The Open Window by Saki - Literary appreciation

Authors Avatar

Literary appreciation

 The Open Window by Saki

The story concerns a very self- insecure man trying to woo a self-possessed young lady of fifteen who does her best to get rid of the man by making up a story which terrifies the man into leaving the house. The story is quite a humorous event ending with a denouement.

By just looking at the title, the readers immediately get the idea that the story and theme has something to do with an open window. Normally a theme associated with an open window would be seen as a theme of possibility and new experience, but in this passage it is seen as a theme of deception and lies, as through the open window Vera lies to get rid of Frampton.

Join now!

The author uses very complicated language to describe simple actions. This creates the effect that the event occurred in a bigger time frame than it actually did.  Saki’s skill of using language is portrayed through adjectives like “treacherous piece of bog”, verbs such as “laboured under the tolerably widespread delusion” and the brilliant control he has over the vocabulary he uses. He completely leaves the readers in the dark by limiting their point of view to that of Mr Nuttel only to surprise his audience in the denouement. The great detail found throughout the passage makes it very vivid and ...

This is a preview of the whole essay