In this story, teenage Vera convinces her aunt's tiresome houseguest, Mr. Nuttel, that he is seeing ghosts. This leads him to flee her aunt's home, ridding the family of a nuisance.
Imagery is descriptive language using the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. What Vera does is use such sensory detail to describe the supposed death a few years past of her uncle and her aunt's two brothers in a "treacherous piece of bog" while out hunting. She tells Nuttel that the bodies were never recovered. She then describes how her aunt expects that her husband, brothers, and dog will return one day through the open window (we would call this a French door). The aunt hopes to see them:
and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them . . . walk in at that window just as they used to do. That is why...
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the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing "Bertie, why do you bound?"
The uncle, dog, and brothers come through the window just as Vera has described:
In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: "I said, Bertie, why do you bound?"
Because Vera has used imagery so well to give Nuttel a strong impression of what the "ghosts" look and sound like, he is convinced they really are ghosts and flees the house in terror. Of course, they are living people coming in from the hunt.
Much of the imagery and Saki's use of descriptive words add to the surprise one may find at the end of "The Open Window."
First, Saki's use of imagery shows the setting to be a place of peace. The house is one which suggested "masculine habitation." given that Framton Nuttel is male, it would seem that he should feel very at home in a place which speaks to the masculine nature.
Vera's description of the tragedy which struck her family can leave readers feeling rather subdued and sympathetic. As Mrs. Sappleton banters on about her husband and brothers returning, readers can feel even more sympathetic towards the story given one can infer that she (Mrs. Sappleton) may be a little "confused."
Essentially, the engaged reader may pick up on the hints that men do actually live there, but the fact that Framton is at the Sappleton's to rest leaves one not expecting the group to walk into the house.
Therefore, words and imagery which details the surprise ending for "The Open Window" can be constructed as follows.
The secluded and sobering setting of the Sappleton home offer no suggestion to the horror which Framton Nuttel is to experience. Instead, the fact that Framton is there to rest suggests a rather slow and passive story. Instead, curious readers, hoping for a horrific twist, do receive the ironic twist they desire. The open window does not offer the relaxing view one would hope for; instead, the window shows there to be more to Vera's story than a cautionary tale. One may have assumed that Framton actually sees headless, bloodied, mud-caked ghosts walking up to the house (given the way Framton ran in horror).
How does Saki use imagery in "The Open Window"?
Most of the imagery Saki provides in "The Open Window" is in straight prose description. There are three especially striking images in the story. The description of the first two is understood to be from Framton Nuttel's point of view. These first two follow from Mrs. Sappleton's announcement that she sees the three hunters returning towards the open window. Nuttel turns to look at Vera to show he understands that her poor aunt is having an hallucination. But he is shocked to see Vera putting on an act for his benefit:
The child was staring out through the open window with a dazed horror in her eyes.
He immediately turns to look in the same direction, and:
In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels.
This is the image that Vera has set Nuttel up to react to with terror. We can imagine how spooky it would look to see the three men in "the deepening twilight" and all carrying guns. These two images--Vera's "dazed horror" and the three hunters--lead to Framton's flight, which is understood to be seen from the omniscient narrator's point of view.
Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall door, the gravel drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision.
In "The Open Window," how does Saki catch readers by surprise?
In “The Open Window,” Saki introduces us to a very creative fifteen-year old, Vera. A man, who has never met any of the family, Mr. Framton Nuttel, has come to visit with a letter of introduction from his sister. He knows nothing of the family he is visiting. Mr. Nuttel is in the same situation as the reader. The reader also knows nothing of the family. The background the reader gets comes from the young niece. So, when she tells Mr. Nuttel of the tragedy that happened in the family, the reader believes her as much as Mr. Nuttel does. The only advantage the reader has is that Mr. Nuttel is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, the reader is not.
Vera weaves a tale of how her uncle and two of her aunt’s brothers went off on a day of sniping, never to return. Her aunt keeps a window open for them in hopes they will return someday because that was how they would reenter the house after a day of hunting. The impression is given that the men died, and the reader and Mr. Nuttel sympathize with Mrs. Sappleton. When the men do return, the reader is as surprised as Mr. Nuttel. Saki makes it a bit more ghostly by having the men return in the dim light of evening.
“In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk, ‘ I said Bertie, why do you bound?’ “ (pg 2-3)
The reader is as surprised as Mr. Nuttel until it is revealed that the whole story Vera told was a figment of her creative imagination.
My copy of the story was taken from the internet so the pages may not coincide with your copy. However, they should be close.