The Open Window
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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Hopefully you read the story last night, but even if you did, here's a quick refresher...
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In the short story, The Open Window, a man, Mr. Nuttel, moves out to the country on doctor's orders to fix his nervous problem. In the country, Mr. Nuttel was at his neighbor's, Mrs. Sappleton's house. She was getting ready at the time, so her niece entertained him. She made up a story about how her aunt's husband and brothers always went out hunting but one day they never came back. She said that her aunt went crazy and always left the window open thinking that they would come back. This story was a prank, as they had just gone out hunting earlier that day, so when they come back home through the window, it scares Mr. Nuttel and causes him to run away.
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The short story, The Open Window, was written by Saki in 1914 as part of his Beasts and Super-Beasts short story collection.. Saki is the pen name used by British author, Hector Hugh Munro. A pen name is a nickname that some authors use in their publication, sometimes to keep their identity to themselves, or sometimes because they just prefer that name. Saki was born in 1870 and died in 1916. During the World War 1, he joined the army and then died 3 years later in battle. His writing career spans from his first publication in 1899, Dogged, to his last one in 1914, The East Wing. However, he has had many publications after dying with the most recent being the Improper Stories in 2010.
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The Open Window was part of Saki’s Beasts and Super-Beasts short story collection which was published in 1914, making it one of his last publications before his death. There is very little evidence as to why or what inspired Saki to write the short story. A theorized reason for why he wrote the short story is to display a true picture of society by ironically mocking the harm being done by showing Nuttel as a cause as well as a victim. The story is a satire of adults that are mentally unstable, gullible, and foolish. There also examples of children being bad in his other stories. In the story, Toys of Peace, the children use their toys to imagine violent scenarios no matter how peaceful the toys were intended to be. In another story, The Storyteller, a man on a train tells a story to the children sitting in the seat next to him. He makes it so that the good guy dies in the end and shows that the morals did not pay off, the children preferred this story to the one that their aunt told them which had good morals.
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Seat next to him. He makes it so that the good guy dies in the end and shows that the morals did not pay off, the children preferred this story to the one that their aunt told them which had good morals.
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Suspense comes from the Latin words suspensum, meaning delay, and suspendere, meaning to hang up. In literature and art, suspense is when it builds up someone's uncertainty or an uncertain environment of what, when, or how an event will happen. Imagine that you are putting rocks in a bucket hanging, suspended with a weak peace of string. Every time that you put a rock in, it adds suspense. If you keep on adding rocks, the string will eventually snap and then it lets out the suspense.
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Does anyone want to explain why or how the short story, The Open Window, utilizes a theme of suspense? Also, What is the most suspenseful point in the story, When do we discover what the niece is actually like?
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A theme of suspense is shown in the short story, The Open Window. The suspense starts when Mrs. Sappleton's niece asks, "Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?" When she asks this, she asks it with a tone that makes the reader think that she will use this information to her advantage. As she tells Mr. Nuttel a story about how the men who went hunting never came back, the suspense builds up. When she finishes telling the story, her Aunt finals walks in and talks about how she is waiting for the men to come back from their hunting that day which makes Mr. Nuttel believe that they went hunting three years ago but Mrs. Sappleton believes that it happened each day and that they will come back. When they do come back that day, he believes that they are ghosts and runs away in fear. It is revealed in the story, although it could be implied earlier, that the story was fake when the niece says that he probably ran away because of his fear of dogs. You could consider the suspense to out to the action, Mr. Nuttel running away at the sight of the men who he thinks should be dead, and to let out once more when it is revealed that the story is a lie.
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It is revealed in the story, although it could be implied earlier, that the story was fake when the niece says that he probably ran away because of his fear of dogs. You could consider the suspense to let out to the action, Mr. Nuttel running away at the sight of the men who he thinks should be dead, and to let out once more when it is revealed that the story is a lie.
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The plot of a story is the important events that happen in the story all put together. Important in the fact that the effect of the event leads on to another important event. Basically going from the beginning to end with what lead on to cause each event to happen.
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Think about the plot points in order and why they would be considered a plot point. Which points, if they never happened, would cause Mr. Nuttel to not have run away?
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In The Open Window, a man moves out to the country to have a calm environment to cure his nervous issue. Because he knew little about his neighbor, he visited one. When he visited his neighbors house he talked with her niece because his neighbor was up stairs. When he talked with the niece, she learned that he knew nothing about her aunt. Because she knew this, she played a prank on him by telling him the false story. The aunt finally came down and talked to the man and he learned information that somewhat verified the story in his mind. Because the story is false, the people from the story who should be dead come back. This frightens the man, causing him to run away. After he runs away, the niece tells another false story to explain why he ran away.
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Question:
Why do you think Vera tricked Mr. Nuttel? Why do people sometimes find enjoyment in the misfortune of others?
Write and discuss the answer to the question at your table.
In about 5 minutes, we will discuss as a class.
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