The Open Window by Saki
• Reading Notes
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Theme
Plot
Characters
Irony
Foreshadowing
Setting
Saki
• Pen Name (What’s another
word for a pen name?)
• Pseudonym
• Author’s real name is H.H.
Munro
Theme
• What is the theme: the message of the
story/main point the author is making?
• More than one answer.
• People make assumptions based on first
impressions
• Vera and Frampton Nuttel (What are their
impressions?)
• Vera seems trustworthy/innocent
• Nuttel seems anxious/nervous/weak
Theme Continued
• Vera seems concerned and
informative in a helpful way,
but she is only setting up
Nuttel to be a fool.
Verbal Irony in the Names
Vera
• Veri means truth but she doesn’t tell the truth
• Verbal: fools everyone through stories
Frampton Nuttel
• Nuts
• Framed by Vera (Frame is the window frame)
• Open window is his escape
What’s in a Name?
Mrs. Sappleton
• Sap
• Wholesome like an apple
Exposition
• background, time, place (setting), characters
• Background: Sister is a minor character helps set
up the story’s setting
• Setting: October; one day; 1900s; English
countryside; wealthy estate of the Sappletons;
moors surround property
• Characters: We meet Nuttel and Vera; Vera
questions Nuttel’s knowledge of the area and
family
Conflict
External:
• Vera tells Nuttel about the tragedy that
happened three years ago
• Nuttel believes Vera’s lies because she
appears innocent
• The men come home from hunting just as
Vera had planned in order to trick Nuttel
Internal:
• Nuttel’s anxiety at the arrival of the hunters
makes him believe fiction as truth
Complication
• Vera admits that Mrs. Sappleton is in
denial of the family’s loss
• Vera gives details of the tragedy on the
basis of the day: (knew her uncle was
wearing a white McIntosh) which could
like a ghost
• Mrs. Sappleton says the men will be
home proving to Nuttel that she is in
denial
Climax
•The hunters come
home and Nuttel
runs away
Resolution
• The reader knows that
Vera lies to Mr. and Mrs.
Sappleton and her
brothers about Nuttel’s
fear of dogs
Vera
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Malicious (intends to hurt another)
15 years old
Romance was her specialty
(in this case these stories are LIES)
Not honest (LIAR)
Self possessed (composed and in
control)
• Good actress
Frampton Nuttel
• Nervous
• Anxious
• Gullible
• Imagination leads him to believe
fiction over the truth
• Impulsive
Ironic
Moments…don’t
you
think?
Verbal
“You must try to put up with me.”
“Frampton doubted more than ever these formal visits on a succession of
total strangers would do much toward helping the nerve cure.”
“I hope Vera has been amusing you.”
Situational
Mrs. Sappleton was preparing for her husband to come
home from hunting while Frampton thought she was in
denial
Dramatic
We know that Vera tells the Mr. and Mrs. Sappleton
and Mrs. Sappleton’s brothers a lie about Frampton’s
fear of dogs
Mrs. Sappleton
•Kind
•Welcoming
•Family oriented
Foreshadowing
• The room seemed to suggest
masculine habitation
• He made the last statement in a
tone of distinct regret. When asked
if he knows anyone, he replies,
“Hardly a soul.”
Foreshadowing
• Little brown spaniel lost/ Spaniel comes home
later with the hunters; Vera uses this “fear” of
dogs for her next lie
• White Mackintosh described/ Mr. Sappelton
had it draped over his arm easily noticed as a
ghostly color