The Open Window Questions

1. The name Vera is derived from the Latin word verus, meaning true or genuine.  This is ironic because Vera is a liar and nothing she said was true.  She’s a storyteller who lies to make Framton freak out, and she succeeds.

2. This story’s last line is ironic because back when the story was written, the word romance meant fiction.  So "romance at short notice" was that she could come up with a good, convincing story when she needed it.

3. The statement “dashed off without a word of goodbye or apology when you arrived.  One would think he has seen a ghost.” Is ironic because although the people weren’t ghosts, the shaken up Framton assumed they were.  Irony is also shown in “The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise.”  In the end of the story, Framton is not only mentally excited by the “ghosts”, he bolts out of the house and almost hits a biker – all three orders were not followed in the last couple paragraphs of the story.

Exposition:

"You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon," said the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn.

This is the exposition because it occurred before the story happened.

Inciting Incident:

"Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off for their day's shooting. They never came back. In crossing the moor to their favorite snipe-shooting ground they were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog. It had been that dreadful wet summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warning. Their bodies were never recovered.  That was the dreadful part of it." Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human. "Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back someday, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing 'Bertie, why do you bound?' as he always did to tease her, because she said it got on her nerves. 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--"

This is the exciting incident because it explains information in the plot (why the window is open).

Rising Action:

She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects or duck in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic, he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond.

This is the rising action because it is leading up to the climax of the story.

Climax:

"Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!"

This is the climax beause the two have arrived.

 Falling action:

"Here we are, my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window, "fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?"

This is the falling action because everyone is home and the irony is introduced (The brothers being alive).

Resolution:

"I expect it was the spaniel," said the niece calmly; "he told me he had a horror of dogs.  He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve."

This is the resolution because the story is wrapped up.