Monday 5 December 2011

What three words do you think best describe Vera from "The Open Window"? Give reasons.

Vera is
creative. After she learns that Mr. Nuttel does not know anything about her aunt, Vera knows she
can say anything and he will not be the wiser. She quickly comes up with her elaborate story
about theof Mrs. Sappleton's husband, two brothers, and their dog. She tells the story
compellingly and with acute acting skills: 

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." 

Vera is also
quick to create a story about why Mr. Nuttel ran away upon seeing the men return. 


Vera is bored. This is an assumption, but she is fifteen years old, stuck in a house in
the middle of the country. She has her aunt and uncles, but there is no mention of a friend her
age or a companion nearby. Boredom is one possible cause for her habit of making up stories. If
you add boredom and creativity together, she has two reasons to make things up. 


Vera proves herself to be manipulative or simply put, a liar. Again, she may be making
these things up out of boredom and as a way of exploring her creativity. But lying about
something so tragic is inappropriate to say the least. She seems to enjoy the creating aspect of
lying but the stories she comes up with are morbid. So, either she is exploring morbid things in
the act of being creative or she is actually being quite malicious. 

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