles behind are prevalent in The Monkey’s Paw. Fate, being determined, would seem comforting and decided, but if a supernatural type of power is added upon fate things truly become frightening. Wishing is a dominant theme in the story, …show more content…

I wish that I could be rich, that I had this car, that I could go to India, that I could be a billionaire… Don’t these all sound fine and innocent to wish? The big and important lesson that is found in The Monkey’s Paw is the evils of wishes. Wishes, throughout history and literature have something to do with magic, showing that they are unreal and seem to come from nothing when they come true. When we wish for something we do not think, “I will go and work for this until I have it” but we sit there and think, doing nothing. We hope that chance will somehow magically give us what we want. If wishes came true, the ideas of W. W. Jacobs on this topic would surround us. Wishing is fruitless, and if it did bear fruit it would only be able to work through realistic ways. It boils down to this, magic is not real, and if there is any type of fate it works through the laws of nature. Wishes do not come true, if they do it is because work is done to accomplish them. The definition of wish is to “want something that cannot or probably will not happen,” so why wish but to make oneself miserable? If magic and fate worked together it would make wishes come true, through the most horrific and sensible ways

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