illustration of a young girl looking out a window at ghostly figures

The Open Window

by Saki

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The Open Window Questions on Symbolism

The Open Window

Saki's "The Open Window" employs several literary devices, including foreshadowing, irony, symbolism, and an unreliable narrative. Foreshadowing is present in Vera's detailed clues about the...

13 educator answers

The Open Window

The key elements in "The Open Window" include irony, deception, and the theme of appearance versus reality. The central conflict revolves around Vera's fabricated story about the tragic disappearance...

14 educator answers

The Open Window

A key metaphor in "The Open Window" is the window itself, symbolizing the power and danger of illusion and fiction. Additionally, the aunt's "whirl of apologies" metaphorically suggests a flurry of...

3 educator answers

The Open Window

"The Open Window" by Saki revolves around a young girl, Vera, who deceives a nervous visitor, Mr. Nuttel, with a fabricated tale about her aunt's supposedly missing husband and brothers. Key motifs...

3 educator answers

The Open Window

Saki's story is about a man named Framton Nuttel who has come for tea with his hostess. He expects to stay for dinner. His hostess' niece, Vera, has a clever plan to frighten him away by telling him...

1 educator answer

The Open Window

Mr. Nuttel sees what he believes to be ghosts of Mrs. Sappleton's husband and brothers returning from a hunting trip through the open window. Terrified by their supposed return from the dead, he...

2 educator answers

The Open Window

In "The Open Window," Vera fabricates a story about a "great tragedy" to unsettle Mr. Nuttel. She claims her aunt's husband and two brothers went hunting three years ago and never returned,...

1 educator answer

The Open Window

Mrs. Sappleton refers to the open window because it symbolizes her expectation of her husband and brothers returning from hunting, a detail that coincidentally supports Vera's fabricated story. Vera...

2 educator answers

The Open Window

Framton is in the country on a rest cure for his nervous ailments, which are likely psychosomatic. He changes the topic when Mrs. Sappleton discusses hunting because Vera has convinced him that Mrs....

1 educator answer

The Open Window

Framton Nuttel dashed off in terror because he believed Vera's fabricated story that the Sappletons' male relatives, who supposedly died three years ago, were returning as ghosts. Seeing the men...

1 educator answer