The Open Window Conflict

Framton
Nuttel is here at the Sappletons' country home only because he is suffering from what he calls a
"nervous disorder." He is looking for the peace and quiet he expects the English
countryside to provide. Vera is young and in perfect physical and mental condition. It is Vera
who causes all the uproar. She is trying to "spook" Framton with a ghost story, and he
would be resistant to believing in the truth of her story because he is an adult and should know
that such things do not really happen. So it might be said that the conflict involves Vera's
efforts to make Framton believe that the three hunters, when they appear outside the open
window, will be ghosts returning from the bog where they were sucked down three years
earlier.

The open window is the first piece of evidence Vera uses to persuade
Framton of the truth of her story. There can be no doubt that the tall window must be standing
open to admit someone who is expected to enter from outside. Vera knows her aunt so well that
she knows almost word for word what the rather eccentric woman will say when she appears. Mrs.
Sappleton substantiates part of Vera's ghost story by explaining that she is waiting for her
husband and her two younger brothers to return from hunting through that open window. This is
what Vera has already told Framton--except that Vera told him her aunt has been waiting for
these men for three years! 

Vera's objective has not yet been realized. Then
Mrs. Sappleton, as the girl expected, contributes to the desired final effect.

Here they are at last! she cried. Just in time for tea, and dont
they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!

Framton
is facing Mrs. Sappleton and cannot see the open window. Still clinging to his fragile
composure, Framton turns to look at Vera to show he understands what a trial her aunt must be
with her constant waiting for her husband's return. But Vera is using her acting talent to
create the effect she desires.

Framton shivered slightly
and turned towards the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic comprehension. The child
was staring out through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of
nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction. In the deepening
twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window; they all carried guns
under their arms. . .

Framton Nuttel is the perfect
victim for this mischievous girl. His reaction may be even better than she expected. He is
already a nervous wreck, and the sight of three approaching men who must be ghosts is too much.
He goes running out of the house and up the country road in a panic. The fact that these
"ghosts" all have guns makes them all the more terrifying. 

Why
does Vera want to frighten poor Framton? She is bored with her confinement to this isolated
house where nobody ever talks about anything but shooting birds. She is young and would like to
have a little variety and a little excitement in her life. In fact, she wants just the opposite
of what Framton wants. 

The doctors agree in ordering me
complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of
violent physical exercise, announced Framton, who labored under the tolerably wide-spread
delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of ones
ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure.