The Open Window

This statement that Vera is capable of "romance at short notice" is Saki at his satirical best. According to the American College Dictionary, romance is A tale depicting heroic or marvelous...

Vera is the fifteen-year-old niece of Mrs. Sappleton. In contrast to the high-strung and anxious Framton Nuttel, Vera is described within the narrative itself as "self-possessed," and as the story...

The orginal ending for "The Open Window" revolves around the surprise of the unexpected return of Mrs. Sappleton's husband and two younger brothers. If you were to rewrite the ending, you could...

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...

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...

Framton Nuttel is not visiting Mrs. Sappleton exclusively. That might be considered inappropriate. He is calling upon Mr. and Mrs. Sappleton, but the men are all out hunting. Only Mrs. Sappleton...

In "The Open Window," Framton Nuttel flees in terror from what he probably believes are ghosts, but Vera credits his flight to a fear of dogs. Vera, a fifteen-year-old girl whose name hints at...

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 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...

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...

Framton Nuttel is persuaded to come to the country because his sister and his doctors believe that country life is restful. This is just an assumption based on the fact that the country looks much...

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...

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...

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...

One of the endings of "The Open Window" would come with the following description: Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall-door, the gravel-drive, and the front gate were dimly-noted...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The title seems to emphasize the importance of the open window in the story. It also sets a somewhat ominous tone. It suggests that something or other is going to cause trouble from the outside....

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...

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...

The "tragedy" of Saki's "The Open Window" is part of the tall-tale woven within the frame story by the imaginative Vera in order to amuse herself by manipulating the feelings of the nervous Framton...

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...

Saki's short story, entitled "The Open Window," presents several conflicts. The first one is probably man (or the individual) vs society. Mr. Nuttel has come from the city to rest because of 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...

Framton Nuttel is not scared of dogs--at least not of little brown spaniels. Vera makes up a story involving dogs in order to explain why their guest suddenly panicked and went running out of the...

The setting is the living room of a big country manor house. The reader may never have seen such a house, but they are frequently shown in movies, notably in adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories...

If there is a message in Saki’s “The Open Window,” it could perhaps be a message that storytelling is an art. Using a story within a story, Saki uses fifteen-year-old Vera as the master storyteller...

The climax of "The Open Window" occurs when Vera stares out the open window with "dazed horror" in her eyes. Framton Nuttel then feels a "shock of nameless fear" and quickly turns in his seat to...

A frame story, the ironic "The Open Window" is dependent upon its main character, Vera, for its development. The other characters are merely present as the audience for Vera's ingenious fable. In...

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...

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...

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...

Saki probably started with a germ of an idea for one of his ironic, half-funny, half-scary stories. A visitor to an English country manor is told a fabricated tale that three men died while out...

Framton Nuttel is an eccentric hypochondriac who visits the country under his doctor's advice to cure his nervous disorder. Upon visiting Mrs. Sappleton's home, he is greeted by Vera, Mrs....

Evidently Framton Nuttel is sitting facing Vera and her aunt and has his back turned to the open French window when the three hunters arrive outside. "Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in...

This is actually a thought-provoking question. The story Vera tells Framton Nuttel is partially true. Three men went out that window to shoot birds. They took a brown spaniel with them. Mrs....

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...

Saki doesn't tell us precisely why Vera tells lies in this spare, very short short story, but he does leave clues. Mr. Nuttel, who has come to stay with Vera's family for some rest, isn't a friend,...

Vera, Miss Sappleton's niece, has set Framton Nuttel up to believe that the three hunters returning towards the open window must be ghosts because she has made him believe that these men were...

The prank Vera plays on Mr. Nuttel is, if anything, creative and calculated. Vera appears to be a precocious, young teenager bored with staying at her aunt’s house. She is a smart girl who has...

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...

Frampton Nuttel suffers from a nervous condition and has come to spend some time alone. His sister sets up introductions for him with a few members of the community. His first visit is to the...

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...

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...

Framton Nuttel is here at the Sappletons' country home only because he is suffering from what he calls a "nervous disorder." He is looking for the peace and quiet he expects the English countryside...

I think there are two meanings to this title of this excellent short story, the first being literal and the second being symbolic. Firstly, the open window is what Vera uses as the basis of her...

Despite their many differences, Vera and Framton Nuttel share several similar character traits. Both Vera and Framton have active imaginations. Vera displays her active imagination by...

Framton looks at Vera in this way because Vera has told him, before her aunt enters, that Mrs. Sappleton's husband and brothers actually died in a hunting accident and that she has never been able...