Would you call “The Monkey’s Paw” primarily a plot story, a character story, an atmosphere story or a combination? Give reasons for your answer.

W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" is a story whose
primary element is its plot.  Critic Stefan Dziemianowicz
writes,

A
deceptively simple tale, it reveals on close inspection Jacobs' meticulous attention to
narrative structure and careful handling of foreshadowing, symbolism, and other
narrative elements that contribute to its eerie
effect.

Three, that magical
and spiritual number that is filled with fateful meaning, controls the plot. First of
all, the plot is divided into three parts with each of these parts having the arrival of
a character as its central focus.  In Part I, the sergeant-major, who years before had
worked with Mr. White at the warehouse, visits after having traveled in foreign
countries and been stationed in India.  In Part II, the insurance respresentative comes
to the White's home, and in Part III, the mangled corpse returns in horror to the
house.  Of course, the first visitor lays the way for the visits of the other two men so
that the action of Part II, thus, depends upon that of Part I, with the action of Part
III dependent upon that of Part II.  Using this arrangement, Jacobs clearly develops the
theme of the inevitability of fate.

In another carely
structured sequence of events, fire also comes in threes, and its symbolism is carefully
structured by plot.  First, the sergeant-major throws the monkey's paw into the fire,
which can be symbolic of either destruction or purification, but Mr. White retrieves it
to wish upon the paw.  Secondly, after making his wish, Mr. White and Herbert smoke
their pipes as they gaze at the dying fire, a symbol of their disappearing happiness.
Thirdly, as Mr. White wishes for Herbert to return to life, the candle fire goes out,
and Mr. White must strike a match and descend the stairs for a candle.  But, as he
reaches the bottom of the stairs, the match goes out; when he hears a knock and
identifies the horror, Mr. White returns to his wife.  Their lives have lost direction
and soon the only light in it is the desolate lamp that flickers over the deserted road,
symbolizing the Whites' empty life without Herbert.

In a
similar fashion, the foreshadowing and imagery also further the sequence of events in
"The Monkey's Paw."  In Part I, for instance, Mr. White and Herbert play chess; however,
the father takes reckless chances, suggestive of his wishing on the monkey's paw despite
the exhortations of the sergeant-major.  In another instance of foreshadowing, "a fine
crash from the piano" greets the father's wish for two hundred pounds," connoting the
crash that later kills Herbert.  As the wind picks up, there
is

A silence
unusual and depressing [that]settle upon all three, which last until the old couple rose
to retire for the
night.

Clearly, this passage
foreshadows the emptiness in the hearts of the parents at the story's end as they return
to their lonely bedroom.

A meticulously constructed
narrative with carefully structured events with foreshadowing, imagery, and symbolism
the plot of The Monkey's Paw is unquestionably the most significant element of this
short story.