Sergeant-Major Morris Character Analysis

Morris is an old friend of Mr. White who has been a soldier abroad in India for 21 years. His fantastical stories of his travels show the allure of adventure in exotic places, adventures that Mr. White himself claims he would like to experience. Morris also brings the sinister monkey’s paw from India to Mr. White, which also shows how people at the time viewed objects from faraway places (particularly Britain’s colonies) with both suspicion and temptation. Morris himself has wished upon the paw and seems to regret it, showing the consequences of one who tempts fate. Still, when Mr. White asks him if he would take three more wishes if he could, he says, “I don’t know…I don’t know,” suggesting that even when one suffers from attempting to change their fate, the power can still be attractive enough for one to possibly try again. However, the reality of Morris’s stories is dubious. Both Herbert and Mrs. White remark that soldiers commonly tell fictional or exaggerated accounts of their adventures abroad, and the story of the paw’s origins and its supposed magic may be another tall tale. In fact, the narrative never definitively states whether or not the paw actually grants Mr. White’s wishes, so Morris’s claims that the paw can alter fate may indeed be false.