Chloe Ghaleb
Ms. Wakim
Literary Essay: How have two authors you’ve studied used symbolism to develop
meaning?
November 20, 2018
The Effect of the Use of Symbolism in “The Open Window” and “The Californian’s Tale”
The genius of the art of writing and storytelling lies not in its ability to blatantly
tell its audience the purpose of its being, but rather, to subtly reveal it through tools of
literature. Symbolism represents the layers of complexity a writer may load their work
with: hidden hints scattered in a story which a reader may never even pick up on, but
once discovered, help make the purpose of a literary story more clear, concise, and
intelligent. By giving objects, names, or ideas more than just surface meanings, authors
enable them with the ability to both lead to and reveal the meaning and theme of their
story. In both Saki’s “The Open Window” and Mark Twain’s “The Californian’s Tale”,
symbols, aided by the use of setting, irony, flashback, and characterization, help reveal
their stories respective themes of deceit and grief.
In Saki’s satire “The Open Window”, the Sappleton household, Vera’s name, and
the open window itself- through setting, characterization, and irony- reveal the theme
of deceit. To explain, the Sappleton household, due to the setting of the story, is an
essential tool in the manipulation of the protagonist Mr. Nuttel. The short story takes
place in the early 20th century, set in the countryside of England. The house is in fact a
manor, indicative of a well-to-do family- which meant, in this time period and location,
that its inhabitants would be more than likely abide by the expected social
conventions. This assumption is further cemented when we see that the women of the
house, Vera and Mrs. Sappleton, stay at home and are responsible for welcoming
guests, just as they should under their society’s unwritten rules. Therefore, when Mr.
Nuttel encounters both the Sappleton household and Vera, a “… self-possessed young
lady of fifteen” (Saki 14), it is easier for him to feel secure. The house fits comfortably
into what he has been led to believe is “safe” - a wealthy family which abides by social
conventions, especially when its members are young women, proclaimed innocent and
harmless by his society. The setting of the story helps the reader to see why the
Sappelton household was able to beguile Mr. Nuttel, as his surroundings gave him no
reason to worry, meaning the home proved that deceit may come where one least
expects it. Furthermore, the antagonist of Vera is manipulative in every aspect, even in
her title. Vera, or “veracity”, is defined as “the quality of being true, honest, or
accurate” (VERACITY). As Vera is a young, seemingly innocent female, her name could
be expected to be parallel to her character. However, Vera, as the audience eventually
discovers, actually excels in and enjoys the spontaneous manipulation and obstruction
of truth, all simply to quell her boredom. As the author euphemistically writes,
“Romance at short notice was her [Vera’s] speciality” (Saki 16). Therefore, Vera is
indirectly characterized as a conniving liar, a direct contradiction to her name. This
characterization of Vera, therefore, transforms her name into a symbol of fraud and
trickery, something which, just as the person it represents, is not what it seems on the
surface level. Moreover, the open window, also the very title of the story, ironically
stands in direct contrast to what it would usually portray. Something that is “open”
would be expected to portray truth, considering “open” and “honesty” tend to be direct
parallels- open usually means no covers or disguises, and nothing to hide behind.
However, that open French window ended up being the base on which Vera fabricated
her lie. Vera blatantly makes up a story to an unknowing Mr. Nuttel, saying “‘Out
through that window, three years ago to a day, her [Mrs. Sappelton] husband and her
two younger brothers went off for their day’s shooting. They never came back’” (Saki
15). This is all nonsense, but Mr. Nuttel knows no better, and so he sees the window as
something tragic- the source of Mrs. Sappelton’s grief, which eventually explains his
paranoia at the sight of what seems to be the hunters supernaturally come back to life.
The window, in fact, is nothing but an object, but as Vera used it as the basis for
manipulation, it becomes a symbol. In a case of situational irony, the open window,
rather than representing honesty and truthfulness, becomes a symbol of the craft of
fraudulence. To end, Saki uses setting, characterization, and irony to turn the
Sappelton household, Vera’s name, and the open window into symbols, allowing all of
them to show the reader the sly and unexpected ways lies may present themselves,
therefore revealing the theme of deceit in “The Open Window”.
Meanwhile, Twain’s short story “The Californian’s Tale” uses setting, flashback,
and irony to enable the symbols of the cottage, the letter, and the welcoming party, all
in order to unveil the theme of grief. To elaborate, the setting of the story helps the
reader understand why the protagonist Henry’s cottage is so unexpected and amazing.
