THE OPEN WINDOW
To get the proper connection, the reader should first know “Laughter.”
Plot.
Initial Incident: André Fernet meets the hunchback, Flavio Minetti, and learns that he knows something of Suvaroff’s death. He is brought under Minetti’s power of fascination.
Steps toward Dramatic Climax: Fernet’s landlord, Pollitto, speaks of his vacant room. Fernet resolves to see Minetti again, and perhaps to learn who killed Suvaroff. They meet at the Hotel de France. Minetti says he was “expecting” Fernet. Fernet goes with Minetti, in spite of warning, to a wine-shop. Minetti’s suggestion that Fernet evidently wished to know who murdered Suvaroff is coupled with a warning that it is a “dreadful thing to share such a secret.” But Fernet insists.
Dramatic Climax: Minetti says, “It was I who killed him,” whereupon Fernet laughs. Notice that the dramatic climax, the laughter, falls early in this story, whereas in the former it arrives tardily. Is this logical, from the nature of the circumstances?
Steps toward the Climax of Action: Minetti states that he kills every one who laughs at him. He prepares a café royal; Fernet is afraid, but makes a show of indifference or incredulity. In the morning, Fernet learns that his landlord has rented the room to Minetti; he thinks of going away but decides to stay and “see what happens.” After some days, Minetti calls on Fernet. He says he has tried every slow way of murder except mental murder. Fernet laughs, thus emphasizing the dramatic climax, but as Minetti says it does not matter, “You can die only once.” His speech intensifies the dramatic forecast, already conveyed. Minetti supplies saccharine for the coffee; Fernet fears “slow poison,” but nevertheless drinks, as if in a spirit of bravado, or unwillingness to seem afraid. Minetti harps on the idea that Fernet has laughed at him. Fernet’s landlord comments on his haggard appearance. Fernet dreams. He stays away from his office, visits the library, and asks for all the works on poison. After dining alone, he meets Minetti, who persuades him to have a cup of coffee. Fernet speaks of his reading. He decides to go away to-morrow. On arriving at his room, he feels sick and is helped to bed by Minetti. He grows worse; Minetti attends him, and sends for the doctor. Upon the doctor’s prescribing delicacies, Minetti prepares several which, in succession, Fernet refuses, and which he sees are thrown out of the window. At length he manages to tell the doctor that he is eating nothing, in spite of Minetti’s assertion to the contrary. The doctor thinks Fernet insane. At the end of the week, even Minetti says he has eaten nothing. Fernet resolves, again, to go away to-morrow. But, still doing without food, he grows weaker.
Climax of Action: He dies, but not before he hears Minetti’s laughter and the words: “Without any weapon save the mind!”
The struggle is well elaborated, as the preceding plot outline indicates, even though it is the one-sided bird-and-snake struggle, with a predetermined outcome.
Characterization. Compare Fernet with Suvaroff. Which of the two offers the more difficult problem in psychology? Is it easy to believe that Fernet submitted to the sway of Minetti? Why, for example, did he not go away?
Compare, also, the subordinate characters with those in “Laughter.” What do most of them in this story think or feel about Minetti? How does the author indicate their attitudes?
Details. Is the angle of narration similar to that in “Laughter”? What details appeal to the reader’s gustatory sense? Study the symbolic use of the pepper-tree. Compare it with the cherry-tree in “Cruelties.” What details of setting emphasize the locality?