The Open Window Group

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asyiqin
asyiqin
Student

What is the setting of The Open Window?

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Posted by asyiqin on Thursday October 29, 2009 at 9:21 PM and tagged with setting, the open window.

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  1. kc4u Teacher
    College - Senior

    eNotes Editor

    The setting of Saki's short story is an English country house, where a skittish man called Framton Nuttel comes as par his doctor's advise to go for a change. The setting in terms of Nuttel's motivation is supposed to be a refreshing and pure relief for him. The urban-rural binary is thus set up by him and subtly undermined by the plot which sees him victimized in a rather macabre fashion by the clever storytelling of Mrs. Sappleton's niece Vera who tells him a concocted story of Mr. Sappleton and his childrens' death. When they arrive in the final moment of the story, Nuttel is shocked out of his wits and runs away in horror.

    Saki undercuts the English Country House Mystery pattern by keeping the Gothic element only at the level of the concoction; a fake narrative of sorts. The open window is a mock-Gothic space from which the horror is supposed to stem.

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    Posted by kc4u on Friday October 30, 2009 at 3:48 AM