Talk:The Monkey's Paw

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Monkey's Paw is a suggestive type of story

The story of Monkey's Paw is a suggestive type of story in which the reader can give a suggestion what was the ending of the story. Perhaps the end of the story was a debatable if it was really Herbert knocking on the door or just something. But whatever the reader's view it is still correct because eveery one is entitle of his/heer own opinion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.115.167.19 (talk • contribs) 03:50, 20 July 2005

The Monkey's Paw

The story starts out as a family waiting for an old friend to stop by, in the bad weather. As it ends out the friend, Sergent Morris, stops by and has a nice conversation with the Whites. After a while, Mr. White asks about the Monkey's Paw, the Sergent doesn't really want to talk about it, but Mr. White insists. So he gives it to him. what do u think should happen next. Before sergent gave it to them he tells them the legend behind it. It had really belonged to somebody in india and it can only serve to 3 people and only grant 3 wishes. Then seregent gives it to Mr. White and Herbet, his son, tells him to wish for $500 to pay off the house. It seems like a good idea to him so he does it. After, nothing happens, and Herbert goes to work and tells his parents to save the money till he gets home. Little does the parents suspect anything that anything will happen to Herbert. After a while, they just sit there and somebody is by the door. He hesitates to come to the door looking like he was confused. Then he came to the door. Who was it? It was somebody from the company Herbert works at. He told the Whites that their son was dead and the company wasn't responsible. But they do get $500 as a gift to make them feel better. So now the parents weep the whole night through. Before Mr. White even thinks about throwing it in the fire and forgetting about the whole Monkey's paw idea, he wishes for his son to come back. They dont think, because the mutilated body of their son would come, not the real thing, but mrs. white doesnt realize.

I believe the story is in effect a tale of sacrasism and morale value. It shows that people who interefere with fate do so at their own risk, hence the words: "It had a spell put on it by an old fakir," said the sergeant-major, "a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow." when it concludes with the desperate behaviour of the "old woman", that rally has an escense of a modern horror story.

Tales from the Crypt did a related tale. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.107.87.235 (talk • contribs) 18:59, 16 October 2005

X-files episode

I'm pretty sure I remember an X-files episode based on this theme, but I want to be sure before adding that to the article under the 'in popular media' section. I think the episode involved a genie(I think she came out of a carpet instead of a lamp), but the main similarity is that someone wished to bring his brother back to life(after dying as a result of wishing to be invisible and getting hit by a truck), and after seeing the horrifying result, used another wish to cancel it out. The first wish may have involved wealth, I don't remember all the details, or if the invisibility was the first wish or part of a seperate set of 3 wishes. --Outdoorvegan 14:42, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Organizing "similar stories" reference

I have reorganized the references to similar works, but I'm not sure my new setup works well. Suggestions/improvements are welcome. I tried to separate it into versions of the actual story itself (films, play, etc.) and then variations on it, with the latter divided into parodies, and similar works (stories about wishes gone bad featuring a moneky's paw). That meant combining a manga and TV show with literary works. I also removed a reference or two that weren't specifically enough similar to this story, since "wishes went unexpectedly bad" could encompass a vast amount of fiction. - DavidWBrooks 20:34, 11 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Monkey's Paw

(This comment moved from personal Talk page) I understand the necessity to keep articles "clean," but one of the major aspects of Wikipedia I enjoy is learning and becoming aware of random information like other adaptations. Since the article is already terse, why do you feel the need to keep editing it for brevity when the information being added is interesting, relevant, and not superfluous? —Preceding unsigned comment added by JeezBreeze (talk • contribs) 09:52, 3 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have been removing references to programs/films/cartoons that have storylines similar to "Monkey's Paw" but not identical to it - e.g., the Simpson's "Treehouse of Horror" - because the list was (IMHO) getting way too long. This person disagrees. Any other thoughts? - DavidWBrooks (talk) 11:44, 3 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How about creating a page listing the entries--List of adaptations of "The Monkey's Paw"? That would keep this article terse and yet document to interested readers adaptations to the story line. You could provide a link thru a "See also:" in the existing section "Variations, parodies". Pinethicket (talk) 15:59, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea - go ahead! - DavidWBrooks (talk) 01:25, 1 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Simpsons version, incidentally, had a cute gimmick: The monkey's paw had (like the Simpsons cartoon characters) a thumb and only three fingers, and is formed in a fist, but with the first wish the index finger straightens out, then the second and third fingers in turn. There was also a variant story as part of the theatrical British-made movie, Tales From the Crypt (1972), starring Richard Greene -- in dire circumstances his wife wishes for enough money to stave off bankruptcy, Greene is killed in a highway accident and she gets his life insurance. After the funeral his wife wishes him "back, just as he was before his car collided with the tree" - his coffin is suddenly brought into the house by silent men who promptly leave - but he is dead in the coffin and a friend must explain to the wife that her husband suffered a fatal heart attack while driving and then his car hit the tree, so she impulsively wishes him "alive again and never dying" and his corpse becomes animated and screams unceasingly, because filled with embalming fluid, and nothing will put him out of his misery - not even chopping him up with an axe. Sussmanbern (talk) 03:01, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Eternal agony - that's certainly cute, all right. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 12:00, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Buffy episode

