The Open Window

THE OPEN WINDOW: SAKI

Saki is most widely known as a satirist of the English ruling classes, and his best known short story is
“The Open Window.” It was first collected in Beasts and Super-Beasts 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.
Summary
Armed with a letter of introduction, Framton Nuttel, , an eccentric is visiting Mrs. Sappleton’s country
estate for a “nerve cure.” Mr. Nuttel is greeted by the niece, Vera, a polite “self-possessed young lady
of fifteen.” Vera, apparently bored with her guest, is graced with an overactive imagination and a
sense of mischief. Once she determines that Mr. Nuttel knows nothing about the family and is a very
literal-minded fellow, Vera spins a gothic yarn involving her aunt, whom she characterizes as a
mentally disturbed widow and begins telling him about her aunt’s great tragedy. Pointing to the open
French window, Vera (Latin, meaning “truth”) spins a yarn about her aunt’s husband and two brothers
who went out through the window on a hunting trip through the moors fifteen years earlier and never
returned. The aunt keeps the window open in expectation of their imminent return.
Suddenly the aunt enters. Over the civilities of tea and polite conversation, she alludes to the hunting
trip, and Mr. Nuttel becomes gradually unnerved. When, indeed, the hunting party returns, Nuttel, as if
he had seen ghosts, flees. In the closing paragraphs, the issue is clarified. The men had only that day
gone hunting, and Vera’s yarn was purely imaginary and had made up the part about their
disappearance. Mr. Nuttel has obviously been duped by Vera’s story, but Vera, a habitual liar, does
not explain his odd behavior to the others. Instead, Vera invents another story that suggests Mr.
Nuttel had once been frightened by “a pack of pariah dogs” in a cemetery “on the banks of the
Ganges” and apparently had bolted at the sight of the spaniel accompanying the hunters. Thus, Mr.
Nuttel is perfectly victimized by the young girl’s imagination. This reveals the ironic twist and helps to
enjoy Vera’s second demonstration of her ability to produce “romance at short notice.”
Style
The story is told from the third-person point of view, limited in the opening paragraphs to the naïve
perception of Mr. Nuttel, who is tricked by Vera’s mischievous fantasy. Because the fantasy is so
bizarre and inventive and totally unexpected from a fifteen-year-old girl, the reader is also momentarily
duped. When Mr. Sappleton and the brothers are seen returning from the hunt, she pretends to be
horrified. The reader, like Framton Nuttel himself, can only assume, therefore, that this is a
supernatural event. Saki’s stories frequently contain images of animals attacking humans Saki uses
imagery to present the animals as mere extensions of Vera’s trickery. Their “grins” match Vera’s
amusement at Framton’s gullibility. However, the animals are also seen “foaming” at the mouth and
“snarling,” taking almost a sadistic pleasure in his fear. Similarly, Vera’s use of such a tragic story to
play her trick on Framton also has sinister undertones and embodies a kind of dark humor not often
associated with childhood.
Saki satirizes Mr. Nuttel’s banality in this miniature comedy of manners, lacing his treatment with his
typical dry wit and malice and allowing his characters to reveal themselves through meticulously
crafted dialogue. “The Open Window” is a masterpiece of high comedy. Finally, the narrative works as
a parody of the traditional ghost story. Vera’s yarn has all the trimmings of the standard mystery--the
journey on the moors, the mysterious disappearance, even Mr. Nuttel’s role as scared listener. In the
end, the tradition is subverted. Romance is but a prank. Saki’s ingenious method of storytelling allows
the reader to take part in Vera’s practical joke.
Although Saki’s story is satirical and somewhat macabre in nature, the author explores three
important themes that add to the reader’s appreciation of the tale. First, Saki explores the concept of
chaos vs. order by disrupting the otherwise tranquil household with tragic death as well as the ghosts
of the dearly departed. The open window mentioned in the title becomes the conduit by which these
ghastly figures disrupt the status quo of the home. By claiming the swamp as the instrument of their
demise, Saki utilizes nature to introduce a dangerous and threatening environment to the story.
Instead of the serenity normally associated with nature, Saki transforms it into dangerous terrain and
creates an unsettling environment for Nuttel and the reader alike.
Next, Saki explores the concept of empowerment in the visage of Vera. Though only a child, she is
repeatedly able to deceive adults with her intricately conceived fables. While the adults in the story
should know better than to trust a young girl at her word, Saki introduces an unstable element that
puts them at a disadvantage from the beginning, and pits the child against these disadvantages.
Nuttel’s nervous condition and Mrs. Sappleton’s supposed mental instability creates the framework by
which the author is able to make Vera’s tale more believable.