The story takes place in a ghost town along the Stanislaus river the 1850s, left behind
as a result of the failure of the Californian Gold Rush. The author describes the town as
a “lonesome land” (Twain 23), filled with “deserted homes… [and] solitary log
cabins” (Twain 22). However, Henry’s cottage “..had the look of being lived in and
petted and cared for and looked after” (Twain 23). Henry’s home is cozy- it is well lived
in, and seemingly has “…the touches that a woman’s hand distributes around the
home” (Twain 24), all in juxtaposition to its neighbors. The Gold Rush brought very few
women to California, and its end led to those few women mostly vanishing afterwards,
resulting in potent loneliness for California’s men, and a sense of incivility. Therefore,
the house somehow having the presence of a female is something unexpected, and
places Henry in a better off position than his poor, lonely neighbors. However, the
narrator and reader learn eventually that there actually is no woman living in the houseat least not since Henry’s wife died nearly twenty years ago. Henry is in fact the one
keeping up the house, cleaning and looking after it, taking up what, during his time,
was the lady’s task, since he is desperate to leave the cottage just as his wife kept it.
The setting aids the audience in understanding why having a wife, especially in that
specific region, was so beneficial and important to Henry, and therefore his house
represents the lengths he would go to, in his overwhelming depression, in order to try
to recreate that essential sense of a woman which was lost to him. Furthermore, the
letter Henry’s wife wrote to her husband shortly before her death, through flashback,
reveals the depths of Henry’s pain. He eagerly offers to read to his friends the letter his
wife wrote him, a “loving, sedate, and altogether charming and gracious piece of
handiwork” (Twain 25). He claims this letter explains that his wife should be coming
home soon from a visit to her parents. The naive narrator, and in this case, reader, have
no reason not to believe the protagonist. However, a flashback ends up revealing that
Henry’s wife was kidnapped by Native Americans shortly after writing the letter, and
that “…she’s never been heard of since” (Twain 28). This means Henry keeps the
affectionate letter his late, loving wife wrote him as a sign to prove she is still alive and
coming home soon, as he cannot bear in his sorrow to admit otherwise, making the
letter a symbol of denial due to grief. To add, the welcoming party Henry and his
friends throw for Henry’s wife, through irony, stands to prove Henry’s crippling
depression. Every year, Henry, at the encouragement of his friends, sets up a gathering
to celebrate what should be the imminent arrival of his wife. His friends, in a case of
situational irony, know all along that Henry’s wife will never truly return, but they help
set up the party anyway, cheering on their friend all the way. To take it a step further, in
a move unseen by both the narrator and the reader, they then drug Henry in order to
help him forget that his wife does not ever arrive. They have repeated this ritual for
almost two decades, all because they know it is necessary for the health of their friend.
As Henry’s friend Joe explains, “…we all come and fix up the house with flowers, and
get everything ready for a dance. We’ve done it every year for nineteen years” (Twain
28). Henry, drowning in misery and desolation following the disappearance of his wife,
simply cannot get over his denial concerning her death- not five years, not ten years,
not even twenty years later. Therefore, his friends feel compelled to allow Henry to
continue dreaming that one day she’ll return, and play along with it by even helping set
up a throw-down for her return annually. The ironic welcoming party shows the sheer
power of grief, and how it affects those around it. In brief, “The Californian’s Tale” has
Twain incorporate setting, flashback, and irony in order to create symbols out of
Henry’s cottage, the letter, and the welcoming party; all these display just how much
the death of Henry’s wife changed, affected, and broke him apart, therefore guiding the
reader to the theme of grief.
In conclusion, both Saki and Twain masterfully use literary features- including
setting, characterization, flashback, and irony- to create symbols out of what would
have otherwise been seemingly unimportant things. In doing this, they were able to
give depth to their stories, and more so, give them actual meaning- their symbols led to
their theme, their lesson, their reason- that of, respectively, deceit and grief. In my
opinion, the use of symbolism by Saki and Twain, especially that of the window and of
the cottage, led to the creation of more complex, interesting, and otherwise more
enjoyable texts to read.
Works Cited
Chin, Beverly Ann. Glencoe Literature: The Reader’s Choice, Course 5. New York, NY:
Glencoe
McGraw-Hill, 2002. Print.
“VERACITY.” Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2018,
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/veracity.