How does vera explain the open window

Stapleton enters. Paying very little attention to her guest, Mrs. Stapleton continues to talk about shooting, lamenting how few snipe there are this season and expressing hope that winter will bring a healthy supply of ducks. Framton listens, aghast at the grimness of the situation.

He attempts to shift the conversation away from the hunting expedition, but Mrs. Stapleton cannot be redirected, frequently looking expectantly out the open window as she prattles on about hunting. Suddenly, Mrs. Stapleton jumps to attention and excitedly remarks that the hunting party has finally returned. Unbelievingly, Framton looks to Vera, expecting to share with her a look of pity at the depth of Mrs. But Vera does not return his gaze.

Instead, she looks out, horrified, onto the lawn. Framton quickly turns towards the window and notices the silhouettes of three men, each armed, walking towards the house. One of them has a white coat draped over his arm; following just behind is the silhouette of a small hunting spaniel.

At that moment, Framton grabs his belongings and bolts out of the house, narrowly escaping a collision with a passing cyclist on the street. One of the men, presumably Mr. Stapleton, asks Mrs. She explains that the fleeing man is named Mr.

Just then, Vera interjects that it must have been the dog that frightened Framton. Framton finishes by noting his doctors were not in agreement about what type of diet would be best for him. Sappleton finds his conversation boring. Sappleton suppresses a yawn, but then she suddenly becomes alert and announces that the men have arrived, at last, and just in time for tea. Framton shivers and looks to the niece, Vera, hoping that he conveys the appropriate note of sympathy for her aunt's obvious delusion.

Instead, he sees that Vera is staring through the open window with a look of horror on her face. Framton turns to follow her gaze and sees, coming across the lawn in the darkening light, three figures, one who has a coat hanging over his shoulders, accompanied by a tired spaniel that is struggling to keep up with them.

Framton hears a man singing while the figures approach the house. Framton grabs for his hat and walking stick and races out of the house without saying goodbye. Framton runs down the drive and through the front gate, without a memory of passing any of these things, and nearly collides with a bicyclist when he enters the roadway. 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. Vera keeps Nuttel company while he waits. Upon hearing that Nuttel has not met the Sappletons, Vera tells Nuttel some information about 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. 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. This is revealed with the last line of the story: "Romance at short notice was her [Vera's] specialty. The structure of the story is actually that of a story-within-a-story.

Within this narrative frame is the second story, that told by Mrs. Nuttel the story of the lost hunters, the open window comes to symbolize Mrs. 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. This allows a narrator to portray events from a variety of points of view, conveying what all of the characters are doing and what they are feeling or thinking.

For most of the story, until he runs from the house, the reader shares Mr. Like Mr. The reader remains, however, after Mr. Tall tales are often found in folklore and legend and describe people or events in an exaggerated manner. Vera exaggerates the significance of the open window by making it the centerpiece of a fabricated tale of tragic loss. 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 regales him with an artful piece of fiction that, in the end, only makes his nervous condition worse.

She begins with an object in plain view, an open window, and proceeds from there. The window is obviously open, but for the reasons for its being open the reader is completely at the mercy of Mrs.

The open window becomes a symbol within this story-within-a-story, and its appearance becomes its reality. When Mr. Nuttel and the reader are presented with a contrary reality at the end of the story, the result is a tension between appearance and reality that needs to be resolved: Which is real? Can they both be real? The action and irony of the story revolve around the apparent deception that Mrs. It remains to be seen, however, whether this deception is a harmless prank or the result of a sinister disposition.

Yet Mr. Nuttel is insane, and the reader, presumably, is not. In order to maintain this distinction, Saki forces his reader to consider the nature of insanity and its causes. Historical Context 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.

The wealthy leisure class was perhaps overly confident, not seeing that political trends in Europe, including military treaties between the various major powers, would lead to World War I and the resulting destruction of their comfortable way of life. It is this complacency that Saki often mocks in his stories. Commonly, doctors prescribe medication. Letters of this kind served to guarantee that a move to a new home did not isolate someone from the community.

Today: Most people meet by chance in school or at work rather than through the pre-arranged situations, although dating services and personal ads are common. What is the main theme of the open window? One of the themes of this short story is escape. While Nuttel tries to escape the stress of his daily life through his vacation, the Sappleton men escape their daily routine by hunting, and the Sappleton niece lies as her means of escape.

Another theme is empowerment. What tragedy does Vera describe? Vera recounts to Mr Nuttel the story of the death of Mrs Sappleton's husband and two brothers. They had gone out snipe shooting through that window three years ago and never came back.

According to her, Mrs Sappleton keeps the french window open because she thinks they might still come back. Why did Framton rush wildly? Answer:When Framton saw them coming, he thought they were ghosts.

So he rushed out wildly in fear. The girl explained that Framton had a bitter experience of the dogs.

So he made a sudden exit on seeing the dog. How are Mr Nuttel and Vera similar? Despite their many differences, Vera and Framton Nuttel share several similar character traits.

Both characters are also affected by their surrounding environments. Vera is inspired by her aunt's house to fabricate a tragic story while Framton finds the countryside to be peaceful and reduce his stress.

How does Vera explain Nuttel departure? When Mr Nuttel sees Mrs Sappleton's husband and the two brothers enter the house with their dog, he leaves abruptly because he thought they were ghosts. Vera concocts a story about his fear of dogs as the reason for his abrupt departure to hide the fact that she had lied to him about them dead.