
"The Open Window" is Saki's most popular
short story. It was first collected in Beasts
and SuperBeasts in 1914. Saki's wit is at
the height of its power in this story of a
spontaneous practical joke played upon
a visiting stranger. The practical joke
recurs In many of Saki's stories, but "The
Open Window" is perhaps his most
successful and best known example of
the type.

“The Open Window” by Saki presents a
man in need of a cure for his nerves. Mr.
Nuttel comes to the wrong house. He is
there to meet a friend, Mrs. Sappleton, of
his sister. While he is waiting on Mrs.
Sappleton, he is intercepted by a
creative niece who scares the man
nearly to death. If his nerves were bad
before, they will not have improved after
this visit.

Saki dramatizes here the conflict
between reality and imagination,
demonstrating how difficult it can be to
distinguish between them. Not only does
the unfortunate Mr. Nuttel fall victim to
the story's joke, but so does the reader.
The reader is at first inclined to laugh at
Nuttel for being so gullible. However, the
reader, too, has been taken in by Saki's
story and must come to the realization
that he or she is also inclined to believe a
well-told and interesting tale.

“The Open Window” is the story of a
deception, perpetrated on an
unsuspecting, and constitutionally
nervous man, by a young lady whose
motivations for lying remain unclear.

The most remarkable of Saki’s devices in
“The Open Window” is his construction of
the story’s narrative. The structure of the
story is actually that of a story-within-astory. The larger “frame” narrative is that
of Mr. Nuttel’s arrival at Mrs. Sappleton’s
house for the purpose of introducing
himself to her. Within this narrative frame
is the second story, that told by Mrs.
Sappleton’s niece.



Literary devices are the devices defined by
literary terms.
The first literary device that can be found is
symbolism. In this case, the open window itself.
The second element is the inciting incident or
narrative hook, which is the event that
introduces the central conflict. The inciting
incident occurs when Vera mentions her aunt’s
“great tragedy” and the open window. It all
began when Mr. Nuttel met Vera, and she
began to tell him the story of her aunt’s
tragedy of her husband, two brothers, and
dog.

The next literary device is irony.

IRONY a contrast between what is
expected or believed and what is actual

VERBAL IRONY a word or phrase is used to
suggest the opposite of its usual meaning

DRAMATIC IRONY a contradiction or
contrast between what a character thinks
or says and what the audience or reader
knows to be true

SITUATIONAL IRONY an event directly
contradicts the expectations of readers or
characters
Mr Nuttel first came to the country to
find “peace” or to find a cure for his
depression. However, instead of finding
cure, his condition got worse when he
was deceived by Vera´s story.
 Mr. Nuttel looks through the window and
comes to find that there are three men
walking towards the window, looking
exactly how the niece described them
one of the whom yells out to Mrs.
Sappleton exactly what the niece had
said.


The reader learns that Vera’s story is a lie,
and Mr. Nuttel ran out believing it.

The most important symbol in “The Open
Window” is the open window itself. When
Mrs. Sappleton’s niece tells Mr. Nuttel the
story of the lost hunters, the open window
comes to symbolize Mrs. Sappleton’s
anguish and heartbreak at the loss of her
husband and younger brother. When the
truth is later revealed, the open window no
longer symbolizes anguish but the very
deceit itself. Saki uses the symbol ironically
by having the open window, an object one
might expect would imply honesty, as a
symbol of deceit. What type of irony is this?

“The Open Window” is a third-person narrative,
meaning that its action is presented by a narrator
who is not himself involved in the story. This allows a
narrator to portray events from a variety of points of
view, conveying what all of the characters are doing
and what they are feeling or thinking. For most of the
story, until he runs from the house, the reader shares
Mr. Nuttel’s point of view. Like Mr. Nuttel, the reader is
at the mercy of Vera’s story. The reader remains,
however, after Mr. Nuttel has fled and thus learns that
Vera’s story was nothing but a tall tale. The narrator
then presents Mrs. Sappleton´s point of view to the
visit.

Vera’s story is essentially a tall tale. Tall tales
are often found in folklore and legend and
describe people or events in an
exaggerated manner. A tall tale is a story
with unbelievable elements, related as if it
were true and factual. Some such stories
are exaggerations of actual events, for
example fish stories ('the fish that got away')
such as, "That fish was so big, why I tell ya', it
nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!"
Other tall tales are completely fictional
tales set in a familiar setting, such as the
European countryside, the American
frontier, the Canadian Northwest, or the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Tall tales are often told so as to make the
narrator seem to have been a part of
the story. They are usually humorous or
good-natured. This tall tale is dark humor.
The line between legends and tall tales is
distinguished primarily by age; many
legends exaggerate the exploits of their
heroes, but in tall tales the exaggeration
looms large, to the extent of becoming
the whole of the story.

