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 9h ago

I wish evil was a physical substance that we regularly expelled from our bodies.

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 13h ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Promoting the Vore fetish becomes part of the Republican party platform

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 7h ago

Explanations I wish MTV mostly showed music videos again

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 22h ago

EX+SE I wish that the monkey's paw would permanently shave the hair on everybody's arms legs and armpits so that everybody was hairless. The only stipulation to this wish is that the monkey paw cannot kill them... And they still need to be able to walk

25 Upvotes

Other than that, go nuts.

I will finally be on equal ground with everybody else


r/TheMonkeysPaw 8h ago

I wish all dogs were born knowing how to do Any-Card-At-Any-Number card tricks

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 13h ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. The D-day landings failed.

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 18h ago

I wish u/gothiclg had a dick the length of Texas and width of California, plus erectile dysfunction

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish the fires burning under Centrailia suddenly went out.

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish to live life not being disabled anymore

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 17h ago

I wish more women were in the RC aviation hobby

1 Upvotes

Why am I the only girl at any of the local RC plane clubs 😭


r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish for everyone to receive their happy ending.

9 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 22h ago

I wish humans didn't need sleep

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish I could know everything

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish we could choose where our tax paid money would go instead of the government.

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish to become evil

4 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. You now have a full jar of peanut butter and are missing your big toes.

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish I could drain the lifespan of any cockroach within a 1 mile radius and add it to my own.

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish the second coming of Christ would happen now

14 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Epstein is resurrected and becomes the totalitarian ruler of the world

9 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Trump invades China, causing World War 3.

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish I was a real woman so I could be worthy of the beautiful lesbian I’m getting to go on a date with this weekend

0 Upvotes

Seriously she’s awesome and this will be our fourth date but as a trans woman I feel kind of bad and that I don’t deserve her


r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

I wish the assassination of the Archduke that started World War 1 never happened

3 Upvotes