Lastly, the author examines the two main characters’ desire to escape. Vera and Nuttel are both
propelled by this desire, but for very different reasons. Vera desires to escape the adult world in which
she feels trapped. She does so through her imagination and storytelling. Nuttel however, ventures to a
rural town to escape the stimuli at the heart of his nervous condition. And while Vera’s escape
produces the desired results of entertainment and distraction, Nuttel’s is not quite as successful. In
the end, it proves to instigate more chaos than calm.
“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 Open Window” is an
example of Saki’s wit and skilful social satire that make fun of the elite who inhabited Edwardian
England.
Hugh Hector Munro, who wrote under the pseudonym Saki, is well known not only as a master of the
short story form, but also for the irony with which his stories are imbued. “The Open Window,” Saki’s
most frequently anthologized story, is an excellent example of Saki’s use of irony. The events of the
story itself are ironic in their own right. However, Saki increases the ironic amplitude of the story by
making the reader a victim of the very same hoax that Vera perpetrates on Mr. Nuttel. Saki forces the
reader to recognize his or her own vulnerability, but by allowing the reader to remain in the drawing
room, the reader can dispute that he or she was fooled in the first place. This is the greatest irony of
Saki’s narrative.
The story’s surprise ending, its witty, concise narrative, and its slightly sinister tone are all trademarks
of Saki’s fiction. Crucial to the success of this effect is the story’s narrative structure. Saki employs a
frame narrative in “The Open Window” that is, he provides not just one narrative, but a narrative within
another, larger narrative that places the inner narrative in context. If Vera’s story of the lost hunters
were the only story available, one could read it as either a ghost story or as a fanciful tale. When Vera
lies to her aunt about Mr. Nuttel, and when Mrs. Sappleton does not react with horror or surprise at
the return of her husband and brother, it becomes clear that Vera’s story is a fabrication and that the
hunters returning are not ghosts, but living, breathing men. Thus, Nuttel’s horror becomes laughable,
eventhough, the reader’s reaction too is the same as that of Framton Nuttel. The final line of the story,
“Romance at short notice was her specialty,” removes any remaining trust in Vera’s reliability. “The
Open Window” is a story with all the marks of a child’s wish-fulfilling daydream; it is an expression of
the fantasy of a child able to control the adult world—a world which is unattractive or even
contemptible.
Saki’s story also makes frequent use both situational and dramatic irony: not only does Vera fool her
audience, but “The Open Window” fools its readers as well. At first, the reader has no concrete reason
to question Mr. Nuttel’s perception of events nor to disbelieve Vera’s story. In fact, Mr. Nuttel is initially
presented as an observant man, noting—correctly—that “an undefinable something” about the
Sappleton home “seemed to suggest masculine habitation.” By presenting much of “The Open
Window” from Mr. Nuttel’s perspective, Saki puts the reader in the same shoes as his gullible
protagonist.
Saki’s stories frequently satirize and subvert the order of the Edwardian upper-middle class world of
which H.H. Munro was a part. In “The Open Window” he does this by troubling and transforming the
“rural” and calm setting of the formal house visit. Vera’s story imbues the otherwise mannered and
bourgeois scene with a grim tale of death and delusion. The tale becomes darker still when the aunt
enters because Saki continues to describe the setting as a cheerful one even amidst the aunt’s clear
and tragic misunderstanding. Using words like “bustled," “whirl," and “cheerfully," Saki subverts the
traditional setting of the Edwardian sitting room with the grotesque. This transformation is necessary
to liven up the boring and mundane life in Edwardian society.
Vera
Vera is the niece of Mrs. Sappleton, the woman to whom Framton Nuttel plans to give a letter of
introduction. She is a teller of tales, a young woman whose forte is “romance at short notice.” She is
an exquisite and intuitive actress, equally skilled at deceit and its concealment. While Nuttel waits with
her for Mrs. Sappleton to appear, Vera relates an elaborate story surrounding a window in the room
that has been left open. It is this story, of the death of some relatives who went hunting long ago, that
eventually causes Framton Nuttel’s breakdown. She tells Nuttel that the window is left open as a sign
of her aunt’s hope that the dead hunters will one day come home and provides a detailed description
of the men, their behavior and attire. After Nuttel flees upon seeing these men return, just as Vera has
described them, Vera invents a story explaining his departure as well. Saki refers to Vera as
“self-possessed,” which literally means that she has self-control and poise. In the context of this story,
it is clear that this is the quality that allows her to lie so well—Vera’s self-possession allows her to
maintain a cool head and calm believability while relating that most outlandish of tales. Not only her
words but her actions as well convey what she desires to convey. At the fitting moment in her tale of
the three lost hunters her voice “lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human.” Thus,
Framton becomes the victim of Vera’s ‘romance’. She takes the ordinary events of the day and deftly
transforms them into a ghost story. She includes all the details needed to create a sense of realism:
the open window, the brown spaniel, the white coat, and even the mud of the supposed bog.
