Setting

Physical setting

The physical setting of the short story “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson is New York, which we find out from the address on the box Norma receives: “Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Lewis, 217 E. Thirty-seventh Street, New York, New York 10016”. The time setting is unspecified, but given that the story was published in 1970, it can be assumed the setting is somewhere around that time. 

The main location in the short story is the couple’s apartment, and a brief scene takes place at Norma’s office. Norma and Arthur have several arguments about the box in the bedroom before they go to sleep. The setting is not described in the story, which allows the focus of the story to be on the characters and the events that take place. 

The lack of anything spe...