Sunday 8 January 2017

Describe the character of Nicholas in Saki's short story "The Lumber Room."

Nicholas is a
very smart young man who has planned out this day very carefully.  He is dying to get into that
lumber room.  There is nothing worse than being told you cannot go into a room.  He knows his
aunt well, and he knows if he puts the frog in his bread and milk in the morning, she will
arrange for the other kids to go someplace fun.  Then he will have the house to
himself. 

He is a planner.  He knows where the key is hidden, knows how he is
going to it down from the shelf, and knows how to open the door since he practiced on the
schoolroom door.  When he opens that door, he has a wonderful experience because he is very
imaginative.  While looking at the tapestry, he creates a whole scenario of what is happening in
the picture. 

But did the huntsman see, what Nicholas
saw, that four galloping wolves were coming in his direction through the wood?...... would the
man and his dogs be able to cope with the four wolves if they made an attack? (pg 4)


Later we see that he is a quick-thinker.  When the aunt becomes
trapped in the rainwater tank, she calls to him for help.   She promises to give him strawberry
jam for tea, although she has no intention of doing so.  Nicholas knows that.  Nicholas says
that he thinks she is the Evil One tempting him to disobey.  He will not give into the
temptation.  He uses the subject of the strawberry jam to convince her that she must be the Evil
one.  So he leaves her there in the rainwater tank until the kitchenmaid rescues her. 


He has a sense of humor.  The reader finds himself smiling at Nicolass ingenuity.  He
has a spirited sense of fun, which I dont think the aunt appreciated.

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