Class 8 English Question Answers - The Open Window (Old Syllabus)

Q.1. Give a Character sketch of Vera.

Answer- Very self possessed(calm and confident) young lady of fifteen. She was quite clever as before telling a fake story she had confirmed Mr. Framton Nuttel that he did not know anything about Mrs. Sappleton   

Q.2. Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say something that should duly flatter the niece. Why?

OR

Why did Mr. Framton Nuttel speak flattering/ pleasing words at that time to Vera?

Answer- Mr. Framton Nuttel was a stranger in the village who did not know anyone over there. He spoke such words so that he might impress the girl to know more about the village as well as Mrs. Sappleton positively as he had some doubts in his mind regarding the aforesaid.

Q.3. What were the doubts in Mr. Framton Nuttel’s mind?

Answer– He had two doubts in his mind-

1. Whether those formal visits like strangers were going to help him in any way in nerve cure which he was supposed to get.
2. Whether Mrs. Sappleton was in the married or widowed state as an indefinable something about the room seemed to suggest masculine habitation.

Q.4. What was the fear in the mind of Mr. Framton Nuttel’s sister before sending him to a rural retreat?

Answer- She feared that her brother would be alone there and would not speak to anyone. If he passed his time in solitary his nerves would go from bad to worse than ever.  

Q.5. Why did Mr. Framton Nuttel’s sister give him some letters of introduction?

Answer- She gave him some letters if introduction so that he might meet some people informally and his mind might be diverted from critically deep thinking and his nerves might get better.

Q.6. “Do you many of the people round here?” Who asked this question and why?

Answer- Miss. Vera asked this question as she was making a plan to befool the stranger. The answer would help her to get success in his plan.

Q.7 “Then you know nothing practically about my aunt?” What quality of the speaker’s personality come forward through this statement?

Answer- The speaker, Miss. Vera is quite clever and perfect in playing on tricks and befooling others. 

Q.8. What was the story attributed to the family of Mrs. Sappleton created by the niece, Miss Vera?

Answer- Miss Vera told that there had been a great tragedy in the life of Mrs. Sappleton. She indicated an open window and told that out through that window three years ago her husband and two younger brothers with a small puppy, little brown spaniel went off for shooting. While crossing a grassland they stuck into a swampy land and they never came back. Their bodies were never recovered.

Q.9. According to Miss Vera What was the reason that the window was kept opened even on an October afternoon?

Answer– She told that my aunt Mrs. Sappleton’s husband and two younger brothers with a small puppy went off through that window and never returned back. Aunt hoped for them to return through the same window.

Q.10. What were some of the identifications of the lost people told by the girl?

Answer- Aunt’s husband had a white waterproof coat over his arm and Ronni, her youngest brother used to sing a song “Bertie why do you bound?” There was a dog with them.   

Q.11. What were some more terrifying points added by Vera to make her story real?

Answer-  a. Sometimes when the girl was speaking her self-possessed voice lost its notes and became falteringly human. She said “Sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that they all will walk in.”

Q.12 What description of the aunt was given by the girl?

Answer- The girl told that the aunt was a bit disturbed because of the tragedy took place three years ago. She said, “Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back someday.” She always kept a large French window wide open.

Q.13. Why did the aunt feel sorry on coming downstairs?

Answer- She felt sorry because Mr. Framton Nuttel had been waiting for a long time and she became late in making her appearance.

Q.14. How was Vera’s fake story confirmed when Mrs. Sappleton came?

Answer- As soon as she appeared she said, “I hope you don’t mind the open window.” She confirmed the whole incident as she said that her husband and two brothers would return from shooting.

Q.15. How was Mr. Framton Nuttel disappointed on the Mrs. Sappleton’s attitude?

Answer- He was really very much disappointed as she was paying only a bit of attention to him and continuously gazing at the window and the lawn beyond. He even tried to divert her attention but he was not successful.

Q.16. When did it happen that Mrs. Sappleton’s face brightened and Mr. Framton Nuttel was horrified?

Answer- When Mrs. Sappleton’s husband and two brothers seemed to be arriving back in the afternoon Mrs. Sappleton’s face brightened and Mr. Framton Nuttel was horrified.

Q.17. What were the expressions of Vera on seeing that all of them were returning?

Answer- The girl was staring out through the open window with a dazed horror in his eyes. She was pretending to horrify Mr. Framton Nuttel

Q.18. What happened when Mr. Framton Nuttel was trying to run away?

Answer- He was nearly struck with a cyclist coming along the road who had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision.

Q.19. What according to Mrs. Sappleton was the reason that Mr. Framton Nuttel ran away so hurriedly?

Answer- She thought that Mr. Framton Nuttel was only talking about his illness he seemed to be extremely sick of any kind of mental disorder or he would have seen a ghost.

Q.20. What according to Miss Vera, the niece was the reason that Mr. Framton Nuttel ran away so hurriedly?

Answer- Vera made another fake story and said that that person told her that he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the bank of Ganges by a pack of dogs and had to send the night in a newly dug grave. She said that it would be the spaniel dog which terrified him so much.