Identify a key structural choice the author made in this story, and explain its effect on readers.

There are
several interesting and key structural choices thatmakes in this story. The first is to begin
the story by making the reader aware of Framton Nuttel's nervous condition. In the second
paragraph, for example, we learn that Framton is visiting a "rural retreat" to aid
"the nerve cure which he (is) supposed to be undergoing." It is important that the
reader should be aware of this at the beginning of the story because, later in the story, it
makes the practical joke played upon him, by the mischievous Vera, all the more cruel.

Another interesting and key structural choice is to keep the reader in the dark about
the practical joke until the end of the story. Vera tells Framton that her aunt's husband and
two young brothers disappeared one day, three years ago, when crossing the moor. She also tells
him that her aunt still "thinks that they will come back someday." When they do
return, at the end of the story, the reader is, momentarily, as surprised as Framton.

We then learn that the story about the men disappearing was a lie. Vera knew that the
men had left to go hunting only that morning, and she knew too that they would return that
evening. Because Saki decides to keep this information from the reader until the end of the
story, the reader is better able to empathize with the , Framton Nuttel. The decision to only
reveal the truth at the end of the story also ensures that the story concludes with a very
dramatic, satisfying .