By SAKI.
STUDYING THE SHORT STORY.
I- INTRODUCTION.
1. Introduce the document.
a) Nature and origin. You can say a few words about the author who is well-known.
b) Refer to the definition of a short-story and decide:
who is the main character
what is the prevailing mood.
what is the essential effect
2. Sum up the short-story bringing into relief the characters , the facts and the end of the story.
3. Modern short stories often include several clues, a twist and a surprise ending. Show that this
is a case here.
4. Justify the title. Explain that the part played by the open window is essential.
II- COMMENTING UPON THE MAIN IDEAS.
A- The author- the reader - the characters.
1. Did you find out whether Mrs Sappleton's husband and brother were present ( real) or just one of
Vera's inventions?
2. When do we know exactly whether the story is true or false?
3. What's the common point between Mr Framton Nuttel and the reader?
4. What was the author's purpose?( Show that the story can be regarded as a series of jokes. Identify
the jokes, then for each of them, say who is telling it, who is being fooled)
B- The characters.
1. Draw Vera's, Mr Nuttel's and Mrs Sappleton's portraits.
Describe their physical apperances
Describe and analyse their characters.
Don't forget to justify quoting from the text
C-The trap.
Explain how Vera laid out a devilish trap for Mr Nuttel and why she liked doing so.
D- Irony.
Give examples of irony in the short story and explain.
III- CONCLUDING.
1. Rephrase the main ideas.
2. Say why you liked or disliked this short story by Saki.
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 1
By SAKI.
OBJECTIVES.
Reading and analysing a complete short-story.
Analysing the structure of the short-story.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
Saki is the pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro ( 1870-1916). Saki was born in Burma and brought up
in North Devon by two aunts. Quite a number of his short-stories are set in India, as in the Open
Window. In the days of Saki, India and Burma were part of the British Empire. India became
independent in 1947 and Burma in 1948.
LITERARY APPRECIATION.
A twist: an unexpected change or development, very often at the end of a short story.
A surprise ending: an ending that comes as a shock to the reader
A clue: an indication, that properly interpreted, may lead to a full understanding of something or the
discovery of something hidden.
Irony: from the Greek 'dissimulation'. A technique by which the writer intends his meaning to be
understood differently from what he overtly says.
Short-story: a relatively brief invented prose narrative that typically deals with a limited group of
characters involved in a single action, usually aims at unity of effect, and often concentrates on the
creation of mood rather than the telling of a story.
COMMENTING UPON THE SHORT STORY.
I INTRODUCTION
1.
b)
The main character is Mr Framton Nuttel
The prevailing mood is one of horror. We are introduced to a mad aunt who is living in a dream
world apparently because she never managed to recover from the shock of having lost her husband
and her two young brothers. To make things worse we are given a lot of gruesome details about the
way the three men disappeared, and we are told that the poor old woman is so mad that she leaves the
window open in case they come back!
The effect: is similar to that of a gothic novel or a horror story
( Gothic novel: tales of the macabre, fantastic and supernatural, usually set amid haunted castles,
graveyards, ruins and wild picturesque landscapes. They reached the height of their fashion in the
1790s and the early years of the 19th cent. Ex: The castle of Otranto by Walpole)
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 2
2.
NAMES
Present
Mr Framton Nuttel
Mrs Sappleton
Vera
Mrs Sappleton's husband
Mrs Sappleton's two young brothers
( one of them = Ronnie)
the spaniel
Not present
Mr Nuttel's sister
RELATIONSHIPS
(major character)
Vera's aunt ( major character)
Mrs Sappleton's niece ( major character)
Vera's uncle ( minor character)
Vera's uncles ( minor characters)
Not a human but the family dog - has an
importance for Vera's new story at the end.
Knows Mrs Sappleton - a relation of Mrs
Sappleton's
Mr Nuttel, who was suffering from nervous breakdown, was recommended by his sister to Mrs
Sappleton, so that he could spend a while in the countryside and get cured.
