[Raintree 8]The Open Window

 Summary: The Open Window

In this story, Mr Nuttel, a man with a nervous disposition is undergoing cure

for anxiety in a little village. His sister, who was sure that Mr Nuttel would not

try to socialise with the people of the village on his own and would become

more anxious and unhappy living alone in a village, had written letters of

introduction to all the people she knew in the village. Mr Nuttel is thus visiting

Mrs Sappleton. Her niece, Vera, ushers him in and tries to make conversation

with him till her aunt comes.

After learning that Mr Nuttel is not at all familiar with her aunt or the other

villagers, Vera tells him about the tragedy that had struck her aunt three years

back. She says that Mrs Sappleton had lost her husband and her two brothers

when they had drowned in a swamp while snipe-shooting. Their bodies had

never been recovered. Mrs Sappleton, in her grief, believed that her husband

and brothers would eventually return the way they had gone and thus, leaves

the French window of that room open in anticipation of their return. When

Mrs Sappleton finally joins them, Nuttel feels relieved.

However, as she goes onto to talk about her husband and brothers returning

soon through that window, Mr Nuttel begins to feel increasingly nervous. He

tries to change the topic by telling her of his ailment, explaining in details the

reason for his visit and about the doctoradvisinghim to avoid physical and

mental exertion, but Mrs Sappleton seems disinterested and distracted. Mr

Nuttel’s apprehension turns to dread when Mrs Sappleton announces the

arrival of her husband and brothers and he sees Vera looking out of the

window with an expression of horror. On turning, when Mr Nuttel sees the

three men walking towards the window, he assumes them to be ghosts and

flees in terror. When Mrs Sappleton tells her husband about Mr Nuttel’s

strange behaviour, Vera further perpetuates her tale by telling them that Mr

Nuttel had probably fled upon seeing the dog, as he had once been hounded by

dogs all night at a cemetery.

This is a very well-crafted short story with the readers hardly suspecting the

truth of Vera’s story until the very end. The words used to describe the setting

and the actions of the characters (shivered slightly, deepening twilight, neared

noiselessly) build and maintain the suspense in the story until the truth is

revealed. Vera’s ingenuity makes readers laugh but one cannot help feeling

sorry for the anxious Mr Nuttel whose nervous illness must have been further

aggravated by this incident. The story thus makes the readers appreciate wit

but also makes them question how and where it should be applied.

UNIT 8: THE OPEN WINDOW

Embedded Questions

1. Framton is in this house to meet Mrs Sappleton.

2. Framton’s sister has given him the letters of introduction.

3. No, he is not excited about meeting the people he is visiting.

4. Vera tells Mr Nuttel about her aunt’s tragedy to make conversation with him till her aunt comes.

5. Framton is relieved to see the aunt because Vera’s story has made him uncomfortable.

6. No, his efforts to change the topic do not work.

7. Framton rushed out of the room because he thought that the men walking towards the window

were ghosts.

8. Free response

Comprehension

A. 2, 10, 6, 4, 5, 1, 8, 3, 9, 7

B. 1. a. Vera asked Mr Framton Nuttel this question.

 b. Mr Framton Nuttel said that he hardly knew anybody there. His sister, who used to stay there

four years ago, had given him letters of introduction to some of the people there.

 c. Vera asked this question to find out how much Framton knew about her aunt and the people in

that place before beginning her story.

62. a. The person carrying the white coat, that is Mrs Sappleton’s husband, asked this question to

Mrs Sappleton.

 b. The speaker of these words had just entered his own home through the big open window. He

had just come back from hunting.

 c. Mrs Sappleton said that Mr Nuttel was a most extraordinary man, who could only talk about his

illness. He had dashed off without a word of goodbye or apology, as if he had seen a ghost.

C. 1. Framton had come to the countryside to cure his nerves. His sister used to live in the same village

that Framton had come to. When Framton was setting off, his sister, who thought that Framton’s

nerves would get worse from brooding as he would probably keep to himself and not speak to

anyone in the countryside, decided to give him letters of introduction to all the people she knew

there.

2. Vera told Framton about her aunt’s tragedy. She explained that about three years ago, Mrs

Sappleton’s husband and two brothers had gone off for a day’s hunting through the open

window. They had never come back as they had drowned in a dangerous piece of bog while

crossing the moor to their favourite snipe-shooting ground. Their bodies had never been

recovered.

3. Mrs Sappleton talked cheerfully about the open window and how her husband and brothers

would come home from shooting through the open window. This made Framton very uneasy as

Vera had just told him that Mrs Sappleton’s husband and brothers had died three years ago while

hunting in the marshes. Vera had also said that her aunt still expected them to walk in through

that window every day at that hour.