BUFFY adapted the story in its fifth season, in an episode called FOREVER. Buffy's adoptive sister Dawn Summers obtains a spell and tries to ressurect their mother Joyce, who died in the previous episode. When she and Buffy hear a knocking at the door during a storm, Dawn loses her nerve and cancels the spell, and Buffy opens the door to find nobody there. In this version the sisters are not responsible for the original death. CharlesTheBold (talk) 12:20, 18 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That is a perfect example of the "based on/similar to Monkey's Paw" story lines that I have removed from the article because, IMHO, there are way too many of them to be listed (see my comment directly above). So far, nobody seems to have objected to that removal, but wikipedia is always in transition, so that may change. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 16:03, 18 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Notable quotation

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/37/messages/1138.html The story begins with a quotation "Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it" - unfortunately attributed by the author to Anonymous. Is it a popular enough saying to be worth noting ? It would be nice to know if the author originated the quotation himself ! --87.194.174.252 (talk) 10:22, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Removed from article

Removed from article beginning 21:14, 29 June 2007

Removed from article
==Film, TV or theatrical adaptations== A one-act play based on the story was first performed in 1907. There were numerous film adaptations in the silent era, as well as a 1933 talkie co-directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack which is now lost. The segment "Wish You Were Here" from the 1972 film Tales from the Crypt is an adaptation. Bob Clark's Deathdream is inspired by the short story. Michael Scott directed and starred in a short film version, available on YouTube. The Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" is based on the story. The story also inspired an episode of Brandy & Mr. Whiskers. Short film directed by James Henschen. Filmed in 2003. Tribalfilm A variant of this story, using a genie in a bottle, was featured in an episode of The Twilight Zone. ==Popular culture=== One of the stories from The Simpsons Halloween special, "Treehouse of Horror II" is a parody of this story. The story was the subject of a humorous song by the same name on Laurie Anderson's 1989 album Strange Angels. In an episode of The Monkees, titled "The Monkee's Paw", a nightclub magician sells the band a cursed monkey's paw in revenge after they unwittingly force him out of a job. In the South Park episode "Marjorine", the character Butters is wished back to life by his parents; when he knocks on the door, his parents regret it and refer to him as "it". The Ripping Yarns story "The Curse of the Claw", first broadcast in 1977 and starring Michael Palin, is a spoof in the style of Monty Python, and is loosely inspired by The Monkey's Paw. ===Music=== Industrial/goth band the Electric Hellfire Club released a song called "The Monkey's Paw" on their album Witness. ===Other=== In The Sims 2 for consoles, when a player selects Search Couch while sitting on a sofa, he can find a "Mysterious Zombie Monkey Paw". In the manga xxxHolic, a teacher buys the monkey's paw from the character Yuuko, even though she is advised against it. The monkey's paw gives five wishes but all have negative effects. In the book The Dead Zone, by Stephen King, the character John Smith relates his new found psychic powers to the wishes granted in The Monkey's Paw, realizing that his powers can help people, but they can frighten them away, and that they give him unwanted publicity.

Ikip (talk) 18:12, 26 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Link to unabridged text

The link to the "Full Short Story Text" <http://www.scaryforkids.com/the-monkeys-paw/> was to a page that, as the name of the site might suggest, contains a purged version of the story. I have replaced the link with this <http://www.americanliterature.com/Jacobs/SS/TheMonkeysPaw.html>. As I haven't read the story but on those two webpages, I can't absolutely vouch that either is unabridged, but the version at the new address I provide is certainly a few lines longer. Perhaps someone who has read the story in a reliable edition has something to say? 93.144.5.255 (talk) 23:50, 27 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That is not the unabridged version: but this might be http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/mnkyspaw.htm its several pages longer. But not sure if it contains the whole storyMilkStraw532 (talk) 23:56, 27 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How is it several pages longer? Double spacing doesn't make it any longer. It's just the same as the version I suggested: <http://www.americanliterature.com/Jacobs/SS/TheMonkeysPaw.html> (and as the internal wikisource version, which ought to be unabridged). As for the version at <http://www.scaryforkids.com/the-monkeys-paw/> , this part is missing: "The old man turned and regarded her, and his voice shook. "He has been dead ten days, and besides he--I would not tell you else, but--I could only recognize him by his clothing. If he was too terrible for you to see then, how now?". 93.144.5.255 (talk) 13:43, 28 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

BBC radio adaptation from the 1940s

Unlisted in this article is an adaptation of the story which must have been made by the BBC during the 1940s, since I recall my late father describing his recollection of the same many years later. In that version, they added the extra-gruesome sound effect of the reanimated (but still unseen) Herbert White dragging one leg on the ground as he approaches the door. Nuttyskin (talk) 17:45, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Cool! But we need a source ... memory (as we all know) is a tricky thing. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 18:56, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Other media

imdb lists a 1978 film as well. TheTyrant (talk) 03:23, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Mysterious ending

I was wondering what Mr White wished for at the end of the story. Did he wish that he could cancel the second wish? AsphaltAssault17 (talk) 12:18, 22 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

He probably would have wished his son safely dead and returned to his grave as before.

Why didn't he wish that he had never asked for the £200 to begin with? Nuttyskin (talk) 00:07, 23 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Cultural Impact

At the very least, there ought to be a section devoted to criticism of the story's cultural impact. There is a reason people keep remaking, parodying and referencing The Monkey's Paw: because we all fear death, and above all we fear the deaths of our loved ones, particularly our children.

But the most terrifying thing is, that we all know that if that was our child, we would make the second wish, and not wish it away afterward; because nothing is worse than losing your child, and you would give anything to have them back, back from the gates of death, even looking like that!

And after two world wars, and a broken heartful of industrial accidents and drug overdoses and car crashes and deaths-by-misadventure, and young people going through life like they think they're immortal; it has proven to be a very recurrent theme, for the most tearful of reasons. Nuttyskin (talk) 00:28, 23 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]