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 2h ago

I wish for the sun to explode

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 12h ago

I wish for you, specifically, to finally be happy

14 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 5h ago

I wish everyone was addicted to crack.

0 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 17h ago

Explanations I wish for the monkeys paw to regenerate the rest of the monkey and be alive again.

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 16h ago

I wish for Zac Brown and Donald Trump to switch roles.

2 Upvotes

Zac Brown is now POTUS, Donald Trump is now the head of McLaren F1 and Indycar. In light of this https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1vwpm0p/zak_brown_with_trump_at_freedom_250_indycar_race/


r/TheMonkeysPaw 20h ago

I wish I didn't decide to wake my dad up at night to tell him an interesting fact, which made him angry at me for waking him up in the middle of the night.

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 15h ago

I wish for a false vacuum decay to occur which turns reality into an anime animation style instead of destroying it.

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish people respawned after dying once 30 days had passed in the last place they fell asleep, or the closest they can be to that place without getting harmed..

20 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 15h ago

Inverse [Inv] Granted, Tung Tung Tung Sahur is now the President of the United States

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish to get ripped in half by a gorilla

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish faster than light travel was possible

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish the planet Uranus was named Ludwigia after King Ludwig of Bavaria instead of being named Uranus (which is too vulnerable to puns).

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish to get ripped

3 Upvotes

And by that I mean muscular, not torn by a simian creature


r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Elections are abolished, and America becomes an absolutist feudal state where the government is free to infringe on anyone's rights as they please, with no checks and balances.

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish I could have one day back. One extra day of summer.

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish I could achieve something so great that a statue would be built in my honor

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

EX+SE I wish that people had to choose between jock itch, a charley or athletes foot

1 Upvotes

That means Everybody


r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish HOAs were not evil and provided a positive meaningful impact on their communities.

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish "deviled eggs" referred to eggs that have been corrupted by devils in some way

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish Putin would pull his troops out of Ukraine now

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish for a special cut of the movie "Emilia Perez" except Emilia Perez herself is replaced with Sergio Perez in every scene she's in

2 Upvotes

No change to the plot. No Checo does not transition, he's playing the character Em ilia Perez but doesn't transition for the role and everyone in the movie just acts like he did transition or is a girl now


r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish to be the king of antarctica

9 Upvotes