In an example of foreshadowing, Herbert sees a simian (or monkey-like) face in the fire after he successfully persuades his father to use the monkey’s paw to wish for two hundred pounds. The following passage captures the eerie way that the monkey seems to haunt Herbert in this moment:
[Herbert] sat alone in the darkness, gazing at the dying fire, and seeing faces in it. The last face was so horrible and so simian that he gazed at it in amazement. It got so vivid that, with a little uneasy laugh, he felt on the table for a glass containing a little water to throw over it. His hand grasped the monkey’s paw, and with a little shiver he wiped his hand on his coat and went up to bed.
This unsettling moment is an example of foreshadowing because, the following day, Herbert dies in a factory accident, leading his father to receive the 200 pounds that he initially wished for. In this way, Herbert’s “uneasy laugh” and “shiver” in the face of the monkey’s face in the flames hints at his awareness that the monkey does not come in peace and is there as something of a warning. It is notable that, because Herbert was the one to suggest his father meddle with fate by making the wish for more money, he ends up being the one who is punished.
Jacobs intentionally opens the story with Mr. White trying to manipulate Herbert into losing at chess, subtly foreshadowing Mr. White’s later attempts at changing his fate via the monkey’s paw. The following passage hints at Mr. White’s manipulative nature:
“Hark at the wind,” said Mr White, who, having seen a fatal mistake after it was too late, was amiably desirous of preventing his son from seeing it.
“I’m listening,” said the latter, grimly surveying the board as he stretched out his hand. “Check.”
Here, Mr. White “see[s] a fatal mistake after it was too late” (in the chess game) and therefore tries to distract Herbert by having him pay attention to the storm outside. The phrase “fatal mistake” foreshadows the truly fatal mistake that Mr. White will make in trying to change his fate with the monkey’s paw—after wishing for two hundred pounds, Mr. White's son Herbert dies in a factory accident, leaving Mr. and Mrs. White with two hundred pounds.
The fact that Mr. White is unsuccessful at manipulating his way into victory with the game also foreshadows how he will be unsuccessful at wishing his way into wealth. In this opening scene, Herbert remains focused on the game and ultimately defeats his father—and, later in the story, the monkey’s paw defeats Mr. White by leading to the death of his son.
After Mr. White uses the monkey’s paw to make his first wish, he, his wife, and his son all sit silently by the fire. In this moment, they start to hear a door banging, an example of both imagery and foreshadowing:
They sat down by the fire again while the two men finished their pipes. Outside, the wind was higher than ever, and the old man started nervously at the sound of a door banging upstairs. A silence unusual and depressing settled upon all three, which lasted until the old couple rose to retire for the night.
The imagery here engages readers’ different senses—they can hear the wind that “was higher than ever” as well as the loud “banging” of the door, while also having the visceral experience of “start[ing] nervously” alongside Mr. White before feeling how the “depressing” silence “settled upon” the characters. All of these descriptions help readers understand how on edge the White family is after taking the risk of using the monkey’s paw to make a wish.
This moment is an example of foreshadowing because later, after Mr. White’s second wish (for his son to return from the dead), he and Mrs. White hear loud knocking on the front door, similar to the banging they hear in this scene. In this way, the monkey’s paw seems to warn the family of the trouble to come now that they’ve started to try to change and control their fates.
