The Open Window

If there is a moral lesson to be taken from Saki’s humorous short story “The Open Window,” it is that gullible people—those who take things at face value and believe what they are told without...

In "The Open Window," Mrs. Sappleton begins having a conversation with Framton. She explains why the window is open. She is expecting her husband and brothers at any moment. They have been hunting...

One of the most important character traits of Framton Nuttel is his painful shyness. Among other things, this makes it difficult for him to connect with other people, which in turn prevents him...

“The Open Window” by Saki provides readers with an excellent example of what is called situational irony. This is where something happens that is completely the opposite of what one would normally...

Saki’s short story “The Open Window” concerns a nervous young man called Framton Nuttel who has been given a letter of introduction by his sister to Mrs. Sappleton, a woman he has never met. As the...

The title "The Open Window" suggests danger of some unknown kind. It should intrigue the reader sufficiently to want to read the story. Something is going to come through that open window....

The term "romance" is usually associated with love stories, but the definition of the word, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary includes these meanings: a (1) : a medieval tale...

In the short story, "The Open Window," by Saki, the author uses a third-person omniscient point of view. What this means is that the narrator is a not a part of the story but can share what the...

Mrs. Sappleton's mischievous niece Vera inquires about Framton Nuttel's background in order to play a cruel prank on him. As soon as Vera lays eyes on Framton Nuttel, she views him as a plausible...

Situational irony plays on our expectations of what should be or what will happen by having something different or opposite occur. An example of this story's situation irony comes from the...

The great tragedy to which Vera refers in the story "The Open Window" is entirely fictional. It is a made-up story that she is able to pull out instantly since "Romance at short notice was her...

Although "The Open Window" is a very brief short story, it demonstrates the five elements of plot as it tells a humorous tale about human gullibility. The exposition or background to the plot is as...

In a work of literature, the climax is the moment of the most tension in the story, the result of the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. In this story, that moment arrives when...

In Saki's short story "The Open Window," Mr. Nuttel is depicted as a neurotic, gullible man who is easily excited and falls for Vera's ingenious prank. Mr. Nuttel suffers from a severe nervous...

Mr. Framton Nuttel is a nervous type fellow. He is suffering from a nervous ailment. That is what brings him to the area he is visiting. He is trying to get some rest and relaxation. His sister...

Having noted Nuttel's discomfiture and ascertained his unfamiliarity with the people in the area, the obviously precocious and mischievous Vera tells Framton Nuttel the fabricated story of the...

In Saki's short story "The Open Window," the neurotic Framton Nuttel takes a "rural retreat" to calm his nerves and arrives at the home of the Sappletons, where he meets Mrs. Sappleton's...

Saki emphasizes that Vera is "self-possessed." "My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in the meantime you must try and put up with me."...

A chief characteristic of Vera—and the one that drives the story—is malice, which is the trait of doing evil for pleasure. Vera tells elaborate lies for the sense of enjoyment it gives her. This...

Framton Nuttel is a flat character; his function in the story is to react to, and be fooled by, Vera’s elaborate inventions. The keynotes of his personality are nervousness and gullibility. He is...

The author describes Vera as being self-possessed. This would be about the same as being poised, relaxed, self-assured, self-confident, and sophisticated. The author emphasizes these qualities to...

After Framton Nuttel arrives at the Sappleton home, Vera asks him several questions to gauge whether or not he is familiar with her aunt, her family, or the community. Vera is described as a...

In plotting his ghost story, Saki showed his remarkable talent for details. The three men who appear at the end of the tale did not simply go out for a stroll. They were all hunters, which meant...

This story is told from a third-person limited omniscient point of view. This means that the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of one character and can report them to us. Often this...

Saki's purpose for writing "The Open Window" was to entertain readers. This is a humorous story that doesn't end as expected. When Vera engages with Framton Nuttel, she masterfully generates an...

Vera knows full well that her uncle and his brothers-in-law have gone off on a hunting expedition and that they'll be back at any moment. This gives her the opportunity to play a wicked prank on...

The protagonist of the short story "The Open Window" is Framton Nuttel. Framton is a man who visits the Sappleton family in the country in order to get some rest, as he suffers from a nervous...

Under the broader theme of appearance versus reality, the story treats the theme of human gullibility. What is remarkable about the story is the ease with which both Mr. Nuttel (the nut) and the...

The reason why Mrs. Sappleton keeps her window open is because her husband and her brothers go hunting quite a lot (shooting). That particular day, the shooting party had been out in the marshes...

In the story, the open window is symbolic, it is at the heart of the tall tale that Vera tells Framton Nuttel. She leads him to believe that the open window is a memorial, left open to honor her...

Mrs. Sappleton's fifteen-year-old niece Vera is depicted as a clever, intelligent girl with an affinity for "Romance at short notice" in Saki's short story "The Open Window." After a brief...

I think the most clever part of the story is where Mrs.Sappleton finally comes down and begins talking about how she left the window open because he is expecting her husband and brothers to be...

Framton Nuttel reacts so intensely to the appearance of the three figures approaching the open window because he has been thoroughly convinced by Vera that the three male relatives are all dead....

Vera doesn't have to deceive Framton Nuttel, but she does so anyway. She's a fifteen year old girl, and she still has a certain youthful exuberance and sense of fun about her. As we discover in the...

Vera's behavior in Saki's "The Open Window" suggests that she frequently makes up stories since she does so twice within the tale. When she lies to Framton Nuttel, Vera may be trying to...

As Framton is talking to Mrs. Sappleton about his health, she remarks that the men of the household have returned from their shooting expedition just in time for tea. Vera has told Framton that the...

Mrs. Sappleton's fifteen-year-old niece, Vera, causes Framton Nuttel additional mental distress by telling him an eerie tale about the tragic deaths of her uncles, who she knows will soon return...

It can be argued that the only humor in "The Open Window" is ironic humor. If one were to analyze Framton Nuttel's escaping flight at the end as humorous, it would be at the expense of (1) ignoring...

In "The Open Window" by Saki, Vera first provides detailed clues of the men who have gone hunting when she says the following: "Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband...

Twice, before she tells Framton the story about Mr. Sappleton and his two brothers-in-law, the narrator describes Vera as "self-possessed." This means that she is confident and able to control her...

In kind terms, we learn that "Romance was her specialty". In unkind terms, we learn that Vera is a habitual liar. Mr. Framton Nuttel is introduced as a nervous man seeking a calm place to restore...

The key to this answer is Saki's ironic last sentence: Romance at short notice was her specialty. Vera, whose name comes from the Latin word for truth, takes the truth and romanticizes it...

Vera has set Framton Nuttel up to believe that Mrs. Sappleton's husband and her two brothers were killed exactly three years ago when they were sucked into a bog while hunting on the moor. The...

Vera asks Framton Nuttel whether he knows many people in their locality. She asks him this to break the silence that ensues after she welcomes him into her aunt’s house. Moreover, it would appear...

Saki develops the characters of Framton Nuttel and Vera through the use of direct characterization. Direct characterization is when the narrator explicitly describes a character rather than...

In the story, Framton Nuttel is described as undergoing a "nerve cure." This is significant because it highlights Framton's hypochondriac tendencies and foreshadows his later, agitated response to...