Reading Questions for "The Monkey's Paw" Directions: Record your answers on a separate piece of paper. Staple this page to the front. Answer questions 1-8 in complete sentences. 1. What inferences can you make about the fact that the Father uses the old-fashioned word hark and that the house the family lives in has a name (“Laburnam Villa")? 2. Describe the opening setting of the story. How does it fit with the idea of a horror story? How does it help establish the mood (the way the reader is supposed to feel reading the story)? 3. Describe Sergeant-Major Morris. How do his personality and the way he acts fit with what we later know about the monkey's paw? 4. The first wish the family makes is for a small sum of money to help them pay off the house. What does this tell you about the family? 5. Before they go to bed, do the Whites act as if they believe the myth of the monkey's paw? How do you know? 6. What are the outcomes of the family's first wish? Hint: there are two. 7. What does the family's second wish tell you about them? 8. What is the third wish? Why do you think that wish was made?
