The theme of death in "The Monkey's Paw," comes right in the beginning. We see it symbolically, when Herbert defeats his father in chess by saying checkmate. However, the theme of death is introduced directly, when Sergeant Major Morris offers the tale of the monkey's paw. He says that one of the men who used the paw to make wishes actually choose death as his final wish. Here are Morris's words:
'The first man had...
The theme of death in "The Monkey's Paw," comes right in the beginning. We see it symbolically, when Herbert defeats his father in chess by saying checkmate. However, the theme of death is introduced directly, when Sergeant Major Morris offers the tale of the monkey's paw. He says that one of the men who used the paw to make wishes actually choose death as his final wish. Here are Morris's words:
'The first man had his three wishes, yes. I don’t know what the first two wishes were but the third was for death. That’s how I got the paw.’
After Morris says this, he throws the paw into the fire. However, Mr. White snatches it and eventually wishes for something. He wishes for two hundred pounds, which is the remaining balance on his house. As the story progresses he get this money, but at the expense of his son. Herbert dies in a work related accident, and the company offer money for his death. From here death is starkly in the center of the story.
All of this reminds the reader that the old fakir might have been right when he said that we tamper with fate at our expense.
An old fakir put a spell on it. He was a very holy man and he wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that to interfere with fate only caused deep sadness. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it.
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