First, he met Mrs Sappleton's niece, Vera, a self-possessed girl who told him about her aunt's
supposed tragedy: her husband and two brothers had disappeared during a shooting party. So Mrs
Sappleton always had the French window open, because she expected them to come back one of
these days.
A short time after Mrs Sappleton's arrival in the room, the three men did come back. Mr Nuttel,
thinking that he had seen ghosts, ran away and just avoided collision with a cyclist.
In fact Vera, whose specialty was "romance at short notice" had invented the whose story, knowing
that Mr Nuttel had bad nerves.
3.
clues: The first words of the niece should be understood as a warning " You must try and put up with
me".
"You will bury yourself down there" l.9 is echoed in the last paragraph
" the undefinable something about the room which seemed to suggest masculine habitation"l.25
should have roused Nuttel's and our suspicion.
Clues are everywhere, but they are seen only at the second reading.
The twist: l.36: " here they are at last". The reader gets the impression that it is a fantastic story.
Surprise ending : l.92: " Romance at short notice was her specialty"
4. If the window hadn't been open, Vera would have had no starting point for the first horrible story.
Note that in a similar way she uses the dog as a starting point for the second story which is just as
gruesome.
IIA The author- the reader - the characters.
1. Mrs Sappleton's husband and brother were real! ( from line63 to the end )
2. We know exactly that the story is false at the end , in the last line
3. Like Mr Nuttel, the reader believes in Vera's story and imagines that the hunters are ghosts. But
unlike him, we are not necessarily suffering from nervous breakdown.
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 3
4. The author's purpose was to trick the reader, to play with the reader as Vera did with Mr Nuttel.
This is one of the points of interest of Saki's short-story. Indeed, the story can be regarded as a
series of jokes
B-The characters.
VERA: ( the name can make one think of veracity, which is totally opposite to what she says)
No physical description. She is only known through her character and age.
15 years old: adolescence/childhood: as she is still young she might not realize what harm she is
doing. Moreover a world of fantasy and reality intermingles in her mind.
Rebellion against the world of adults ( she wants to be nasty to a rather boring man who only
thought of his nerves)
She is self-possessed ( l.2)( =assuré; qui garde son sang-froid). When Mrs Sappleton appears, when
the other characters appear in the window l.88 'I expect it was the spaniel" said the niece calmly, " he
told me he had a horror of dogs"
She is quick-witted /clever: She analyses the situation and the people ( quickly sees that Mr Nuttel is
going to be an easy victim or prey and she's going to build up a clever trap L.92: Romance at short
notice was her specialty" No sooner had she finished with her stories than she began another one,
even more exotic and imaginative than the previous ones ( banks of the Ganges, scene in a cemetery ,
spending the night in a grave)
She is cheeky: ( effrontée, insolente): l.2: "in the meantime, you must try and put with me"
She has imagination: invents such a story, such a tragedy. She adds that it is the third anniversary l;34
and l.63. At the end she starts on a new story about Mr Nuttel. So she starts a new romance, a new
story.
She's devilish, cynical: taking advantage of such a fragile/weak creature just for fun.
She knows how to play a role, how to pretend. She is a comedian:l.39: " here the child's voice lost its
self-posessed note and became falteringly human" l.74: " the child was staring out through the
window with dazed horror in her eyes"
l.49: " she broke off with a little shudder".
She's a liar: l.88 " he told me he had a horror of dogs". That was not true at all.
Mr NUTTEL ( in Nuttel: the word "nut" - to be nuts = to be mad)
No physical description, only known through his weak nerves.
He is ill-at-ease and formal from the start:l.3: " endeavoured to say the correct something which
would flatter the niece of the moment without discounting the aunt that was to come"
He is prejudiced against the people he was going to meet right from the start: boring countryside full
of boring people. He was reluctant to meet hose strangers ( l.20 " in a tone of distinct regret")
He is naive: He never questions the veracity of Vera's story
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 4
His imagination misled him ( also his broken nerves): the aunt was always looking at the open
window or not paying attention to them ( l.60-61); l.69: "a yawn": he only interpreted it as a lack of
interest for what was taking place in the room; for him, Mrs Sappleton was always thinking of the
people who were going to appear at the window. Mr Nuttel " shivered" with fear "(l.73); he finds the
story " ghastly" (l.59)
MRS SAPPLETON ( phonetically Sappleto sounds like 'simpleton'= simple-minded person)
Not much is known about her. First, she is seen through Vera's story and imagination and then
through Mr Nuttel's eyes, who thinks that she is mentally deranged.
l.49-50: She seems to be a gay, lively friendly woman ( "bustled into the room with a whirl of
apologies for being late in making her appearance"); a typical hostess
She does not look like a deranged person at all.
