The Monkey's Paw Theme Of Fate

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‘The Monkey’s Paw’ and ‘The Withered Arm’ are tales of great suffering and pain – in your opinion who suffers most – what makes this character interesting? Compare and contrast the supernatural elements of each and finally which made the greater impact upon you and why?

For this piece of coursework I have studied two short stories written before 1900 – both are tragic tales of fate and its consequences.

‘The Withered Arm’ by Thomas Hardy is a tragic story about how one woman’s feelings of jealousy towards another, spiral out of control until it ends with the death of her only son. ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ by W.W.Jacobs is also about how a man’s feelings of greed lead to the death of his only son.

The characters in both stories suffer tremendously as a result of their feelings but I feel that The Withered Arm’s main character Rhoda Brook had suffered the most compared to Mr.

White from ‘The Monkey’s Paw.’

How Does The Monkey’s Paw Influence The Characters Of Mr. And Mrs. White?

Rhoda Brook had suffered long before the supernatural element of the story occurred. Rhoda is alienated from the rest of the farm workers as she had a son with the farm’s owner, Farmer Lodge. “A thin fading woman of thirty milked somewhat apart from the rest.

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” This shows that Rhoda suffers as she is all alone and has noone but her son for comfort.

Farmer Lodge abandoned Rhoda and her son and got remarried to a much younger, prettier woman than Rhoda. This caused Rhoda to become besieged with jealously and orders her son to spy on the new Mrs Lodge. “You can give her a look, and tell me what she’s like.” Her suffering furthers as she soon she becomes obsessed with comparing Gertrude with herself and is filled with jealousy, anger, resentment and desperation so much so that she has a disturbing dream where she visualises Gertrude taunting her as she lays in bed. ‘The figure then thrust forward its left hand mockingly so as to make the wedding ring it wore glitter in Rhoda’s eyes.’ This dream furthers her misery and changes the course of her life.

One day Gertrude visits Rhoda’s cottage out of kindness, bringing new boots for Rhoda’s boy. In looks, Gertrude looks just as Rhoda pictured her – but her manner and character take her completely by surprise. This adds to Rhoda’s suffering because she feels guilty about the feelings she had about Gertrude. “She did not wish to inflict upon her physical pain.”

Gertrude becomes a regular visitor to the cottage and she and Rhoda develop a friendship. They share their private thoughts and feelings. Gertrude confides in Rhoda a worry she has about an injury to her left arm. On seeing the bruise marks, Rhoda immediately recognises them as the marks she had made on Gertrude in her dream. Rhoda immediately feels guilty. Rhoda begins to wonder whether she has witch-like powers to put a curse on other people and her worst fears are confirmed when she sees that Gertrude’s arm is becoming shrivelled. “But she had a haunting reason to be superstitious now; and she had been seized with sudden dread that this might prove her as the malignant influence which was blasting the fair person of Gertrude.”

Rhoda’s suffering continues as Gertrude trusts her and confides with Rhoda and when Gertrude tells her about her failing relationship with Farmer Lodge because of her withered arm. Rhoda’s never ending feelings of guilt drain her mentally. She wants to do whatever she can to help her new found friend but is still scared of being found out.

Rhoda suffers when Gertrude begs for her help. Rhoda brings her to Conjuror Trendle to see if he can help, even though she is aware that she could be found out. When they reach Conjuror Trendle’s home he reveals that Gertrude’s withered arm had been caused by the work of an enemy but only Gertrude could see who it was. “Tis the work of an enemy. If you like, I can show the person to you, though I shall not myself know who it is.” This made Rhoda suffer because she didn’t know whether Gertrude knew that she was behind her discomfort.

Rhoda’s suffering furthers when word got out that she was ‘a witch’ and people taunted her until it got so bad that she and her son had to leave the town. “The latter kept her own counsel about the incubus, but her face grew sadder and thinner and in the spring she and her boy disappeared from the neighbourhood of Holmstoke.”

The next time we see Rhoda is when Gertrude goes to cure her arm by touching the corpse of a hanged man and finds out that the dead body is actually that, of Rhoda’s son. This is obviously a great cause of suffering on Rhoda’s part as her son has just been hanged and she now has noone from her family left.

Rhoda spends the rest of her life suffering. She is old and alone working on the farm yet again until she dies. “Her monotonous milking at the dairy was resumed and followed for many long years, till her form became bent, and her once abundant dark hair became white and worn away at the forehead.”

My opinion on Rhoda Brook is that she is a very lonely person and I feel very sorry for her. I respect her too for her fierce loyalty to Gertrude even though she was the cause of her discomfort. Rhoda is an unselfish person who cannot help but to let her feelings and emotions get the better of her. Rhoda is a very interesting character as she seems to be lonely and boring yet such unlikely events happen in her life. What makes her very interesting is that she has some kind of supernatural element to her personality which makes terrible things happen without her wanting them to.

There are many similarities in both stories. Both stories are pre-occupied with the idea of fate and supernatural elements. In ‘The Withered Arm’ the fate of Rhoda is that she loses her son due to human weakness and is destined to live her life sad and alone. “Her monotonous milking at the dairy was resumed, and followed for many long years.” In ‘The Monkeys Paw’ the fate of Mr and Mrs White is that they lose their son due to greed and subsequently live the reset of their lives in sorrow. “The days passed, and expectation gave place to resignation – the hopeless resignation of the old, sometimes miscalled apathy. Sometimes they hardly exchanged a word, for now they had nothing to talk about, and their days were long to weariness.”

Fate is the main theme in many of Hardy’s novels. ‘Fate rules people’s lives and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow.’

Both stories are about human weakness which results in death and pain. The two main characters, Rhoda and Mr White lose their sons because of human weakness but both believe it is coincidence but fear that a more sinister element is at work.

After the burial of their dead both characters spend their days in silent suffering. Rhoda Brook returns to her sad and lonely state living and working on the farm “Her monotonous milking at the dairy was resumed and followed for many long years.” and Mr and Mrs White are withdrawn and miserable and spend their nights in subdued silence and bereavement. “Sometimes they hardly exchanged a word, for now they had nothing to talk about, and their days were long to weariness.”

There are also many differences in both the stories. In ‘The Withered Arm’ the human weakness is jealousy, Rhoda is jealous of Gertrude and in ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ it is greed, Mr White’s weakness when offered an item which would award him with three wishes.

In ‘The Monkeys Paw’ the weather is caught up in the tragic destiny – ‘outside the wind was higher than ever and the old man started nervously at the sounds of a door banging upstairs.’ In ‘The Withered Arm’ it is the landscape that reflects the atmosphere of near tragedy, ‘it was a long walk; thick clouds made the atmosphere dark, though it was as yet only early afternoon; and the wind howled dismally over the slopes of the heath.’

Another difference is that in ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ there is a magical item in it. The monkeys paw is a charm given to the White’s by a soldier who warns them of the consequences of its three wishes. The paw brings great misfortune with each wish and is the cause of all tragic occurrences whereas the tragedies caused in ‘The Withered Arm’ are caused by human weakness and a supernatural element inside Rhoda.

Both stories had a great impact on me as they are both astonishing and exciting stories but the one that had the greatest impact on me was ‘The Monkey’s Paw.’ I liked this story as it was quite short and all the events in it happened quite quickly and unexpectedly. The language used in this story is quite nice as it flows together well. The plot to the story is quite surprising especially in the end when Mrs White wishes for her son to come back from the dead. The ending is very good, but part of me wanted to find out what would have happened if Mr White hadn’t wished his son dead again. In my opinion ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ is the more exciting story although I enjoyed ‘The Withered Arm’ also.