Sunday, November 10, 2013

Modern short stories often have a twist a surprise ending. How does "The Open Window" justify this?

I don't believe that Saki seeks to justify his surprise ending. It is simply his signature way of resolving most of his short stories, as it is for O'Henry, albeit in his case usually in more heart-warming way. The chief justification is that readers enjoy it. We all love a surprise, as it gives us a laugh and/or food for thought. Nobody wants to be bored.
Internally to "The Open Window," the issue of boredom becomes a justification for Vera to act as she does. Mr. Nuttel is not a friend, the family has never seen him before, his presence has been imposed on them by his sister who clearly wanted to get rid of him, and he talks so much about his nervous disorders that he is a bore. Therefore, Vera cruelly but cleverly find a way to dispose of him by lying to him so that he believes he is seeing ghosts.
It is for the readers to decide if Vera's action is justified. Most would probably say no but still be entertained by her wickedness.


One could say that there are two surprise endings to "The Open Window." The first takes place when a petrified Framton Nuttel sees what he thinks are three ghosts approaching the window. This would certainly be a surprise because up until that point everything seemed so incredibly normal, not to say dull. The events of the story take place in a large, upper-middle-class home in the Edwardian English countryside. This is not an environment where we'd expect anything especially spooky to happen.
The second surprise ending, one that provides an even bigger twist in the tale, is when it is revealed that not only are Mrs. Sappleton's husband and brothers alive and well, but that Vera's been spinning poor old Framton a shaggy dog story that has fooled him completely.

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