What are the moral values that you have learnt from the short story?
Among the lessons that might be taken from "The Open Window" one important one has to do with the repression of women in a patriarchal society. Vera is not merely a mischievous girl but a cruel girl. Being a female, she is confined to the house and cannot go shooting with the three macho males. No doubt she would like more freedom and adventure, as her story about the feral dogs in India suggests. Her story about the three men being sucked into a bog may be a sort of wish-fulfillment. In other words, she might have thought about this misadventure long before Framton Nuttel ever appeared on the scene. Vera might be compared with Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, a woman who becomes cruel because of being forced into a passive domestic role for which she is temperamentally unsuited. Vera takes her anger and frustration out on poor, neurotic Framton Nuttel, another male.
In Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, Tessman's Aunt Juliana represents the stereotypical domestic female of the period and serves as a foil to Hedda
She is the quintessential nurse, willing to sacrifice herself for others. Only in that does she find much meaning in life. In this respect, and in most others, she is a stark contrast to Hedda, who detests her.Likewise, Vera's Aunt Sappleton represents domestic women of Edwardian England and serves as a foil to Vera, who probably detests her too and sees her future in this brainless woman who is so exclusively devoted to her three men that she can only talk about the one subject that interests them: killing birds.
Vera is described as calm, cool, poised, and self-possessed, but underneath that young and innocent facade there is a very different person brooding, one who is preoccupied with cold and morbid fancies and developing a sadistic, passive-aggressive character.
QUESTION 2
Who is your favourite character in the short story. Provide reasons for your answer.
QUESTION 3
Provide an alternate ending to the short story
The character that be my favourite is Vera,of course, is the storyteller without equal, who is quickly able to seize on details and weave convincing tales to horrific effect.Note how she dominates the story - it begins with her words and ends with them. We are told in the first sentence that she is "a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen". It is clear that she sees in Framton Nuttel an object for one of her stories, as she is quick to establish that he knows nobody from the area and thus she is free to use her excellent wit and intelligence to create a fable that will shock Framton Nuttel for her own amusement. She shows herself to be an excellent actor as well as a storyteller. Consider how the author narrates her duping of Framton Nuttel:
"Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human... She broke off with a shudder."She is not only creative, but quick, intelligent and able to fool others into believing her words. This is demonstrated yet again at the end of the tale when, nonchalantly, she creates another tale to explain Framton Nuttel's swift escape from the house to trick her family, telling the tale "calmly" with complete equanimity. Clearly this tale celebrates the power that a good storyteller can have over a susceptible audience, with Vera presented as the master storyteller, and everyone else her ignorant and naive victims.
QUESTION 3
Provide an alternate ending to the short story
The post escape of Mr Nuttel. As i saw the ghost aproaching, i was frightend emensly. So i decided to run out of there as fast as possible. I got in my car and rushed away from that place but when i i got on the road I ended up runninng into a large tree. Luckily, the men who i thought were ghosts really were living men and saved me from the flamming car.
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