It's A Wonderful Life - Wish Theory


Since Christmas is tomorrow I thought I'd take another classic holiday movie that we all know and love and find a crazy theory to ... not ruin it, but give everyone a different perspective the next time you watch it. So, I wanted to try and find something for Charlie Brown like I did on Halloween, but then I stumbled onto a theory about It's A Wonderful Life, arguably a more classic Christmas movie. One of the biggest classics, some might say. Let's get into it:


First of all let's look at the wishing scene. Mary and George each break some glass in the old Granville house - George speaks his wish, to explore and build etc, aloud and Mary refuses to tell George what her wish was.

This theory (which I found on Reddit from user truncatedChronologis) is that the old Granville house is in fact a sort of Monkey's Paw - ironic wish granting.

George's wish is disqualified because he speaks it aloud- classic wish rules- where Mary keeps hers a secret. But we as the viewer can certainly infer what she wishes from her actions and motivation in the rest of the film- she wishes to marry George Bailey and have him stay forever with her in Bedford Falls.


While the wishing scene might just seem like an establishing character moment- Mary being faithful while George is frustrated, we see that many awful coincidences happen to George to keep him in town and align him with Mary- right after the wishing scene his father dies and he is forced to stay to take care of affairs, his brother becomes entangled with job prospects and marriage and finally a stock market crash on George's wedding day.

While of course all of these coincidences provide Mary with what she nominally wants, the wishing house is playing the long con- as we can see George begins to mentally dissolve and is driven to suicide which only true contrition and the grace of God can prevent. All this to ironically twist Mary's truest wish into a nightmare (Perhaps Satan pulls some strings to get him assigned to a bumbling angel as well?)

Even after the divine intervention, the dilapidated alternate dream ruins of his home where George becomes his most unhinged, is almost arrested by temporal authorities, and escapes from Clarence and divine protection.

So, in summary: The Old House is a Monkey's Paw, Mary's wish was to keep George in Bedford Falls with her forever and everything bad in the film comes out of her wish.


Tell me what you think about this theory. Personally, I love it. It doesn't change the movie in a bad way, for the most part. It just kind of gives you a reason why everything happens. Instead of rotten luck, it's actually the hands of fate mulling around in George's life because the woman who loved him thought more of her own happiness than his. Think about this theory when you're watching It's A Wonderful Life with your family. And, if you liked this one, check out the theories I made about Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.


See you all tomorrow.

Buh-bye.

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