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 14h ago

I wish every country in the world was forced to legalize gay marriage

18 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 12h ago

I wish I didn't have to add an /s everytime I'm being sarcastic on Reddit.

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 10h ago

I wish I had the power to unite the North American continent into one country

5 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 10h ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Maryland secede from the U.S, becomes fascist, and conquers the entire east coast of the U.S.

4 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 12h ago

I wish salmon contained no bioaccumulated substances so I could safely eat it as a dinner staple.

4 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 10h ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Your mom becomes a serial killer.

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 9h ago

I wish there was a phonk remix to the song "remember me for centuries" by fallout boy

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 23h ago

I wish that my insomnia was gone, and I could sleep healthily

14 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 10h ago

I wish Reconstruction in America was successful

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 10h ago

I wish I could safely swallow backpacks whole

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 10h ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. Loki is real. He pulls cosmic tricks on the universe, and kills your family as a joke.

1 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 14h ago

I wish for the CEOs of Google and Microsoft to always stub their toes at unexpected times, randomly throughout the week, for the rest of their lives.

2 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish that cum was white and not red

62 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish Linux became the world's dominant desktop operating system, replacing Windows as the standard OS.

8 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 21h ago

Inverse [INV] Granted. India tries to conquer the world

0 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish for a cinnamon treants

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

"I wish..."

6 Upvotes

I wish for my depression to be cured and a reason to live.


r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish my belly button had a pocket dimension for storage

38 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 1d ago

I wish serfdom never existed

3 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish for a functional One Wish Willow that I am eligible to use.

7 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish for the monkey to get its paw back

20 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 2d ago

I wish no online games ever had any lag

6 Upvotes

r/TheMonkeysPaw 3d ago

EX+SE I wish bipedal mechs were real, all militaries employed them as their main combat vehicle and civilians can legally buy high quality mechs that cost as much as a cheap car and the economy is good enough to where any civilian could buy a mech

18 Upvotes