The Monkey's Paw
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40 free The Monkey's Paw trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Monkey's Paw is a classic of the horror short story. First published in 1902, it takes a cosy family evening, a visiting soldier and a shrivelled charm that grants three wishes, and turns them into a lesson in being careful what you ask for. More than a century later it is still read in classrooms and still borrowed by films, television and novels. This quiz follows the story from start to finish: the White family and their guest, the history of the paw, each of the three wishes and what it costs, and the famous ending. It also covers the man who wrote it, where it first appeared, and the retellings and parodies it has inspired. It is written for students revising the story for class, teachers who want a ready-made check on the reading, and anyone who remembers the tale and wants to see how much stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print it for a group.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which animated sitcom spoofed The Monkey's Paw with a wish for world peace that lets aliens enslave Earth?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons gave Homer a cursed paw bought in Morocco in Treehouse of Horror II. His last wish, for a turkey sandwich, goes wrong as well: the turkey is dry.
Q 02In The Monkey's Paw, which game are Mr White and his son Herbert playing in the parlour as the story opens?
Chess
Chess opens the story with a warning: Mr White plays recklessly, putting his king into sharp and unnecessary perils. He loses, just as he will later lose by gambling on a wish.
Q 03Which Stephen King novel, the one he says scared him most, was planned as a retelling of The Monkey's Paw?
Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary began when King's daughter's cat was killed on a busy highway in Maine. Three days after burying it, he imagined a family whose cat came back to life.
Q 04In The Monkey's Paw, what sum does Mr White ask for when he makes his first wish on the paw?
Two hundred pounds
Two hundred pounds is all he asks for, because he feels he already has everything he wants. The identical sum arrives the next day, after his son is killed at work.
Q 05In The Monkey's Paw, what does Sergeant-Major Morris suddenly do with the paw after describing its curse?
Throws it on the fire
Throws it on the fire, and when Mr White snatches it out, Morris tells him it would be better to let it burn. He warns his host not to blame him for what happens next.
Q 06In The Monkey's Paw, which country does Sergeant-Major Morris tell tales of after 21 years away as a soldier?
India
India is where the old soldier's adventures took place, and Mr White says he would like to see its ancient temples and jugglers. Morris tells him he is better off where he is.
Q 07Which English author, famous in his day for comic tales of sailors and dockside life, wrote The Monkey's Paw?
W. W. Jacobs
W. W. Jacobs spent much of his boyhood on the Thames waterfront, where his father managed a wharf. Most of his fiction was humorous, which makes his best-known story the odd one out.
Q 08In The Monkey's Paw, how is Herbert White killed at work on the day after his father's first wish?
Caught in machinery
Caught in machinery is all the firm's messenger will say, after first assuring the Whites that Herbert is 'not in any pain'. His mother thanks God before she grasps the meaning.
Q 09In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mrs White beg her husband to use the second wish for?
Their son alive again
Their son alive again is her demand, about a week after the funeral, when she suddenly remembers that two wishes remain. Mr White calls it foolish and wicked, but he obeys.
Q 10In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White do in the seconds before his wife gets the front door open?
Makes his final wish
Makes his final wish, on his knees, after groping for the paw on the floor. The story never gives its words, only that the knocking stops at once.
Q 11In The Monkey's Paw, what kind of holy man does Sergeant-Major Morris say put the spell on the paw?
A fakir
A fakir, in Morris's words 'a very holy man', enchanted the paw so that three separate men could each have three wishes. Mr White becomes the third and last of them.
Q 12In The Monkey's Paw, what did the man who enchanted the paw want to show rules people's lives?
Fate
Fate was the lesson: the spell was meant to show that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. The first wish duly comes true in the cruellest way possible.
Q 13In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White say the paw did at the moment he made the first wish?
Twisted like a snake
Q 21In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mrs White jokingly ask her husband to wish for on her behalf?
Four pairs of hands
Four pairs of hands is her request, made while she is busy setting the table. Morris grabs Mr White's arm in alarm, and the family bursts out laughing.
