![]() ![]() The premise is so famous that it has since become archetypal, but let's briefly revisit the plot that is so familiar to many of us. ![]() Its power lies in the Ancient Greek literary concepts of hubris – an arrogant defiance of Fate and Nature that pits the fragile human being against the punishing forces of the cosmos – and pathos – a humbling sympathy that whispers in the reader’s ear “this could happen to me if I’m not careful!” “The Monkey’s Paw” is a masterpiece of economic prose, atmosphere, and dramatic irony, and as such, it is rightly considered Jacobs’ greatest and most famous work. Jacob’s brushes his own particular marinade of tension, irony, pathos, hubris, and awe on the original archetype to generate one of the greatest contributions to the Western canon of horror stories. The theme of regretting a wish achieved through supernatural advantage is a staple of the genre: Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Bottle Imp,” Honoré de Balzac’s “The Wild Ass’s Skin,” Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Galoshes of Fortune,” Poe’s “Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” not to mention the Greek myth of King Midas, and the horrific Bible story of Jephthah and his daughter have all contributed to the mythic proportions of this literary idea. Along with “The Body Snatchers,” “The Judge’s House,” “The Red Room,” “The Signal-Man,” “Green Tea,” and “Man-Size in Marble,” “The Monkey’s Paw” is a constant component of classic horror anthologies, largely due to the fact that it is a tale of existential proportions, with a philosophical brain and a broken heart. “Be careful what you wish for…” The truism has been this tale’s defacto subtitle since it charged into popular culture, becoming one of the most famous short stories in the horror genre. ![]()
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