Study Guide for “The Open Window”

QUESTIONS:
✓ Who is the author?
✓ What is the author’s real name?
✓ Identify the two (2) main characters in the story. Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist?
✓ What details about Framton does the writer give readers in the second and third paragraphs?
✓ Why has Framton Nuttel taking a trip? Who encourages Framton to embark on a journey?
✓ What’s the story’s setting, including place and time (month and approximate year).
✓ In whose home is Framton during the majority of the story?
✓ Who greets him upon his arrival?
✓ From what does Framton Nuttel suffer?
✓ What did Framton’s sister give him to take with him and why?
✓ What does Framton know of Vera’s aunt?
✓ What does Vera say happened three years ago?
✓ Besides the three men, who else went missing, according Vera?
✓ According to Vera, why is the window left open?
✓ What is the setting of the story the girl tells? How does the setting add to the atmosphere of her story?
✓ What internal struggles does Framton face during in this story? How do you think they will be resolved?
✓ Why does Framton run out of the house?
✓ What does a bicyclist have to do to avoid hitting Framton?
✓ What reason does Vera give for why Framton ran off?
✓ How might the story be different if Framton were the narrator?
✓ After having read “The Open Window,” is Vera’s story true? How do you know?
✓ Has the trip helped Framton? Why or why not?
✓ Describe Framton’s departure from the rectory. What caused his departure?
✓ What explanation does Vera offer when Framton leaves the rectory? How is her explanation ironic?
✓ Foreshadowing plays a major role in the story. Describe one instance of foreshadowing.
✓ Why do you think Framton reacts so intensely to the appearance of the three figures?
✓ How might Saki's story have been different if it had been told from the girl's point of view?
✓ Contrast Vera and Framton. In your opinion, is Framton or Vera the more likeable character? Why?

POINT OF VIEW
This story is told from the third person omniscient. Below write quotes that su pport that this is third person
omniscient.

THE OPEN WINDOW- H. H. MUNRO (SAKI)

Summary of Story: H.H. Munro's (Saki) "The Open Window" brilliantly portrays how one's nerves affects
his/her personality. As Framton embarks on a trip intended as a "nerve cure," he finds himself in an
unfamiliar situation that ultimately has a negative effect on his seemingly nervous personality.
Plot: Frampton Nuttel suffers from a nervous condition and has come to spend some time alone. His sister
sets up introductions for him with a few members of the community. His first visit is to the Sappleton
house where he meets fifteen-year-old Vera, the niece of Mrs. Sappleton. Vera keeps Nuttel company while
he waits. Upon hearing that Nuttel has not met the Sappletons, Vera tells Nuttel some information about
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the family. Vera says that three years ago to the date, Mrs. Sappleton's husband and two younger brothers
went on a hunting trip and never returned. Vera goes into detail about the clothes they were wearing, the
dog that accompanied them, and the song that Mrs. Sappleton's brother sang upon their return. Vera says
that her grief-stricken aunt watches out the window expecting their return. When Mrs. Sappleton enters,
she tells Nuttel that she expects her husband and brothers to return at any moment. Nuttel listens, thinking
that Mrs. Sappleton has in fact gone crazy. Suddenly, Mrs. Sappleton brightens as she tells Nuttel that they
have returned. Nuttel turns only to see the "dead" hunters. He becomes frightened and leaves in a rush.
Mrs. Sappleton doesn't understand Nuttel's strange behavior, but Vera replies that he is deathly afraid of
dogs.
Not until the end of the story does the reader realize that Vera has tricked Mr. Nuttel. This is revealed with
the last line of the story: "Romance at short notice was her [Vera's] specialty."
Other Plot Summary: Framton Nuttel has presented himself at the Sappleton house to pay a visit. He is in
the country undergoing a rest cure for his nerves and is calling on Mrs. Sappleton at the request of his siste r.
Though she does not know Mrs. Sappleton well, she worries that her brother will suffer if he keeps himself in
total seclusion, as he is likely to do. Fifteen-year-old Vera keeps Nuttel company while they wait for her
aunt. After a short silence, Vera asks if Nuttel knows many people in the area. Nuttel replies in the negative,
admitting that of Mrs. Sappleton he only knows her name and address. Vera then informs him that her
aunt’s “great tragedy” happened after his sister was acquainted with her. Vera indicates the large window that
opened on to the lawn. Exactly three years ago, Vera recounts, Mrs. Sappleton’s husband and two younger
brothers walked through the window to go on a day’s hunt. They never came back. They were drowned in a
bog, and their bodies were never found. Mrs. Sappleton thinks they will come back some day, along with
their spaniel, so she keeps the window open. She still talks of them often to her niece, repeating the words
of one of her brother’s favorite songs, “Bertie, why do you bound?”
Vera herself admits to sometimes believing the men will all come back through that window. She then
breaks off her narration with a shudder. At that moment, Mrs. Sappleton enters the room, apologizing for
keeping him waiting and hoping that Vera has been amusing him. Mrs. Sappleton excuses the open window,
explaining that her husband and brothers will be home soon, and she continues to talk on quite
cheerfully about shooting. Nuttel finds this conversation gruesome and attempts to change the subject
by talking about his rest cure, a topic which bores Mrs. Sappleton tremendously. But she suddenly brightens
up, crying ”Here they are at last!” Nuttel turns to Vera to extend his sympathy, but Vera is staring out
through the open window with a look of horror in her eyes. Nuttel turns around to the window and sees
Mrs. Sappleton’s husband and brothers walking across the lawn, a spaniel following them, and hears a
voice singing “Bertie, why do you bound?” Nuttel grabs his hat and walking stick and flees from
the house. Mr. Sappleton comes through the window and greets his wife. Mrs. Sappleton muses over
Nuttel’s departure that was so sudden it was if he had seen a ghost. Vera says that she believes it was the
spaniel that frightened him; she tells her aunt and uncle that Nuttel is terrified of dogs ever since being
hunted into a cemetery in India by wild dogs and having to spend the night in a newly dug grave.
As Saki remarks at story’s end, making up stories that add a bit of excitement to life, “romance at short
notice,” is Vera’s specialty.
For each question, choose the correct option:
1 The niece uses Nuttel’s lack of knowledge about his new environment to
A establish his trust in her.
B get him lost in the bog.
C set her trap.