Vera exaggerates the significance of the
open window by making it the
centerpiece of a fabricated tale of
tragic loss.

Though it is a remarkably short piece of
fiction, “The Open Window” explores
important themes. Mr. Nuttel comes to the
country in an attempt to cure his nervous
condition. He pays a visit to the home of
Mrs. Sappleton in order to introduce himself,
and before he gets to meet the matron of
the house, he is intercepted by her niece,
who regales him with an artful piece of
fiction that, in the end, only makes his
nervous condition worse.

It is no surprise that Mrs. Sappleton’s niece
tells a story that is easy to believe. She
begins with an object in plain view, an
open window, and proceeds from there.
The fifteen year old niece likes to create
stories. In this situation, she uses one real
object, the open window, to draw in her
victim. To Mr. Nuttel, it is open because it is
a hot day. The window is obviously open,
but for the reasons for its being open the
reader is completely at the mercy of Mrs.
Sappleton’s niece, at least while she tells
her story.

The open window becomes a symbol
within this story-within-a-story, and its
appearance ( that the window is open
waiting for the “dead” men and the
dog) becomes its reality. When Mr.
Nuttel (and the reader) are presented
with a contrary reality at the end of the
story, the result is a tension between
appearance and reality that needs to
be resolved: Which is real?

When the niece tells the fantastic story
of the disappearance of three men and
a dog, she makes the story sound so
possible that the window becomes
symbolic. It represents the possibility that
the men just might walk in after being
lost for three years. This is the
appearance of truth. What one believes
to be the truth at that moment.

She is so authentic in her description that his
frame of reality about the family is created
through her story. The point of this theme is
that what an individual perceives becomes
his reality. Mrs. Sappleton comes in and
begins to talk about reality. She has no idea
that her niece had told Mr. Nuttel a story
about the window. Her husband is gone
hunting with her brothers and will be back
soon. She discusses hunting and other
associated things. Again, the open window
is mentioned. This is the reality of the story. It
is simply an open window.

In Mr. Nuttel’s mind, he believes the niece’s
story; he thinks Mrs. Sappleton is awful and
probably crazy because she expects her lost
husband to come walking in on this particular
day.

When she sees her husband actually returning
from hunting with her brothers, Mr. Nuttel at first
does not believe it. Then, he looks out and
sees three men coming. This was close enough
for him. He heads out the door never to return
to the Sappleton's home.

Frampton Nuttel expected to see three ghosts
come through the window, so when he saw
the men coming towards the house, he could
not get out of there fast enough.
A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel,’
said Mrs. Sappleton, could only talk
about his illnesses and dashed off
without a word of goodbye or apology
when you arrived. One would think he
had seen a ghost.”
 This, of course, is dramatic irony since
that is what Mr. Nuttel thought he had
seen. Why is it dramatic irony?
 With the men coming in the window,
appearance is lost to the reality of the
real story. The niece likes to tell romance
stories which is also a reality.


Were it not for deception, this story could
not happen. The action and irony of the
story revolve around the apparent
deception that Mrs. Sappleton’s niece
practices. It remains to be seen, however,
whether this deception is a harmless prank
or the result of a sinister disposition. If the
niece’s deception is cruel, then the reader
must question the motives behind the
deception practiced by all tellers of stories.
If the reader were unaware of Saki’s stories
or had never heard of this story, he might
accept the niece’s story. Mr. Nuttel is
nervous and damaged; there is no doubt
that he believes the story. If the reader
believes the story, then it stands to reason
that a person can be easily fooled by a
good story teller.
 If a person were paying attention, he might
have been able to watch the girl’s face or
look at her eyes and tell if she is making the
story up or that it is a true story. Hesitation,
facial expressions, and word choice are
tools which might be used to tell if someone
were lying.

Deception is easy for some people,
certainly those without an active
conscience. If the girl knew that Mr. Nuttel
had a nervous condition, it would have
been wrong for her to tell him this kind of
story to scare him.
 If she did not know, then it was a harmless
prank that went wrong because of his
nervous problem. Either way, the girl
continues on with her story telling by
making up a gruesome reason for Mr. Nuttel
leaving.
 Vera obviously deceives Frampton Nuttel
when she tells her tall tale about her aunt
who waits for the return of the hunting party
lost in the marsh. Was her deception cruel?