But for the reader and Mr Nuttel she does look deranged:
She seems to have an obsession ( mad people do have some!) She immediately talks about the
window and the return of her husband and brothers and she keeps looking at the same window (l.4649)
l.69 she just answers "No?", which shows that she was probably not listening; Mr Nuttel believes that
she is obsessed by the return of her husband, but actually she is rather getting bored with him.
L.71: She suddenly gets excited at the vision of the three men's return, which would confirm her
obsession.
C- The trap.
Vera's devilish trap:
She immediately sees that Mr Nuttel is going to be an easy victim/prey since he is suffering from
nervous breakdown and is here to cure his nerves. Furthermore, she makes sure that he is a perfect
stranger and doesn't know her aunt ( l.15, l.21, l.26)
She gives precise details about the tragedy ( the spaniel and the song, which will be used at the end of
the short story to convince Mr Nuttel of its veracity)
She knows how to create the right atmosphere (l.15-16) " when she judged that they had sufficient
silent communion". It means that the atmosphere got tense enough so that Mr Nuttel had become illat-ease.
"she judged" means that she was in command; she was the boss of the person in charge
l.49" she broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled in…"
Mrs Sappleton's words when she appears confirms her derangement l.53-55. For Mr Nuttel she's
definitely mad.
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 5
When the three men appear, the scene is rather ghastly:
The people are just figures because of the "twilight" and "the dusk"
They walk " noiselessly" like ghosts.
Mrs Sappleton's young brother's voice is "hoarse" as if coming from another world.
So the scene looks exactly like the one Vera had described earlier.(l.74)
Why did she play that cynical game with Mr Nuttel?
Because of her character: cynical - imaginative
She was still a child: didn't realize exactly what she was doing
Or being an adolescent she wanted to be provocative, against the world of adults
She had a boring life in the country and wanted to have a bit of fun.
She immediately realised that Mr nuttel would be an easy prey.
These are only hypotheses.
D- Irony.
Verbal irony: saying what one does not mean. The meaning may be contrary to the words ( "oh,
you're on time this morning" to someone who is always late)
Situational irony: the situation described does not correspond to reality or is in contrast what
should happen or has happened.
Situational irony: The whole story is built on situational irony. The reader, like Mr Nuttel believes in
Vera's story till the end; the reader is misled, deceived. He/she doesn't know what has actually
happened until the end.
The situation becomes ironical in retrospect when the reader actually understood what has really
happened.
l.51 " I hope Vera has been amusing you" ( in fact Mr Nuttel is not amused)
l.64-65 " The doctors agree in ordering complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and
avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise". In fact the reverse is going to take
place.
l.86-87: "One would think he had seen a ghost". The ghosts were real people. Moreover Mrs
Sappleton was not aware at all of what was really happening.
Verbal irony:
l.16: " silent communion"; Between Vera and Mr Nuttel, there is in fact no communion. Mr Nuttel is
ill-at-ease and would like to break that " communion".
l.57: "She has been very interesting" Mr Nuttel says. In fact he means that he learnt something
interesting about her, about her supposedly madness.
l.62: " coincidence". Here the irony comes from the author/narrator.
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 6
l.46-48: " Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that
they will all walk in through that window" Of course she knows that they will come in since they
never disappeared.
Verbal and situational irony are often closely linked together and it is difficult to say which is which.
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 7
The Open Window |
Introduction
"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. 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.
