The Monkey's Paw

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The Monkey's Paw is a short story by W. W. Jacobs, written in 1902. In the story, the paw of a dead monkey is a talisman that grants the possessor three wishes, but the wishes come with an enormous price.

The second owner of the monkey's paw was Sergeant Major Morris, who came into possession of it upon the death of its first owner. Morris gave it to Mr. White of Lakesname Villa, who shortly received a payment of 200 pounds as the result of the death of his son Herbert.

The story is based on traditional stories in which three wishes are granted. There are always three wishes granted.

The first wish is made carelessly; it is granted, but in a horrific manner. In the W.W. Jacobs story, the wish is for wealth, but it comes in the form of a payment for the violent death of a loved one.

The second wish is made to try to correct the damages of the first wish.

The third wish is made in despair when the darker implications of the "corrective" second wish become evident.

At the end, only the first wish stands, and the other two wishes are wasted, cancelling each other out to prevent a greater horror.

The theme of the story resembles the Faust stories, in which there is no way to craft a wish finely enough to prevent the Devil from thwarting the wisher, and perhaps also the sorcerer's apprentice stories; a milder version is the many variants of the Three wishes joke.

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In popular Media

A one act play based on the story was first performed in 1907.
The segment "Wish You Were Here" from the 1972 film Tales from the Crypt is an adaptation.
The story's theme was one of the inspirations for Stephen King's novel, Pet Sematary. The Jacobs story had previously been mentioned in his novel The Dead Zone and the novella, Apt Pupil.
One of the stories from The Simpsons Halloween special, Treehouse of Horror II, has the same name, and is clearly a parody of this story.
The "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" is based on the story.
The story was the subject of a humorous song by the same name on Laurie Anderson's 1989 album Strange Angels.
In many rewritings of this story, the final wish typically has the person in possession of the paw wishing he had never found the paw, usually because it was unavailable or that a person they dislike had found the paw instead.
In the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, after the death of Buffy's mother due to a brain aneurysm, Dawn attempts to revive her with magic, the result being very similar to the ending of The Monkey's Paw.
In an episode of The Monkees, fittingly 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 an episode of Billy and Mandy, called Wishbones, Billy and Mandy find a wishing skull, all of the wishes go wrong in terrible ways. see also Wishbones
There is also an announced film adaption, set to be released some time in 2007.