Describe the setting. |

When Mr. White loses yet another game of chess to his son Herbert, he vents his frustration by complaining about the bad weather and the isolated setting.

"That's the worst of living so far out," bawled Mr. White, with sudden and unlooked-for violence; "of all the beastly, slushy, out-of-the-way places to live in, this is the worst. Pathway's a bog, and the road's a torrent. I don't know what people are thinking about. I suppose because only two houses in the road are let, they think it doesn't matter."

The author's main reason for describing the setting as "slushy" and "out-of-the-way" is to make it seem very likely that the person who comes knocking at the door will be the White's son Herbert returned from the grave, horribly mangled and decayed, and now soaked and covered with mud. The little house is so isolated that it would be extremely unlikely that anyone else would be out there in the dead of night. Still, it is not entirely impossible that some stranger might be lost and seeking directions. The author wants to leave the possibility open that the knocking could be the result of sheer coincidence. Early in Part II, W. W. Jacobs again uses Mr. White's dialogue to cast some doubt on the magical powers of the monkey's paw.

"Morris said the things happened so naturally," said his father, "that you might if you so wished attribute it to coincidence."

The reader will be left wondering. Was it only a coincidence that Maw and Meggins paid the Whites two hundred pounds compensation for their son's accident, the exact amount that Mr. White had wished for the night before? Did the monkey's paw cause Herbert to get caught in the machinery, or was he groggy and hung over after staying up later than usual talking to their interesting visitor and drinking too much whiskey with him? Was that really Herbert knocking at the door, or was it just a coincidence that some stranger was lost in that dark, isolated setting and was only trying to get directions back to the main road? 

Mr. White describes the exterior setting in his tirade after losing the chess game. The interior of the little house is described succinctly in the first paragraph of the story.

Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire.

The house is obviously small and cozy. It has a nice fireplace which all the family members enjoy. Evidently Mr. White only paid about two hundred pounds for the house and lot in a new real estate development. There is only one other house in the tract that has been "let." The word "let" suggest that the houses are sold on rent-to-buy plans. The monthly rents are applied to the purchase price, and the lessee can take title when he has paid the full purchase price in the form of rental fees. The fact that there is only one other house occupied will make it all the more likely that the person knocking at the door is not the dead Herbert but some lost stranger who has tried at the other house and now is desperately pounding at the Whites' front door as his last resort. The hypothetical stranger would know there is someone at home because he would have seen a light. After Mrs. White forces her husband to wish for Herbert to return, she stands at their bedroom window looking out, hoping to see her son.

He sat until he was chilled with the cold, glancing occasionally at the figure of the old woman peering through the window. The candle-end, which had burned below the rim of the china candlestick, was throwing pulsating shadows on the ceiling and walls, until, with a flicker larger than the rest, it expired. 

In that dark setting, the light would have been visible all over the isolated little housing development. That could explain why the knocking became more and more insistent. The reader will never know whether the monkey's paw brought the Whites their fortune and misfortune, or whether it was sheer coincidence. Many of our worst fears are purely imaginary.