When learning about the supposed abilities of the monkey’s paw, Mrs. White compares the item's magic to something one would read about in Arabian Nights, alluding to a collection of Middle Eastern folktales:
“Hold it up in your right hand and wish aloud,” said the sergeant-major, “but I warn you of the consequences.”
“Sounds like the Arabian Nights” said Mrs White, as she rose and began to set the supper. “Don’t you think you might wish for four pairs of hands for me?”
Arabian Nights—officially titled One Thousand and One Nights—is a story collection made up of folktales compiled over the course of many centuries from the Middle East (as well as South Asia and North Africa). While it’s likely that the text existed in some form as early as the 10th century, it was not translated into English until 1706. Since then, it has been translated numerous times and has inspired countless renditions of the stories contained within, such as the 1992 Disney animated film Aladdin.
When Mrs. White says that the process of holding the monkey’s paw in one’s right hand and wishing aloud upon it reminds her of Arabian Nights, she is referencing the many stories in the collection that feature magical or supernatural elements, such as Aladdin being granted three wishes by a genie living in a lamp. When Mrs. White mentions "wish[ing] for four pairs of hands," she is making a point about the types of magic and wishes in these stories.
The way in which Mrs. White sarcastically asks this question to Sergeant-Major Morris makes it an example of verbal irony—she doesn’t actually want four pairs of hands. Rather, she is mocking the idea that such an object could grant wishes in the first place. Unlike the characters in these make-believe stories, she implies, she does not believe that inanimate objects can change one’s fate.
In an example of situational irony, Herbert encourages his father to use the monkey’s paw to wish for two hundred pounds and then dies in a tragic factory accident the next day, resulting in the company giving his parents a two-hundred-pound payout. While Herbert expects that the wish will lead his parents to happiness (as they could pay off their mortgage), it actually leads them to deep despair (as their beloved son is now dead).
The irony of this turn of events comes across in the following passage, in which Mr. White asks the representative of Herbert's company how much they would receive in compensation for their son’s death:
Mr White dropped his wife’s hand, and rising to his feet, gazed with a look of horror at his visitor. His dry lips shaped the words, “How much ?”
“Two hundred pounds,” was the answer.
Unconscious of his wife’s shriek, the old man smiled faintly, put out his hands like a sightless man, and dropped, a senseless heap, to the floor.
Here, Mr. and Mrs. White are both shocked at the ironic twist that their son may have died as a result of the wish he encouraged them to make—Mrs. White “shriek[s]” and Mr. White falls “like a senseless heap” to the floor. The irony here is more tragic than humorous, as Herbert’s parents must face the consequences for trying to meddle with their fates.
