Read the excerpt from "The Open Window." In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window
; they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: "I said, Bertie, why do you bound?” Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall-door, the gravel-drive, and the front gate were dimly-noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid an imminent collision. "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?” "A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel,” said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of good-bye or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost.” "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.” Romance at short notice was her specialty. How does the author use characterization to create satire? He uses Framton’s fearfulness, which is inappropriate because the hunters are not ghosts. He uses Mr. Sappleton’s curiosity about Framton’s sudden departure to highlight Framton’s rudeness. He uses Mrs. Sappleton’s perceptions of Framton to ridicule her lack of understanding of his concerns. He uses the niece’s unexpected lies to highlight flaws in her character and those around her.
