The Open Window Summary Questions Answers Class 8 English
The Open Window Summary Questions Answers Class 8 English
The Open Window Summary
The Open Window Summary : This story was written by a man named Hector Hug Munro who is known by the name ‘Saki’. The story begins with a man named Frampton Nuttel who goes to the countryside to get treatment for his nerves. He did not know anyone in that place so his sister gave him letters of introduction to make friends. Once he gets there, he visits Mrs. Sappleton and meets her niece named Vera, age 15. She is a calm and composed girl. She tells Mr. Nuttel that her aunt will be coming downstairs soon. Meanwhile, Vera asks if he knows any people around that place. He says his sister visited there 4 years ago and he has come to visit Mrs. Sappleton on her account, so she wants to know if she knows anyone in the area too because Vera doesn’t know anyone there yet either.
Mr Nuttel walks around the room, but about halfway into the house, he sees that there are other people in it. He is hesitant to go farther because he does not know whether Mrs. Sappleton is married or a widow. But then Vera tells him that three years ago her aunt’s husband and two brothers went out shooting and never came back. She points towards a large French window that leads outside to a garden-like area with bushes and trees all over the place. Vera tells Mr. Nuttel that the men never came back. They were trapped in a swampy land and their bodies could not be found. Her aunt, Mrs. Sappleton, always keeps this window open until it gets dark, hoping that her husband and brothers would return someday too. Sometimes Vera feels like her uncles will come through the open window with their dog in exactly the same way as they did before when they lived here too.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sappleton arrives and apologizes for being late. Mr. Nuttel is afraid of her husband and brothers who are shooting birds on the other side of town. Besides, she tells him that the window is open so they do not get mud on the carpet when they enter through it. But he does not like to hear about shooting and talks about another subject instead. But she continues talking about shooting and how there are not many birds in that area now because people shoot them all now days.
Frampton starts to look out the window as she talks to Mr. Nuttel. Suddenly, she tells him that the men have returned from shooting and they are just in time for tea. This scares Mr. Nuttel even more and he shivers with fear. He sees Vera looking at him but she is also looking out the window.
Mr. Nuttel feels uncomfortable and sees three people with guns coming to the house. One of them has a dog that is brown. Mr. Nuttel quickly grabs his stick and hat and leaves the room. But he does not meet Mrs. Sappleton’s husband because he is surprised why Mr. Nuttel left so quickly without meeting him. Mrs. Sappleton tells her husband that he is sick and leaves the house without saying goodbye to anyone. The way he left the room looks like he had seen ghosts. To this, Vera says that Mr. Nuttel is afraid of dogs. She mentions how he has been attacked by dogs in a cemetery before and was so nervous that he spent a night in a newly dug grave with the dogs growling around him.
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NCERT Solutions of The Open Window
Comprehension Check (Page 57)
Question 1: Why had Framton Nuttel come to the “rural retreat”?
Answer: Mr. Framton Nuttel’s doctor advised him to take a break from his city life because he was suffering from a nerve disorder. So Mr. Framton went to the country where it is peaceful to get better.
Question 2: Why had his sister given him letters of introduction to people living there?
Answer: Nuttel’s sister gave him letters of introduction to people in the countryside. She wanted him not to be lonely and feel isolated while he was there for his nerve disorder treatment. One of those letters was from Mrs. Sappleton.
Question 3: What had happened in the Sappleton family as narrated by the niece?
Answer: Three years ago, the husband and two brothers of Mrs. Sappleton went for their day’s shooting. They never came back. The three people were crossing the moor to their favorite hunting ground when they were lost in a bog that was very wet that year. Their bodies could not be found, even though there was a search party.
Comprehension Check (Page 60)
Question 1: What did Mrs. Sappleton say about the open window?
Answer: Mrs. Sappleton met Mr. Nuttel and she wanted him to come into the house through the window, but her two young brothers were there too. So she kept it open all day and hoped that he didn’t mind keeping it open for a long time.
Question 2: The horror on the girl’s face made Framton swing around in his seat. What did he see?
Answer: Framton turned around when he saw the girl’s face and saw three men with guns and a dog. Then, there was another voice that called out to the dog. Nuttel agreed with Vera on this description because she was right.
Comprehension Check (Page 61)
Question 1: Why did Framton rush out wildly?
Answer: When Vera told Mr. Nuttel that her aunt, Mrs. Sappleton’s husband and her two brothers had been missing for three years, Framton saw a silhouette of three men with guns and a dog in the midst of evening light and thought they were their ghosts. He ran out wildly in fear.
Question 2: What was the girl’s explanation for his lightning exit?
Answer: Framton left quickly because of the dog. Nuttel told the girl that he had a fear of dogs. He had an experience where he was hunted by dogs into a cemetery on the banks on the Ganges River. He spent the night in a freshly dug grave with these creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. When Framton heard this spaniel bark, he ran out as fast as possible.
Exercise (Page 61)
Discuss in small groups.
Question 1: Is this a mystery story? Give a reason for your answer.
Answer: The story “The Open Window” has many parts that are mysteries. The niece of Mrs. Sappleton told the story with a mysterious setting. Later, three men with guns and their dog come to the house. It made Framton think he saw ghosts and he left quickly in fear.
Question 2: You are familiar with the ‘irony’ of the situation in a story. (Remember the cop and the Anthem in Class VII Supplementary Reader!) Which situations in ‘The Open Window’ are good examples of the use of irony?
Answer: Irony is when something that is supposed to happen, but it does not. In this story, Mr. Framton Nuttel goes to the countryside for a nerve cure. But Mrs. Sappleton’s niece played a prank on him and he left scared before he could talk to her again. He thought that her husband and sons were ghosts and left the house without saying goodbye to her or thanking them for his visit.
Question 3: Which phrases/sentences in the text do you find difficult to understand? Select a few and guess the meaning of each. Rewrite a simple paraphrase of each.
Answer:
Masculine habitation – This implies that there live some men in the room.
Bertie, why do you bound – In the story, the word bound means to jump or leap. But it can also mean that Ronnie would scare his sister by saying this.
Came into the nice division – This refers to good people.
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