"The Lumber Room" by Saki
...probably the first time for twenty years that any one had smiled in that lumber-room”. This clearly shows that there had not been children in the lumber-room for more than twenty years. Nicholas was a very wise child. He thought like and adult. He was sly, histrionic, critical and was ready to prove how wrong adults were. When he found the tapestry in the lumber-room and started to imagine the story of the huntsman, we could deduce that he had the mind of a writer, he was precocious. When his aunt fell into the water tank, he took too much satisfaction of the situation and this was the perfect excuse to take revenge on her. He was tired of adults abusing of their authority. He was clever minded, he did not believe too much to luck and accident. His actions were perfectly planned and synchronized. Trough them, he procured the absence of the other children and his aunt’s employment in the garden as to be able to get in the lumber-room without being caught. Although Saki is a grown-up he is identified with Nicholas because when he was a child he used to live with his aunts. Aunt Augusta (one of Saki’s aunt) was the inspiration for Nicholas’ aunt in the “Lumber Room”. On the other hand we have the aunt who was harsh and self-imposed. On the eyes of Nicholas she was evil but to the aunt’s eyes, Nicholas was the evil one. She thought children did evil things. She took advantage of her authority and she tought adults were the better and wiser people. She never listened to children, she was cruel and treated them as if they were not important. She ill-treated them. According to Nicholas she was a woman of few ideas but with a great power of concentration. When she fell inside the water tank se became a victim to Nicholas. When one children misbehaved the aunt invented something not to amuse the other children but to be able to punish the offender. Saki’s diction and the subject matter provokes a comic effect. He uses military (prisoner, tank, skilled tactici...