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 D make him feel comfortable.
2 The niece stares in “dazed horror” because she
A needs to strengthen the credibility of her story.
B worries she will be caught in her lie.
C fears for her aunt’s safety.
D questions what she is seeing.
3 How does the niece use the truth to make her story believable?
A The doctor has ordered rest for Nuttel.
B The men really are out hunting.
C The aunt is very worried.
D The hound is badly wounded.
4 How is Nuttel’s behavior influenced by his imagination?
A It helps him to make sound decisions.
B It enables him to face the facts.
C It allows him to let fiction become the truth.
D It encourages him to use his sense of humor.

Questions:
1. Identify 3 literary devices in the short story and their significant.
2. Where is the climax in the short story? How is this achieved?
3. Describe the setting of the short story?
4. What is the lesson that you can learned in this short story?
5. In the short story, does Vera shows hospitality to Frampton Nuttel? If Vera were Malaysia, would she
have in like manner?
6. If you were Nuttel, would you trust every word Vera said? Why?
Answers:
1. The first literary device that can be found is symbolism. The 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. The next literary device is irony. Mr Nuttel first came to Mrs.
Sappleton’s house was to find “peace” or to find cure for his. However, instead of finding cure, his condition
got worse when he was deceived by Vera that her aunt is grieving over her dead husband and younger
brothers. That she still leaves the window open so that they may walk back through it. Mrs. Sappleton then
arrives and introduces herself and tells Mr. Nuttel that she is waiting for her husband and brothers. Mr.
Nuttel looks through the window and comes to find that there are three men walking towards that window,
looking exactly how the neice described them. A voice from one of the men yells out to Mrs. Sappleton
and Mr. Nuttel rushes out of the house. The final literary device is personification. The personification is
defined as a representation of a non-living things or objects which have human’s attributes or qualities. The
personification in this short story is found in paragraph 14, the phrase "a treacherous piece of bog". A bog
is defined as a soft, wet ground. And in this short story, the bog is called as treacherous because it is where
Mrs Sappleton husband and brothers were missing and can never be found as it has “engulfed” them.