Vocabulary:
1.
snipe - a type of wading bird
2.
pariah - member of lowest class in India; a social outcast
3.
rectory - a home occupied by a minister or clergy
4.
moor - a broad area of open land, often high but poorly drained, with patches of heath and peat bogs
5.
bog - soft, waterlogged ground; a marsh
6.
falter - to be unsteady in purpose or action, as from loss of courage or confidence; waver
7.
infirmities - frailties; disabilities
8.
imminent - about to occur; impending
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 8
READING AND UNDERSTANDING.
I-QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions. Be sure to use complete sentences.
1. Who is the author?
2. What is the author’s real name?
3. Identify and describe the characters in the story. Who is the protagonist and the antagonist?
4. From what does Framton Nuttel suffer?
5. What did Framton’s sister give him to take with him and why?
6. In whose home is framton during the majority of the story?
7. Who greets him upon his arrival?
8. What does Framton know of Vera’s aunt?
9. Vera tells Framton a ghastly story. Thoroughly summarize the story?
10. According to Vera, why is the window left open?
11. Why does Framton run out of the house? What caused his departure?
12. What does a bicyclist have to do to avoid hitting Framton?
13 What explanation does Vera offer when Framton leaves the rectory? How is her explanation
ironic?
13. How might the story be different if Framton were the narrator?
II. POINT OF VIEW
This story is told from the third person omniscient. Below write quotes that support that this is third
person omniscient.
Example: “Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits . . . would do
much”
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 9
The Open Window
by Saki (H.H. Munro)
"My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in
the meantime you must try and put up with me."
Framton Nuttel endeavored to say the correct something which should duly Hatter the niece of the
moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever
whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much towards helping the
nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing
"I know how it will be," his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat;
"you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse than
ever from moping. I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of
them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice."
Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of
introduction came into the nice division.
"Do you know many of the people round here?" asked the niece, when she judged that they had had
sufficient silent communion.
"Hardly a soul," said Framton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years
ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here."
He made the last statement in a tone of distinct regret.
"Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?" pursued the self-possessed young lady.
"Only her name and address," admitted the caller. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in
the married or widowed state. An undefinable something about the room seemed to suggest
masculine habitation.
"Her great tragedy happened just three years ago," said the child; "that would be since your sister's
time."
"Her tragedy?" asked Framton; somehow in this restful country spot tragedies seemed out of place.
"You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon," said the niece,
indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn.
"It is quite warm for the time of the year," said Framton; "but has that window got anything to do
with the tragedy?"
"Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off
for their day's shooting. They never came back. In crossing the moor to their favorite snipe-shooting
ground they were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog. It had been that dreadful wet
summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warning.
Their bodies were never recovered. That was the dreadful part of it." Here the child's voice lost its
self-possessed note and became falteringly human. "Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back
someday, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as
they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 10
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?' as he always did to tease
her, because she said it got on her nerves. Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I
almost get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window--"
She broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room
with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance.
"I hope Vera has been amusing you?" she said.
"She has been very interesting," said Framton.
"I hope you don't mind the open window," said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; "my husband and brothers
will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They've been out for snipe in
the marshes today, so they'll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, isn't it?"
She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in
the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful
effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic, he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only
a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and
the lawn beyond. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this
tragic anniversary.
"The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of
anything in the nature of violent physical exercise," announced Framton, who labored under the
tolerably widespread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least
detail of one's ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. "On the matter of diet they are not so
much in agreement," he continued.
"No?" said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. Then she
suddenly brightened into alert attention--but not to what Framton was saying.
"Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if they were muddy up
to the eyes!"
Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic
comprehension. The child was staring out through the open window with a dazed horror in her eyes.
In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction.
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?"
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.
"Here we are, my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window,
"fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?"
"A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel," said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk about his illnesses,
and dashed off without a word of goodby or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen
a ghost."
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 11
"I expect it was the spaniel," said the niece calmly; "he told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once
hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to
spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above
him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve."
Romance at short notice was her speciality.
END
Marie Laure Ville, Ensemble Scolaire Rivier Vernet, 1L
Page 12