The Open Window

649 Words3 Pages
Andrew Fiebig “Why Deceive?” “The Open Window” is a short story written by Hector H. Munro, who wrote under the pen name Saki. It is about a fifteen year old girl named Vera, who enjoys making up stories. Her victim in this story is Framton Nuttel, who had a nervous condition brought on by stress. He came to this countryside cottage to get a little rest and relaxation. While waiting for the owner, Vera tells him a tall tale about how her aunt lost her husband, two brothers, and even their dog in a hunting mishap years earlier. She then claims that her aunt could never deal with this tragedy, so she left the window open every day anticipating their return. They had made their entrance through this window so many times before. Upon her entrance, Mrs. Sappleton confirmed in detail that part of Vera’s story about why she always left the window open. She fully expected the men to return at any time. And to Mr. Nuttel’s surprise, he noticed three men and their dog approaching the window. Thinking they were ghosts, this frightened man immediately exited the cottage premise. When the hunters inquired about the man who had left in such haste, Vera fabricated another story about how the visitor had always feared dogs because of a prior cemetery experience and this explained his hasty panicked exit. There are three major characters in this story. The first is a static Mr. Framton Nuttel. Most certainly because of his nervous medical condition, he came to this cottage not expecting much out of the ordinary other than a lot of restful peace. His unassuming nature made him somewhat gullible and contributed to his acceptance of the fabricated story by our second major and dynamic character Vera. This fifteen year old niece was quite the storyteller. She had a keen wit with a splash of cruelty added in. She loved attention and was quite deceptive with a

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