<span>cannot be understood in the ordinary sense</span>
Plays that personified virtues and vices were known as a morality play. It is a genre known in the Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. During the said time, this is still known as interlude.
Answer:
There are three wishes made with the paw while there are also consequence for the wish.
The first wish, is when the Whites did not really believe in the paw, and thought it was a joke, so Mr. White wished 200 pounds. They did got the money afterwards, but their son, Herbert, got mangled in some machine and died, and so they received 200 pounds as a compensation.
The second wish is Mrs. Whites wants Herbert to live again. We should assume that he did got "alive" since in the story someone was knocking fiercely after the wish. However, we need to remember, Herbert died from machine mangling, which means his whole body is basically break in corpse. So the compensation is Herbert's corpse got "alive".
The third wish is Mr.White wished Herbert dead. However, this is not told in the story but it is foreshadowed because after his wish, the knocking goes away.