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 2. The climax of this short story is where Mrs Sappleton’s husband and her two brothers came back,
along with the dog. This climax is achieved by the used of suspense. When Mrs Sappleton’s husband and her
two brothers came back, along with the dog, readers can feel the suspense when Mrs. Sappleton keep on
looking at them and the horrified Mr Nuttle. The suspense increases when Mr Nuttle looked at the
terrifying looked from Vera’s eyes.
3. We can describe the setting of the short story the Open Window into 3 parts which are time, place
and society. In this novel, there is no specific dates are mentioned in the story. However, it is assumed to
take place in the early twentieth century, most likely during the reign of King Edward VII. While for the
place, most of the plot is set entirely in one room of an English country home belonging to Mr. and Mrs.
Sappleton. Finally, the setting of society in the novel the Open Window is describes as the upper class of
English society.
4. The lesson that we can learned in this short story is we must check the validity of a story before we
trust it completely. Even the person who tells us about the story itself is a teenager like Vera, but we cannot
assume that they will tell us the truth. Maybe their body is small and younger than us, but who knows what
they have in mind. So, no matter wherever we are and whoever the person or society that we lived in, we
must ensure the truth of a story before we believe them and make our own about opinion the story.
5. After a period of hard time doing research on “The Open Window”, by the well-known “Saki”, we
discovered the answer of this question. It was long night. For us, we absolutely come with one opinion. We
believe Vera was not giving our protagonist, Frampton Nuttel, hospitality. Based from the “Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary”, hospitality is “friendly and generous behavior towards guest”. Telling lie is
obviously is not a type of hospitality and that what we learned in school. Vera told lie and make Mr. Nuttel
flee away. As the host of the house, she should not do that. She supposed to serve him better and let the
man of the house talk. Of course, that is not Malaysian style. Not even the Singaporean. We Malaysian, we
serve our guest the best. Mr. Nuttel came here for peace. But instead of peace, he found chaos. “What an
ironic moment!” said Wandi. We will serve our guest better than any services that provided by the any 5
stars hotel around Bukit Bintang. In fact, not only as Malaysian, but as anyone from anywhere all around
the world, we must show our guest a great hospitality. Umofian also taught their people to serve their guest
even their guess come only to collect debt. Simply, no matter where you come from, Malaysian or
Singaporean, or anywhere across the map, we must honor our guest, show the best hospitality and don’t tell
lies. Even if you were came from Venus.
6. Based from “The Open Window”, by the great Saki, we finally come out with this. After a long
thrilling discussion; we all agree not to believe in Vera. “Why must we believe in 15 years old girl? We don’t
even believe to 40 years old politician. Bribing is anywhere”, said Joe. People started to lie at their
beginning of life. Teenagers nowadays mostly influenced to do negative activities and practicing bad habit
mostly from the mass media. Based from the short story, Vera also told lie to Mrs. Sappleton at the end of
the story, so obviously that she often lie in her daily life. Besides, as Mr. Nuttel, you should not believe in
anyone because you just arrived and met them. You should be more careful and aware because you don’t
know who you are talking with. She can be an American most wanted, or a 15 years old serial murderer.
Maybe they are small, young, innocent and a girl, but your life is more important as a guest. By the end of
the day, you are the one that suffered.

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Characters
Framton Nuttel’s Sister: Framton Nuttel’s sister once spent time in the same town to which Framton has
come for relaxation. She has given him a number of letters of introduction with which he is to
make himself known to a number of people in the town. Mrs. Sappleton is the recipient of such a letter, and
it is this that brings Nuttel to her home.
Mr. Framton Nuttel: Mr. Framton Nuttel suffers from an undisclosed nervous ailment and comes to the
country in hope that its atmosphere will be conducive to a cure. He brings a letter of introduction to Mrs.
Sappleton in order to make her acquaintance for his stay in her village. While he waits for Mrs.Sappleton to
appear, her niece keeps him company and tells him a story about why a window in
the room has been left open. He believes her story, that the window remains open in hopes that Mrs.
Sappleton’s husband and brother, who the niece says are long dead, will one day return. Later, when Nuttel
looks out the window and sees figures approaching who match the descriptions of the long-dead hunters in
the niece’s story, he suffers a mental breakdown and flees the house.
Ronnie: Ronnie is Mrs. Sappleton’s younger brother, who, with Mr. Sappleton, has been away on a hunting
expedition.
Mr. Sappleton: Mr. Sappleton is Mrs. Sappleton’s husband. He has been away during most of the story on
a hunting expedition with Mrs. Sappleton’s younger brother, Ronnie.
Mrs. Sappleton: Readers are first led to believe that Mrs. Sappleton is a widow, keeping vigil for her
departed husband and brother, who have disappeared during a hunting trip. She lives with her young
niece.
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 no tice.” 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.

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Vocabulary:
snipe - a type of wading bird
rectory - a home occupied by a minister or clergy
moor - a broad area of open land, often high but poorly drained, with patches of heath and peat bog
bog - soft, waterlogged ground; a marsh
spaniel- a breed of dog
falter - to be unsteady in purpose or action, as from loss of courage or confidence; waver
infirmities - frailties; disabilities
imminent - about to occur; impending
pariah - member of lowest class in India; a social outcast
rectory - house in which the minister of a parish lives.
French window - a pair of floor-length windows that open in the middle like doors.
snipe-shooting - a snipe is a kind of bird that lives in swampy areas.
Ganges - river in northern India and Bangladesh.
pariah dogs - wild dogs.
Romance - imaginative tales of adventure; exaggerated stories
Inference - not directly stated; "read between the lines"
Engulf - to swallow up, submerge, inundate
Widespread - common, familiar
Romance - to exaggerate or invent in detail or incident
Irony - the opposite of what is written- contradiction
Treacherous - unsafe; dangerous
Imminent - about to happen; threatening
Ailments - illnesses, diseases
Symbol - something that stands for something else, or suggests for something else
convey - express , communication
burdened - weighted down
conflict - struggle between opposing forces
characterization - technique used to reveal character
ghastly - frightful, horrible
self-possessed - in control of oneself; composed
- in full control of one's feelings or actions
setting- time and place of a literary work
delusion - a false belief
theme - the message an author wants to convey
discount - dishonor, diminish
succession - series; chain
migrate - to move or settle in another region
rural - countryside, rustic
fore-shadowing - hints or clues about what is to come
mope - to be gloomy or apathetic