The Monkey's Paw and the Necklace Comparative Essay

The Monkey’s Paw and The Necklace Comparative Essay

“The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Necklace” are both short stories that are clearly related by their theme of fate. The way fate works in both stories are different though. In “The Necklace”, Madam Loisel made her fate by all of her actions and in “The Monkey’s Paw” fate was decided by supernatural occurrences. Factors in their fates are that both protagonists are sad about their current lives. Both stories are set around the 19th century but both writers build up tension differently.
“The Monkey’s Paw” is set in a countryside as “The Necklace” is set in France. Both stories had the main theme as fate but in “The Monkey’s Paw” it could be argued that another theme to it is being careful of what you wish for. Mr. White only wished for 200 pounds which isn’t much considering he could’ve wished for anything he wanted so this eliminates greed as a theme for “The Monkey’s Paw” but in “The Necklace” Madam Loisel wants to look as wealthy as possible and this greed leads to her losing the necklace that she so though was worth thousands of francs.
In “The Necklace”, Madam Loisel makes her own fate by being greedy and wanting to look the richest at the ball. She didn’t take time to just appreciate what she had and be happy. How the author talked so much about all the money that they had to get to pay off for the necklace indicated that there was some foreshadowing on how the story would end. In the end, Madam Loisel’s fate was purely made by her and her actions.