Chekhov's Gun Examples in Short Stories: 6 Objects Planted to Go Off
Quick answer: Chekhov's gun examples from Poe, O. Henry, Maupassant, Conan Doyle, London and Jacobs: objects introduced early that the ending must use, and how each is planted.
Chekhov's gun is the principle that an object introduced with emphasis must eventually be used: if a rifle hangs on the wall in the first act, it must fire by the last. The name comes from Chekhov's advice to a fellow writer, and the rule is really about promises. Every detail a story lingers on is a promise to the reader, and the ending is where promises are paid.
Six objects planted to go off
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe has Montresor produce a trowel from under his cloak in answer to Fortunato's Masonic gesture. The moment is played as a joke. Pages later the trowel lays the bricks that seal Fortunato in, and the joke is revealed as a confession made in advance.
A Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry gives Jimmy Valentine a suitcase of custom-made burglar's tools, described with loving precision when he retrieves it from a wall cavity after prison. He means to give it away. When a child is locked in a bank vault, the tools come out, and the story's whole question of whether he has changed is answered by their use.
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant is the object and the gun in one. Borrowed with such ease, worn for one night, lost, replaced at ruinous cost, it is the only thing in the story that matters, and Maupassant's final revelation about its value is the shot the whole plot has been waiting for.
The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle furnishes Julia Stoner's bedroom with a ventilator that opens into the next room instead of outside, a bell rope that rings no bell, and a bed clamped to the floor. Holmes notes each. All three fire together in the climax, when the snake comes down the rope from the ventilator to the bed.
To Build a Fire by Jack London describes the spruce tree above the man's second fire, its boughs loaded with snow from weeks of still weather, before the fire is lit under it. The description is calm. When the heat loosens the load and the snow smothers the fire, the reader remembers the boughs and knows the man should have.
The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs has the sergeant-major bring the shrivelled paw into the White family's parlour, explain its three wishes, and try to throw it on the fire. Mr White retrieves it. Every subsequent knock at the door is the paw going off, and the third wish is the last shot.
How to use it in your own story
The gun is planted in drafting and checked in revision. Read your opening for anything the prose dwells on, and make sure the ending knows about it.
Common mistakes
The loaded object that never fires is the classic fault, a rifle described in detail and forgotten, which readers experience as a broken promise. Its opposite is the gun that appears only when needed, the tool or weapon produced from nowhere at the climax. A third is the over-signalled gun, described so heavily that the reader waits for it and the ending arrives already known. Writory story judges mark this under Storytelling and Structure, and a setup without payoff is one of the fastest ways to lose points there.
Where readers meet it today
Modern stories that plant and fire include Shirley Jackson's The Lottery with its black box, Roald Dahl's Lamb to the Slaughter, D. H. Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner and Raymond Carver's Popular Mechanics.
What writers can take from this
- Plant the object in an ordinary or comic moment.
- One description, then silence until it fires.
- Make the firing answer the story's central question.
- Check both directions: every plant pays off, every payoff was planted.
- If an object gets two paragraphs and no use, cut one or use it.
Try it yourself
Write a 600-word story that opens with a character cleaning out a drawer and describing five objects in it. Exactly one of them must decide the ending, and the reader should not be able to tell which until it does.
Questions
What is an example of Chekhov's gun in a short story?
The trowel Montresor shows Fortunato in Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, produced as a joke about Freemasonry and later used to wall him in. The object is planted in comedy and fired in horror.
How do you identify a Chekhov's gun?
Look for an object or detail the prose dwells on early without immediate plot use, then check whether the ending depends on it. If it does, the gun has fired; if not, it is either a red herring or a mistake.
Is Chekhov's gun the same as foreshadowing?
They overlap. Foreshadowing is any early hint of what is coming; Chekhov's gun is specifically an object or element introduced with emphasis that the plot later uses. The gun is a promise, foreshadowing is a mood.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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