Working Through the Foreshadowing Worksheet for The Monkey's Paw
Most teachers assign this worksheet after students finish reading the story, but honestly it works better if you go through it while reading rather than after. The foreshadowing in W.W. Jacobs' story is pretty heavy-handed compared to modern fiction, which makes it easier to spot, but also means students sometimes miss the subtler instances because they're looking only for obvious clues. I've graded enough of these to know the common mistakes. Before getting into specific answers, the basic structure most worksheets use is straightforward. They ask you to identify passages where the story hints at future events, explain what is being foreshadowed, and connect it back to the wish-related consequences. The three main wishes serve as the backbone for every foreshadowing example, and the story's opening atmosphere does the rest of the heavy lifting. The Sergeant-Major's introduction of the paw is the single most important foreshadowing moment in the entire story. When he describes the paw's origin and how it grants three wishes, he immediately follows up with a warning. That warning contains the first major clue about how the wishes will actually work out. Most worksheet answers correctly identify this section, but students frequently miss that the sergeant-major's hesitation and the way he almost refuses to tell the story are themselves foreshadowing. The refusal signals danger before any explicit warning is given.
Another commonly tested passage involves Mr. White's casual first wish for two hundred pounds. The fact that he makes the wish almost as a joke, combined with the paper's curling and writhing in his hand, creates an immediate sense of wrongness. Worksheets typically point to the physical description of the paper as evidence, but the real foreshadowing is in the contrast between Mr. White's carelessness and the paw's physical reaction. The story is telling you that magic with consequences doesn't care about your intent. The second wish answer usually centers on Herbert's death and the subsequent phone call from the factory. The factory manager's explanation that Herbert was caught in machinery and then identified by his clothes, not his face, is the payoff for every earlier mention of money troubles and the father's obsession with compensation. Some worksheets focus narrowly on the wish itself rather than the cumulative tension built throughout the middle section, which is a gap worth noting when you're checking your answers. Mrs. White's impatience and her eventual wish to bring Herbert back are the emotional core of the foreshadowing arc. The story sets this up through repeated mentions of her grief and the father's visible fear whenever she approaches the paw. The most frequently overlooked foreshadowing detail here is the gradual deterioration of the household atmosphere before the final wish is even spoken. Jacobs builds dread through small behavioral changes rather than dramatic declarations.
When I work through these worksheets with students or check my own understanding, I've found that the trickiest foreshadowing instances aren't always the ones listed in standard answer keys. The sergeant-major's story about the third wish on his own paw is frequently skimmed over in student responses, but it's directly connected to the Whites' fate. His own wish brought him to that state of ruin, and he shares it as a cautionary tale that the father completely ignores. That dramatic irony is the mechanism Jacobs uses to make the entire story feel inevitable rather than random. One specific problem I ran into repeatedly involves worksheet questions that ask about the weather and setting as foreshadowing elements. The original text includes descriptions of the cold, dark evening and the comfortable, warm interior of the White home. Some answer keys treat these as purely atmospheric, but they actually function as foreshadowing through contrast. The warmth inside makes the intrusion of supernatural consequences more jarring, and the weather descriptions reinforce the isolation that makes the family vulnerable. I always tell people to flag these in their worksheets because teachers vary on whether they count environmental details as legitimate foreshadowing evidence. The final wish and the knock at the door is where most worksheet answers become inconsistent. Some keys focus strictly on the explicit text where the father rushes to undo the wish before the thing outside enters. Others include the broader thematic implication that the paw's influence extends beyond the house itself. Both readings are defensible. The ambiguity is intentional on Jacobs' part, which means your worksheet answer should probably acknowledge both possibilities rather than picking one definitively.
Here is a practical note about using answer keys or shared worksheets online. A lot of versions circulating on educational sites have errors, especially in the interpretation sections where students are asked to explain the significance rather than just quote the passage. I've seen keys incorrectly attribute foreshadowing to dialogue that isn't actually in the original story and miss several genuine instances entirely. Cross-reference with a reliable text and don't treat any single online answer key as authoritative. If you are using this worksheet for a class, the most reliable approach is to underline or highlight every sentence that mentions the paw, wishes, or the sergeant-major's past, then trace those references forward to see where they land in the narrative. That method takes about twenty minutes and catches nearly everything a standard worksheet would ask about. Skipping it and going straight to an answer key will leave gaps in your comprehension that show up clearly on follow-up assignments.
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