“The Monkey’s Paw” is a short story in the supernatural horror genre. Horror fiction writers seek to frighten their readers, and Jacobs is no exception. The haunting, “horrifying” elements in “The Monkey’s Paw” include the fact that Herbert sees a terrifying apparition of a monkey in the fire the day before he dies, perhaps as a result of his father wishing upon the monkey’s paw.
Additionally, after using their second wish to request Herbert come back from the dead, Mr. and Mrs. White hear loud knocking on their front door in the middle of the night, believing it to be their son’s reanimated and decaying corpse. Though Jacobs never confirms whether or not this is true, he forces readers to visualize what Herbert would have looked like after 10 days of being dead—as Mr. White says, he would only be able to recognize his son "by his clothing."
It is worth noting that “The Monkey’s Paw” borrows some of its supernatural elements from the stories in Arabian Nights, a famous collection of folktales from the Middle East compiled over many centuries. Though Jacobs is not directly referencing a specific story in the collection, he does employ certain tropes, such as inanimate objects that grant a specific number of wishes.