Q 22In The Monkey's Paw, what does Herbert tease his father to wish to become so he can't be henpecked?
An emperor
An emperor is Herbert's suggestion, and it gets him chased round the table by his mother, armed with an antimacassar. He keeps joking right up until the wish is made.
Q 23In The Monkey's Paw, which instrument does Herbert play for effect as his father makes the first wish?
Piano
Twisted like a snake is how he describes it, after dropping the paw with a shuddering cry. His wife blames his fancy, but he is still swearing to it at dinner the next day.
Q 14In The Monkey's Paw, what does Mr White tell his wife is making the noise when the knocking begins?
A rat
A rat, he says in a shaking voice, claiming it passed him on the stairs. His wife is not fooled: at the next loud knock she screams her son's name.
Q 15In The Monkey's Paw, what can Mrs White not reach when she rushes to open the front door to the knocking?
The bolt
The bolt is too high for her, so she drags a chair against the door to stand on. Those few seconds give her husband time to find the paw.
Q 16In The Monkey's Paw, what does the street lamp shine on when the Whites finally get the door open?
A deserted road
A deserted road, quiet under a flickering lamp, is the story's closing image. Readers are left to decide whether anything was ever standing outside.
Q 17In The Monkey's Paw, what did the paw's first owner use his third wish to ask for?
Death
Death was the first owner's last request, and it is how the paw passed to Morris. Morris says he never learned what the man's first two wishes were.
Q 18In The Monkey's Paw, how does Mr White react on hearing how much the firm will pay for Herbert's life?
He faints
He faints, falling 'a senseless heap' to the floor. The sum offered matches his wish exactly, even though the firm admits no blame for the accident.
Q 19Which comedy duo starred in Our Relations, a film based on a story by the author of The Monkey's Paw?
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy each doubled as a long-lost twin brother in Our Relations, credited to the short story The Money Box. The original tale has no twins in it at all.
Q 20In The Monkey's Paw, which book of tales does Mrs White say the talk of three wishes sounds like?
Arabian Nights
Arabian Nights is her light-hearted verdict as she gets up to set the supper. Nobody in the family takes the old soldier's warning seriously that evening.
Piano chords from Herbert, played with a wink at his mother, turn the wish into a family joke. A fine crash greets the words, cut short by his father's cry.
Q 24In The Monkey's Paw, what does Herbert say the sum his father wishes for would be just enough to do?
Pay off the house
Pay off the house is the idea: Herbert says clearing it would make his father quite happy. Mr White has just admitted he has all he wants and can't think what to ask for.
Q 25In The Monkey's Paw, what does Herbert see in the dying coals that makes him reach for a glass of water?
An ape-like face
An ape-like face, 'so horrible and so simian' that he stares in amazement, is the last of several he sees. Groping for the water, he grasps the paw instead.
Q 26In The Monkey's Paw, Morris says the wishes come true so naturally they could be put down to what?
Coincidence
Coincidence is the word Mr White quotes from Morris at breakfast. He clings to it once more when his wife insists the first wish was truly granted.
Q 27In The Monkey's Paw, what does Morris gruffly tell Mr White to wish for if he must wish at all?
Something sensible
Something sensible is all the advice he will give, after seizing Mr White's arm in alarm. By then he has already urged his host to get rid of the thing.
Q 28In The Monkey's Paw, which drink does Mr White pour for Morris, whose eyes brighten at the third glass?
Whiskey
Whiskey loosens Morris's tongue: by the third glass he is telling tales of wars, plagues and strange peoples. Mrs White later grumbles about his 'bibulous habits'.
Q 29In The Monkey's Paw, what is Mrs White doing by the hearth while her husband and son play their game?
Knitting
Knitting placidly, the white-haired Mrs White still spots her husband's reckless moves and comments on them. She consoles him afterwards that he may win the next game.
Q 30In The Monkey's Paw, what is the weather like outside the Whites' parlour on the evening the story begins?
Cold and wet
Cold and wet weather, with a rising wind, sets the mood from the first sentence. Mr White grumbles that the pathway outside is a bog.