Examine the character of Nicholas in Saki's short story "The Lumber Room" in as much detail as you can, and with close reference to the text say what we learn about Nicholas as you will need to explain why he behaves in the way he does?

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Examine the character of Nicholas in Saki’s short story “The Lumber Room” in as much detail as you can, and with close reference to the text say what we learn about Nicholas as you will need to explain why he behaves in the way he does?

Saki’s short story “The Lumber Room” is an intriguing account of a small boy’s adventure into “an unknown land.” Nicholas ventures into a forbidden room in a lonely house where he is deprived of any of the joy and excitement a small boy might expect.

Nicholas gives the impression that he is impertinent and mischievous but this manner of behaving is due to the isolation of the home in which he lives. His disobedience occurs through out the story during which time “he was in disgrace. Only that morning he had refused to eat his wholesome bread-and-milk on the seemingly frivolous ground that there was a frog in it.”

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The reader discovers that Nicholas has put a live frog in his food in the knowledge that he will be debarred from going to the beach with the other children; he knows his aunt well enough to predict her response to his “disgraceful conduct at the breakfast table.” Impertinent and mischiefous he may be but Nicholas is an intelligent boy and a “skilled tactician.” He out wits his aunt on three occasions in his speech during the story:

“He told you twice, but you weren’t listening. You often don’t listen when we tell you important things.”

This was the second ...

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