Framton Nuttel Indirect Characterization

Framton Nuttel, the main character in Saki’s “The Open Window” is gullible and naïve because he believes all that the highly imaginative Vera, the niece of Mrs. Sappleton, divulges to him. Additionally he has anxiety issues which cause nervousness becoming his reason for his trip to the country to relieve some of those feelings. Vera speaks of a great tragedy in which Mrs. Sappleton lost her husband and two younger brothers. She further goes on to say that her aunt keeps the window open in hopes of their return. Framton Nuttel, after spying three figures who match the characteristics of Mrs. Sappleton’s husband and brothers walking across the lawn, runs way from the house, forever remaining credulous.
Although Vera is aware of Framton Nuttel’s condition she sees an opportunity when he tells her that he has no knowledge of her aunt or her life to tease him and as a reason to drive him off. Framton Nuttel, on the other hand, is very gullible and believes such an outrageous story. As Mrs. Sappleton enters and bustles about speaking of her husband as if he is alive, Framton is aghast at her reaction,”… to Framton it was all purely horrible…it was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary” (820). He believes that she is in shock of their death and is acting as if they are still around.
Framton Nuttel is also revealed to being jumpy and nervous as he is when he sees Mrs. Sappleton discussing of her husband and brothers in such a way that it suggested that they were alive. In order to evade the situation he begins talking of his own health problems which makes him seem jittery, “’…doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement…’ announced Framton, who labored under the tolerably widespread delusion that strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one’s ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure” (820). Framton in order for the topic to be shifted begins