 So, Framton made a desperate but not very successful attempt to change the topic by talking

about his ailment. He further elaborated that the doctors had advised him complete rest and

asked him to avoid any excitement or too much physical exercise.

4. Vera ended the story of her aunt’s tragedy with a little shiver and also used language and facial

expressions that added to the horror of the story. Then, when Mrs Sappleton said that her

husband and brothers were finally coming back, Vera stared out through the open window with

a horrified expression on her face. This is how Vera’s behaviour added to the story and scared

Framton even more.

5. Vera said that Framton had a horror of dogs as he had once been hunted into a cemetery

somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of stray dogs. He had had to spend the night in

a newly dug grave with the creatures grinning and foaming just above him.

D. 1. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt entered the room with a series of apologies for being

late. He made a desperate but not very successful effort to turn the talk to a less miserable topic.

Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece. Feeling a shock of nameless fear, Framton

swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction. Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and

hat and ran.

2. Vera wove a story around the open window to entertain herself and keep the conversation

flowing with Mr Nuttel. Framton was initially fine with the open window but after hearing Vera’s

story, he grew increasingly frightened of it. Mrs Sappleton was looking forward to her husband

and brothers coming home through the open window and thus was filled with hope when she

looked out of it.

Grammar

A. 2. She said that she was going to Mumbai to meet her friend, Vinitha.

3. Rahul invited me to go to his birthday party tomorrow.

4. Mother ordered Akash to clean his room immediately.

5. Neil requested us to keep quiet, as otherwise Ms Sharma would scold us.

6. Pia suggested to her friends that they could go to Rajasthan that year.

B. 2. Policemen enquired why I wasn’t wearing a helmet.

3. Paroma asked me if I knew the way to Arnab’s house.

4. Teacher asked Sam if he knew whose bag it was.

5. Harmeet asked when the bus usually arrived.

6. She asked me if I would like to play the piano then.

7. Munira asked where Roohi had parked her car.

8. The old woman asked how far the market was from there.

Vocabulary

A. 2. washing machine 3. half-baked 4. driving licence 5. headquarters

6. eye witness 7. greenhouse 8. first-aid

Listening

Listening Text

Rakesh: Hello, is this Wanderlust Travels?

Priya: Yes.

Rakesh: This is Rakesh speaking. Please may I speak with Manya.

Priya: Sorry, she is not there. I am her niece. I can take a message for her.

Rakesh: That would be very helpful. Please ask Manya to mail the cost of the Singapore Night Safari.

It will be nice if she can let me know that before Saturday.

Priya: I will give her the message. Anything else?

Rakesh: Yes, please ask her to confirm a booking for twenty people at Palace Hotel in Kochi from

4th to 14th of March to Prakash. Also, please ask her to request Salim to send an email to

Ujwal with the price of air-conditioned rooms at the Transworld Hotel in Guwahati.

Priya: I will let her know. Is there anything else?

Rakesh: Just one last request. Can she please recommend a five-star hotel in Coimbatore?

Priya: I will give her all the messages.

Rakesh: Thank you. Bye.

Priya: Bye.

Answers: 1. a 2. b 3. a 4. a

Writing

 The forest seemed to have grown much darker. The eerie silence all around was broken only by the

sound of my feet. After a while, I heard a hushed rustling sound coming from somewhere. I turned

back and saw that it was nothing but a squirrel running across the road.

 I proceeded to move forward, into the forest. As it grew darker, the forest seemed more and more

silent and scary. If Rahul had not challenged me to meet him at the other side of the forest, I would

have been happily chatting with the others in the tent. With a half-empty water bottle, a torch

with dying batteries and my knapsack, which had absolutely nothing except for a small knife and

a blanket, I gathered whatever energy and courage I had left in me and willed myself to trudge

along.

 Just at that moment, I heard footsteps right behind me. The noise was inching closer with every

passing second. I began to run. Whatever that was behind me started running too. I began to run

faster but the footsteps kept coming closer and closer. Suddenly, I tripped on a tree root and fell. I sat

still. The noise stopped. There was complete silence.

 After what seemed like an eternity, I heard a twig break right beside me. I screamed and turned

around and shone the torch. I saw Rahul standing there with a sheepish grin. “Well, now that

you’ve proved how brace you are, shall we head back to our tents? Everybody was very worried

about you.” he said. I merely smiled smugly but in my heart I had never been so glad to see any

one in my life.

