Both Saki's short story,"The Open Window," and Hans
Christian Andersen's tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes," have narratives that are
predicated upon the weaknesses of the listeners. For, Vera's fabricated tale relies
upon the nervous condition and guillibility of Framton Nuttel who is unfamiliar with the
countryside where she resides; likewise, the fabricated illusion of the two scoundrels'
having made invisible clothes that will reveal the character of his subjects relies upon
the emperor's vanity as well as his ego which will not permit him to admit that he sees
nothing.
In "The Open Window," for instance, having
recognized the timorous and anxious nature of Nuttel, Vera builds a tall-tale from the
frame of an open window, thereby creating believability. Her mixing of truth with
fiction generates enough verisimiltude to her tale that Nuttel believes it. Similarly,
the two scoundrels of "The Emperor's New Clothes" blur the lines between imagination and
reality by playing upon the emperor's egotistical refusal to admit that he sees nothing
lest he seem "ignorant and incompetent."
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