Tabla de Contenidos
The Open Window is one of the best-known short stories by the writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870 -1916), whose literary pseudonym was Saki. In the story we can see how the story takes on tones of fantasy and horror to culminate with the revelation that everything has been a bad joke against one of his main characters.
Hector Hugh Munro
Hector Hugh Munro was born in what is now Myanmar in 1870. He grew up in England and spent much of his youth traveling through Europe with his father. He worked as a journalist for several English newspapers such as the Morning Post and the Daily Express and published most of his work between 1900 and 1913. Among these texts we find: The Rise of the Russian Empire (1900), La Alicia de Westminster (1902) , Reginald in Russia (1910), The Clovis Chronicles (1911), Bassington the Unbearable (1912) and When William Came Came (1913).
At age 43, Saki enlisted as a soldier to fight in World War I. He was killed in action on November 14, 1916 by a German sniper’s bullet. Regarding his work, the writer Jorge Luis Borges commented that Saki gave a touch of modesty to stories that would otherwise be full of bitterness and cruelty.
The Open Window Plot
Mr. Framton Nuttel is visiting Mrs. Sappleton’s house. While he waits to be treated, he is accompanied by young Vera. The young woman takes advantage of the visitor’s ingenuity and tells him a story in which Mrs. Sappleton is currently on the brink of madness, talking to ghosts and waiting for her dead husband to return home. Mr. Framton cannot control his nerves and when he observes that, indeed, the lady’s husband seems to be walking, he flees in terror, believing that it is a ghost.
After the escape, the reader realizes that the whole story was false and that this is nothing more than a joke caused by the young woman to entertain herself.
The lie in history
The open window is a story of deception. Young Vera lies to Mr. Nuttel and involves him in a macabre fantasy story that fills him with fear and makes him flee in terror. The young lady has a restless personality, she likes to create these fantasy stories to entertain herself and play with the psyche of others. Mr. Framton Nuttel is shy and easily flustered. A somewhat funny and tragic combination that keeps the reader always on the lookout.
Using the social conventions of the moment, young Vera’s lies cannot be discovered or exposed since the guest is in that house for the first time and would not dare to doubt the words of his hostess. Vera takes images that belong to everyday life and transforms them into a horror story: the open window, the dog, the hunters; they are all elements that belong to the life of any of the characters and that is why the story has such an impact on poor Mr. Framton.
Deceived and accomplice reader
For most of the story, the reader is in the same position as the character of Mr. Framton. Vera’s story is the only version we know of events and there is no other voice in the tale to warn us about her true intentions. Then, at the end of the story, the deception is revealed; then the reader becomes an accomplice in the fantasy created by Vera, without the possibility of giving any explanation to the terrified Mr. Framton.
References
- Saki (1911). The open window . Seva city. Available at: https://ciudadseva.com/texto/la-ventana-abierta/
- Sierra, L. (2017). Humorous tales . Cultural Agenda Alma Mater. Available at: https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/almamater/article/download/330046/20786339