Vera clearly has a talent for ornamenting the ordinary and the commonplace, and she is too
quick-witted to tolerate boredom. She first makes Mr. Nuttel think that her aunt is a lunatic, then tricks
him into a state of panic and fear, taking advantage of the poor man’s nervous disorder. Vera is not
only “self-possessed” but also clever. Before setting her trap, she is careful to ascertain that Mr. Nuttel
knows “practically nothing” about her aunt or her family.
“The Open Window” does not condemn Vera for her deception. On the contrary, Saki presents her as
remarkably quick-thinking and imaginative young woman, simply amusing herself while surrounded by
less observant adults in the stiflingly proper English countryside. Vera’s name, in fact, comes from the
Latin for truth. While her stories are anything but, Saki suggests that her ability to reveal the artifice of
certain social situations is, in itself, an act of honesty.
The open window : Significance
The open window is the main set piece of Vera’s story, literally framing her uncles’ return for the
characters inside the Sappleton home. Though each character sees the same thing when looking
through the window, what this image means changes depending on their perspective. For Mrs.
Sappleton, who knows her husband and brothers will soon be returning from a hunting trip, seeing the
men through the window is exciting. To Mr. Nuttel, who believes these men are dead, it is terrifying.
The open window thus represents the power of storytelling to shape one’s view of the world outside.
The open window becomes a symbol within this story-within-a-story. 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. Vera exaggerates the significance of the open window by making it the centerpiece
of a fabricated tale of tragic loss.
Vera is also an important character in “The Open Window” because she introduces childhood, a
theme common in many of Saki’s stories. Saki frequently portrays childhood as an unfortunate state
of children being trapped in a boring, adult world. This perspective stems, in part, from H.H. Munro’s
own upbringing. Like many of Saki’s children, Vera is under the watch of the aunt, an imposing figure
from whom she desires escape (and achieves it through imaginative storytelling and trickery). The
window is a representation of this desire to escape. It is a symbolic window to a different world
through which Vera can travel into an alternate reality entirely of her own making. In this way, Vera’s
tall tales are a means of escapism from life in the boring, adult world.
The window is at once a symbol of the aunt’s hope that her husband and brothers will return and a
symbol of Vera’s expansive imagination. Vera uses the window as a means to escape the boring,
adult world and reimagine a more fantastical reality. The title of the story (“The Open Window”) is itself
a metaphor for the power of storytelling as a means of entertaining through humor and trickery.
Reading the story is like looking out the window, the window that Vera controls (and Saki in creating
her) and through which the storyteller and trickster devises her own creations. Saki describes
Framton’s escape using the imagery of the house as landmarks in his exit. If the open window
symbolizes imagination then the door, the drive, and the front gate all mark retreats from that possible
world.
Irony
Vera’s name is a play on the word 'veracity', meaning 'truth'. Ironically, she is the trickster of the story,
always spinning a new tale to her audience. In Saki’s time girls were frequently portrayed as
trustworthy and honest people. It is thus ironic that he chooses a female character to play the role of
trickster and storyteller in “The Open Window.” Framton retreats to the countryside in order to recover
from a bout of nerves. Ironically, the countryside only adds to his anxiety and Framton is thrown into
another nervous fit when he believes he has seen ghosts.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in
the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or a chapter, and helps the reader
develop expectations about the coming events in a story. There are various ways to create
foreshadowing.
A writer may use character dialogues to hint at what may occur in the future. In addition, any event or
action in the story may throw a hint to the readers about future events or actions. Even a title of a
work or a chapter title can act as a clue that suggests what is going to happen. Foreshadowing in
fiction creates an atmosphere of suspense in a story, so that the readers are interested to know more.
When Mrs. Sappleton first enters the room she says to Framton, "I hope Vera has been amusing
you?" (226.) This is one of a few clues that Vera is playing the trickster in the story and that the reader
ought not believe everything she says to be true.
Saki uses imagery to create an eery feeling as the hunting party returns. Saki employs images like
"deepening twilight," noiseless walkers, and a hoarse voice that comes out of the dusk in order to
keep the reader guessing about whether the hunting party is a part of the living or the undead.
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