 Since Rahul knew his way around the forest, we reached our tents in about twenty minutes. Thus, this

adventurous trip, which initially started off with me wandering off into the forest all alone, ended with

my first cousin, whom I used to dislike intensely till then, right by my side. Truly, this is one camping

trip I will never forget.

THE OPEN WINDOW

A. Answer in brief.

1. What was Framton’s sister skeptical about?

 Ans: Framton Nuttel’s sister wondered whether his idea of spending time at the village would

help him at all. He was undergoing treatment for nerve cure and wanted to spend time in a quiet

and peaceful manner. His sister was sure that he would not communicate with anyone and that

his nerves would get worse from moping.

2. What did Framton know about Mrs Sappleton?

 Ans: Framton did not know much about Mrs Sappleton, the lady for whom his sister had given a

letter. He only met her niece first who took him around the house. He did not even know whether

Mrs Sappleton was married or widowed. He told her niece that he knew nothing more than just

the address of Mrs Sappleton.

B. Answer in detail.

1. How did Vera make use of Framton’s ignorance about Mrs Sappleton?

 Ans: Vera was adept at weaving fantastic stories in a short span of time. Her narration appeared so

true to life that the listener was left believing every word of her concocted story. The moment she

came to know that Framton knew nothing about Mrs Sappleton, she planned in her mind to scare

Framton. She made him believe that a great tragedy had struck her aunt three years back as it was

then that she had lost her husband and both her brothers when they had gone out for that day’s

shooting. Vera took great pleasure looking at people’s reaction after listening to her. This time the

theme of her story was her aunt and her ‘victim’ was Framton. As expected, her story unnerved

Framton to such an extent that in the end he had to run wildly out of the house.

2. What did Mrs Sappleton say that made Framton uncomfortable?

 Ans: Vera had successfully made Framton believe that Mrs Sappleton was out of her mind as

she was expecting her dead husband and brothers to walk in through the open window every

evening. Framton, having fallen for that story, was already feeling uncomfortable to meet her. To

add to his woe, as she entered the room, she started talking cheerfully about her husband and her

brothers. She went on and on about how they would walk back from the marshes and mess up

her carpets. Framton got nervous and subtly indicated that his doctors had advised complete rest

and had asked him to avoid any excitement or tension.

C. Read the lines and answer the questions.

1. “Do you know , sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that they will all

walk in through that window –“

 a. Who speaks the above lines? To whom?

 b. Who does the speaker refer to as ‘they’?

 c. Why should that give the speaker a creepy feeling?

 Ans: a. The above lines are spoken by Vera, Mrs Sappleton’s niece, to Framton.

 b. The speaker refers to Mrs Sappleton’s husband and brothers as ‘they’.

 c. According to Vera her aunt believed that her dead husband and brothers would walk

through the window in the evening. Her aunt’s belief was so strong that sometimes Vera

too got the feeling that they would walk in. It was creepy to expect dead people to walk

in.

2. “Just in time for tea, and don’t they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!”

 a. Who speaks the above line?

 b. Who are in time for tea? Why were they muddy?

 c. What was Framton’s reaction on seeing them?

 Ans: a. Mrs Sappleton speaks the above line.

 b. She sees her husband and her brothers walking in during tea time. They were muddy

because they had been in the forest walking on muddy paths.

 c. Framton too saw them and shivered and totally shocked, ran for his life.

D. Answer in brief. (Think and answer)

1. Why did the niece want to know whether Framton knew anything about her aunt?

 Ans: Vera , the niece, must have already planned to play a prank on someone with her fantastic

ability to frame stories. Right then Framton entered the house. The moment she came to know

that he had come to meet her aunt about whom he knew nothing, she knew her catch was right

in front of her!

2. How does Vera add to the thrill and humour of the story?

 Ans: Vera was exceptionally good at making stories with real characters and that too expressed

these stories very realistically. She did the same with Framton, probably with appropriate

expressions and feelings. In the end her expression of horror on seeing the men must have really

scared Framton out of his wits adding perfect humour to the story.

E. Answer in detail. (Think and answer)

 Do you approve of Vera’s prank considering Framton was undergoing treatment for a nerve

condition? Give reasons.

 [Free response] Suggested Ans: Framton had gone to the village with the idea of resting as he was

undergoing treatment for a nerve condition. Perhaps Vera was not aware of that or even if she was ,

she did not think much of it. Framton apparently was a person who was always nervous and anxious

and needed complete rest and had to avoid excitement. Such a person had to go through all the

tensions because of an imaginative girl. It is funny to some extent but also sad as that was not the

treatment a sick man should have got. It would have been sensible on her part if she had revealed the

truth in the end and made Framton feel better.