From the monkey’s paws
On a cold and wildly stormy night, Sergeant-Major Morris arrives at the cottage home of Mr. and Mrs. White and their only son, Herbert. As the soldier entertains the old couple with tales of his adventures as a career soldier in India, he shows them a shriveled, mummified monkey’s paw, which can grant three wishes. The soldier claims it has a spell put on it by an old fakir who wanted to show that interfering with fate will bring horrible consequences. Overcome by his memories of the terrible results of his three wishes, the sergeant-major throws the monkey’s paw into the fire. However, the father rescues it. After the guest leaves, Herbert playfully suggests that his father wish for two hundred pounds’—the cost of the loan on their house. Mr. White makes the wish, not expecting it to come true. When he does, the monkey’s paw moves in his hand. The next day, the old couple anxiously awaits the arrival of their son from work. A stranger appears at the door.
“I — was asked to call,” he said at last, and stooped and picked a piece of cotton from his trousers. “I come from Maw and Meggins.”?
The lady started. “Is anything the matter?” she asked breathlessly. *Has anything happened to Herbert? What is it? What is it?”
Her husband interrupted. “There, there, mother,” he said hastily. “Sit down, and don’t jump to conclusions. You’ve not brought bad news, I’m sure, sir” and he eyed the other wistfully.
“I’m sorry – began the visitor.
“Is he hurt?” demanded the mother.
The visitor bowed in assent. “Badly hurt,” he said quietly, “but he is not in any pain.”
“Oh, thank goodness!” said the woman, clasping her hands. “Thank goodness for that! Thank – *
She broke off suddenly as the sinister meaning of the assurance dawned upon her and she saw the awful confirmation of her fears in the other’s face. She caught her breath, and turning to her slower-witted husband, laid her trembling old hand upon his. There was a long silence.
“He was caught in the machinery,” said the visitor at length, in a low voice.
“Caught in the machinery,” repeated Mr. White, in a dazed fashion, “yes.”He sat staring blankly out at the window, and taking his wife’s hand between his own, pressed it as he often had done in their old courting days, nearly forty years before.
“He was the only one left to us,” he said, turning gently to the visitor. “It is hard.”
The other coughed, and rising, walked slowly to the window. “The firm wished me to convey their sincere sympathy with you in your great loss,” he said, without looking round. “I beg that you will understand I am only their servant and merely obeying orders.*
There was no reply; the woman’s face was white, her eyes staring, and her breath silent; on the husband’s face was a look such as his friend the sergeant might have carried into his first military battle.
“I was to say that Maw and Meggins disclaim all responsibility,” continued the other. *They admit no liability at all, but in consideration of your son’s services they wish to present you with a certain sum as compensation.”
Mr. White dropped his wife’s hand, and rising to his feet, gazed with a look of horror at his visitor. His dry lips shaped the words, “How much?”
“Two hundred pounds,” was the answer.
[Ten days later, Herbert’s mother remembers something.]
“I only just thought of it,” she said hysterically. “Why didn’t I think of it before?
Why didn’t you think of it?”
“Think of what?” he questioned.
“The other two wishes,” she replied rapidly. “We’ve only had one.”Was not that enough?* he demanded fiercely.No,” she cried, triumphantly; *we’ll have one more. Go down and get it quickly and wish our boy alive again.”
The man sat up in bed and flung the bedclothes from his quaking limbs. *You are mad!* he cried aghast.
“Get it,” she panted; “get it quickly, and wish — Oh, my boy, my boy!*
The man turned and regarded her, and his voice shoot *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,
“Bring him back,” cried the woman, and dragged him toward the door. “Do you think I fear the child I have nursed?*
Wish!* she cried, in a strong voiceIt is foolish and wicked, he faltered.
“Wish!* repeated his wife.
He raised his hand. “I wish my son alive again.”The talisman fell to the floor, and he regarded it fearfully. Then he sank trembling into a chair as the woman, with burning eyes, walked to the window and raised the blind. He sat until he was chilled with the cold, glancing occasionally at the figure of the woman peering through the window. The candle end, which had burnt below the rim of the china candlestick, was throwing pulsating shadows on the ceiling and walls, untll, with a flicker larger than the rest, it expired. The man, with an unspeakable sense of rellef at the failure of the talisman, crept back to his bed, and a minute or two afterward the woman came silently and sadly beside him.
Neither spoke, but both lay silently listening to the ticking of the clock. A stair creaked, and a squeaky mouse scurried noisily through the wall. The darkness was oppressive, and after lying for some time working up his courage, the husband took the box of matches, and striking one, went downstairs for a candle.
At the foot of the stairs the match went out, and he paused to strike another, and at the same moment a knock, so quiet and stealthy as to be scarcely audible, sounded on the front door.
The matches fell from his hand. He stood motionless; his breath suspended until the knock was repeated. Then he turned and fled swiftly back to his room and closed the door behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.
“What’s that?” cried the woman, starting up.
“A rat,” sald the man, in shaking tones — “a rat. It passed me on the stairs.” His wife sat up in bed listening. A loud knock resounded through the house.
“It’s Herbert!” she screamed. “It’s Herbert!”
She ran to the door, but her husband was before her, and catching her by the arm, held her tightly.
*What are you going to do?” he whispered hoarsely.
“It’s my boy; it’s Herbert!” she cried, struggling mechanically. “I forgot it was two miles away. What are you holding me for? Let go. I must open the door.”
“For goodness’ sake, don’t let it In,” cried the man, trembling.
“You’re afraid of your own son,” she cried, struggling. “Let me go. I’m coming,
Herbert; I’m coming.”
There was another knock, and another. The woman with a sudden wrench broke free and ran from the room. Her husband followed to the landing and called after her appealingly as she hurried downstairs. He heard the chain rattle back and the bottom bolt drawn slowly and stiffly from the socket. Then the woman’s voice, strained and panting.
“The bolt,” she cried loudly, “Come down. I can’t reach it.-
But her husband was on his hands and knees groping wildly on the floor in search of the paw. If he could only find it before the thing outside got in. A perfect fusillade of knocks reverberated through the house, and he heard the scraping of a chair as his wife put it down in the passage against the door. He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey’s paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.
The knocking ceased suddenly, although the echoes of it were still in the house. He heard the chair drawn back and the door opened. A cold wind rushed up the staircase, and a long loud wall of disappointment and misery from his wife gave him courage to run down to her side, and then to the gate beyond. The street lamp flickering opposite shone on a quiet and deserted road.
Write a well-orgainzed informational essay that uses specific evidence from The Monkey Paw to explain how the action of the old couple contributes to the development of the theme.