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Jun 22, 2017 · Saki himself would be one of them, killed in action in 1916. With him, and many like him, the Edwardian way of life that Saki so ruthlessly skewers in his stories would die, too. But ‘The Open Window’ remains more than a window (to reach for the inevitable metaphor) onto a vanished world. It is a timeless tale about truth and fiction, and ...
- The Open Window
The Open Window - A Summary and Analysis of Saki’s ‘The Open...
- Saki
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Saki, real...
- Short Fiction
Short Fiction - A Summary and Analysis of Saki’s ‘The Open...
- The Lumber-Room
A man, dressed in the hunting costume of some remote period,...
- His Classic Werewolf Tale ‘Gabriel-Ernest
It’s as if Oscar Wilde had been crossed with M. R. James or...
- Hector Hugh Munro
Hector Hugh Munro - A Summary and Analysis of Saki’s ‘The...
- The Open Window
Jan 21, 2020 · The successful ending of “The Open Window” depends on its surprise but also on the reader’s belief, along with Nuttel’s, that Vera is telling the truth. To ensure that Vera’s story will fool Nuttel, Saki makes use of many of the stereotypes and popularly held beliefs of his day.
One could say that there are two surprise endings to "The Open Window." The first takes place when a petrified Framton Nuttel sees what he thinks are three ghosts approaching the window.
Historical Context of The Open Window. Saki wrote “The Open Window” during the Edwardian period in England, roughly corresponding to the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910, but often extended to include the 1890s to the start of World War I. The new millennium brought with it a relaxing of much of the rigidity of the prior Victorian ...
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Themes
- Style
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
- Criticism
- Sources
- Further Reading
Saki, whose real name was Hector Hugh Munro, was born at the height of English Imperialism in Akyab, Burma, on December 18, 1870, to British parents, Charles Augustus and Mary Frances Munro. His father was a colonel in the British military. Following the death of his mother, he was sent back to Devon, England, where he lived with his grandmother an...
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 sister. 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. Fi...
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...
Ronnie
Ronnie is Mrs. Sappleton’s younger brother, who, with Mr. Sappleton, has been away on a hunting expedition.
Though it is a remarkably short piece of fiction, “The Open Window” explores a number of important themes. Mr. Nuttel comes to the country in an attempt to cure his nervous condition. He pays a visit to the home of Mrs. Sappleton in order to introduce himself, and before he gets to meet the matron of tha house, he is intercepted by her niece, who r...
“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.
Saki does not specify when his story takes place, but it is obvious that the story is set in Edwardian England, the period of time early in the 20th century when King Edward VII ruled England. During this time, England was at the peak of its colonial power and its people enjoyed wealth and confidence because of their nation’s status in the world. T...
Saki has been known for decades as a master of the short story form. In his “Introduction” to The Penguin Complete Saki, Noel Coward finds that Saki’s tales “are dated only by the fact that they evoke an atmosphere and describe a society which vanished in the baleful summer of 1914.” Saki may belong to a particular time, and his pen may have been s...
Rena Korb
Rena Korb has a master’s degree in English literature and creative writing and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In the following essay, she examines “The Open Window” : as an example of Saki’s wit and skillful social satire. H.H. Munro, writing under the name of Saki, was first introduced to the London literary scene in 1899, and only a year later, he was becoming well-known as a witty social critic. This reputation has stayed with him until the present-day, more than...
What Do I Read Next?
1. For more of Saki’s fiction, consult The Penguin Complete Saki, published by Penguin Books in 1982, originally published by Doubleday in 1976. The volume includes not only Saki’s short fiction but his novels and plays as well. 2. E. M. Forster was a contemporary of Saki’s and, like Saki, is known for his satirical portrayals of the English middle- and upper-classes. His “The Story of a Panic,” published in The Celestial Omnibus, is a good example of his work. 3. Like Saki, O. Henry is a mas...
Thomas March
Thomas March is a scholar specializing in 20th-century British fiction. In the following essay, he examines Saki’s use of irony. 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...
Coward, Noel. “Introduction,” The Penguin Complete SakiLondon: Penguin Books, 1982. Reprint of the 1976 edition by Doubleday & Company. Review entitled “Fiction: ‘Beasts and Super-Beasts’,” in The SpectatorVol. 113, no. 4489, July 11, 1914, pp. 60-1.
Cheikin, Miriam Quen. Review in English Literature in TransitionVol. 21, no. 2, 1978, pp. 121-31. Langguth, A.J. Saki: A Life of Hector Hugh Munro New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981, 366 p. Spears, George James. The Satire of Saki: A Study in the Satiric Art of Hector H. Munro. New York: Exposition Press, 1963.
Vera makes the open window a symbol of Mrs. Sappleton’s (supposed) insanity, as she believes her dead loved ones will walk through it. We would generally expect an open window to symbolize transparency, honesty or freedom. Saki (and Vera) cleverly uses these associations to add to the veracity of the story.
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This is the first mention of the titular open window, which Vera transforms from a mundane household object into a centerpiece of tragedy. Her use of specific details makes her story more believable. The men’s manner of death is so absurd, however, as to be farcical; Saki is satirizing elements of traditional tragic romances.
