Rhetorical Analysis Essay on the Open Window
Beatrice Liao
English Composition
Professor Yeh
4June 2015
Liao 1
Rhetorical Analysis Essay on the Open Window
The short story, "The Open Window" by H.H. Munro(Saki), covers the strange way in which the visit of Mr. Nuttel to Mrs. Sappleton. Mr. Nuttel faces in waiting for his hosts but being lied by a little girl, Vera. Based on writer's personal experiences as one who was born in Scottish parents, Saki suggests that, in the Victorian-Edwandian society of England, strangers were not respected as human beings. Throughout the work,Saki successfully captured reader’s attention with dynamic characters and marvelous plot twists which includes two main literary notices ─symbolism and irony.
The first literary notice that author emphasized is symbolism. The symbol in “The Open Window” is the open window itself. When Vera, Mrs. Sappleton’s niece, tells Mr. Nuttel the story of the lost hunters, the open window comes to symbolize Mrs. Sappleton’s heartbreak in the loss of her husband and younger brothers. When the truth is later revealed in the last line, “Romance at short notice was her specialty”, the open window no longer symbolizes heartbreak but the lie itself. Saki uses the symbol ironically by having an object that people might expect implying honesty as a symbol of deceit.Moreover, in this story, Saki uses the phrase “a treacherous piece of bog” as a symbol of a non-living thing but having human quality. A bog is defined as a soft and wet ground. But in the story, the bog is called as treacherous because it is where MrsSappleton’s husband and brother were missing. Besides, a tremendous pathos lead to Mr. Nuttel believes in Vera’s fake story. In the lonely atmosphere of the living room, Vera utters first, “Her great tragedy happened just three years ago…that would be since your sister’s time.” Saki successfully arouses reader’s curiosity by emotional words and opens an exaggerative opening for a tragic story.
The another literary notice is irony. Mr. Nuttel first came to Mrs. Sappleton’s house was to find “peace.” However, instead of finding peace, his condition got worse when he was deceived by Vera. She told him that her aunt is still grieving over her dead husband and younger brothers. So her aunt still leaves the window open so that they, her dead husband and younger brother, may walk back through it. Mrs. Sappleton then arrives and introduces herself and tells Mr. Nuttel that she is waiting for her husband and brothers. And as Vera has mentioned to Mr. Nuttel, MrsSappleton proves to be a friendly and cheerful person. The clause “the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance” that contains background suggests that she is a lovely character. “I hope Vera has been amusing you.” The remark Mrs. Sappleton makes ironically conveys her fear about Vera’s weird personality in inventing stories to strangers. “She has been very interesting.” Mr. Nuttel’s response proves that he has believed in Vera’s falsehood to the family.
I hope you don’t mind the open window…my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They’ve been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they’ll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, isn’t it?
Mrs. Sappleton’s description of the situation that is going to happen in the living room in a few minutes is almost an accurate repetition of what Vera has said in Mrs. Sappleton’sabsence. The author set the scene in such a way that every word MrsSappleton cheerfully says such as “birds” and “shooting” resonate in Mr. Nuttel’s ears. Moreover, “the open window and the lawn beyond” makes his horrible imagination of the death vivid. A few minutes later, Mr. Nuttel looks through the window and comes to find that there are three men walking towards the window. Mr. Nuttel then rushes out of the house with fear, leaving Mrs. Sappleton in confused. Themarvelous plot twists that Saki has set as a climax successfully catches readers’ attention.
In Andros Pope’s words, “The Open Window” by Saki is a “slice-of-life story of irony that is typical of Saki” (Pope). The characters of Vera and Sappleton are smart while Mr. Nuttel suits his hypochondriac nature. Together they develop a story which is an example of communication chaos. It showed the Victoria’s hatred of the outsider and conveys a sense of otherness in the Victorian-Edwandian society of England.