W.W Jacobs' Monkey's Paw

W.W Jacobs is a popular short story writer and novelist. Jacobs first collection of short stories, titled Many Cargoes was an immediate success followed by a novelette titled The Skipper's Wooing and another collection of short stories Sea Urchins.

However, Jacobs' most popular work is The Monkey's Paw published in The Lady of the Barge in 1902. The short story revolves around the consequences of meddling with fate. The Monkey's Paw of the title is introduced to the White family by Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend who served in the British Army in India. The story thus also becomes an interesting study of colonial sensibilities. According to Morris the paw grants the wishes of the possessor. How the wishes of the White family are granted, thus, forms central part of the narrative. The story reminds us that unintended consequences often accompany the best intentions.

Click here to read the detailed summary 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Metaphysical poetry: critical analysis of George Herbert's Love (3)

Whether it was religion or love, the metaphysical poets had their own way of writing poetry on topics concerning the human experience. Though history doesn't speak much about them, their contribution to English literature speaks a lot. Anyways, the poet I'm going to talk about is George Herbert, one of the major metaphysical poets, with special emphasis on the critical analysis of his Love 3 . Love 3 is the last poem of Herbert's poetry collection "The Temple". Written in the form of a dialogue, the poem is the third in the series of love poems of the collection. Spending the later years of his life in religious activities, George Herbert, through this collection, wanted to draw his readers' attention to the experience of true eternal love i,e God's love. Which is why, in the earlier two poems, he explains how, the love for God is higher than the human experience of love, which mostly is an "usurping lust", in his opinion. Love 3, being the la...
Read more

Oulipo-Creativity through Constraints

Image
Imagine a blank page. Imagine that you are told to write, paint, draw, anything you wish to. At first, this exercise would make one feel happy with the fact that they are free to express whatever and however they wish to. But the next moment the same freedom would lead to confusion. What should I write about? What should I paint/draw? Without the constraint of a context, creating or inventing something would seem nearly impossible for many of us. A constraint isn't always an imposition or bondage. It can also be seen as a foundation for creative impulse. To better understand this idea, watch the following video on the power of creative constraints: The Oulipo group created by Raymond Queneau and  François Le Lionnais in Paris in 1960 championed this idea of creating literature within the constraints of linguistic, mathematical and logical boundaries. Oulipo is a French acronym for "Ouvroir de littérature potentielle" and can be translated in English as "The Workshop...
Read more

Survey: DELL Software

This post is in response to the questions (7-10 and 13) asked here 7) The five advantages of language learning through software include: Development of basic language skills Ease of assessment for the teacher The software is easy to operate, provided the tools are in good condition Teachers can also easily monitor learners' performance Convenient for group work 8) Following are the disadvantages of the language learning software: Inconvenience of time and place Affordability and availability of digital tools Lack of awareness regarding the usage of the software and the usage of the digital tools 9) Following are the few things related to language skills which can be learnt from the software: Communication skills A good vocabulary Standard accent and pronunciation patterns 10) Following are the five new words, in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation, learnt during the survey: Wonk Psychometric Veneer Xerophthalmia Debonair 13) Comparatively, the N...
Read more