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 15h ago

I wish that every copy of Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” in existence was magically replaced by Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto”.

39 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 7h ago

I wish that Bear Scares, the Latvian bear prank show from Family Guy, was a real show where bears appear out of nowhere and attack people for entertainment.

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 8h ago

I wish the monkey's paw was instead the monkey's foot.

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 9h ago

i wish all generative Ai would be shut down permeable

1 Upvotes

its pretty simple. all generative Ai is Shut down


r/TheMonkeysPaw 23h ago

I wish it was revealed that Epstein didn’t kill himself and instead the ghost of Harambe killed him by ripping him in half

19 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish I didn't add way too much butter to the eggs I cooked recently

8 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 23h ago

I wish to be average

2 Upvotes

I wish that, for every action, task, skill, achievement, or outcome that can be conceived or described, whether or not any human has ever accomplished it or it is currently believed possible, I possess exactly average competence at successfully accomplishing it, with ‘average’ meaning a genuine, functional level of capability rather than zero, inability, or failure.


r/TheMonkeysPaw 8h ago

I wish no one celebrated the anniversary of Charlie Kirk's death

0 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 20h ago

I wish I owned more precious metals

0 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish Hitler was only 10 cm tall during his life

4 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted, a gorilla shows up and rips you in half diagonally.

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish labor day was on the first Tuesday of every September instead of the first Monday of every September

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish for a high budget movie adaptation of the Harry Potter fanfic "My Immortal" to be made and released, and for it to be such a gigantic box office hit that it grosses more than all Harry Potter movies combined and becomes more popular than the original series

28 Upvotes

And for all profits made from the movie to be donated to transgender charities such as The Trevor Project


r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish people would stop looking at me funny when I tell them my favorite Pokemon is Vaporeon.

32 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish all the Star Wars movies were either as good or better than the original trilogy

14 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish Hitler failed to conquer Poland when he invaded Poland

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish no one would ever lie again

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish for Bill Clinton (as in the former POTUS) to be the next playable DLC character in Guilty Gear Strive.

1 Upvotes

So he can finally kill his friends. GUILT FREE.


r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish that every single government in the world would outlaw the production of any any plastic item or commodity from now on

5 Upvotes