The Lumber Room

by

Saki

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Lumber Room makes teaching easy.

The Aunt Character Analysis

The antagonist of the story, Nicholas’s cousins’ aunt seems to be the only adult responsible for the four children under her charge, though the story implies that there are other adults in the household as well. The aunt steps up to the challenge of this daunting task by attempting to run a tight ship, demanding obedience from her charges and doling out harsh punishments for offenders. She is often cruel to the children, inventing picnics and treats just to punish the wrongdoers by excluding them from the fun. She is also unconcerned or unaware about the children’s needs or wellbeing, focusing all her energy on ensuring their obedience. Nicholas calls her out on this in the story; after informing her that Bobby’s boots are too tight, and that he told the aunt this twice, Nicholas declares, “You often don’t listen when we tell you important things.” She is frustratingly petty, like when she tells the children there is no strawberry jam even though she has four jars of it, and uses religion to scare the children into line, telling Nicholas that he often obeys the Evil One. Though she would like to be in full control of the children, she often fails at this, especially when it comes to her dealings with Nicholas. He is not afraid of her or her punishments, and he understands her completely and can predict her actions and reactions. The aunt, on the other hand, lacks this sharpness of thought and has no idea what to make of Nicholas or his tricks, leaving herself vulnerable to him and ending up completely speechless when he shows her to be a liar.

The Aunt Quotes in The Lumber Room

The The Lumber Room quotes below are all either spoken by The Aunt or refer to The Aunt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Adults, Children, and Power Theme Icon
).
The Lumber Room Quotes

The children were to be driven, as a special treat, to the sands at Jagborough. Nicholas was not to be of the party; he was in disgrace. Only that morning he had refused to eat his wholesome bread-and-milk on the seemingly frivolous ground that there was a frog in it.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt, Girl-Cousin, Nicholas’s Brother, Boy-Cousin
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

“You said there couldn’t possibly be a frog in my bread-and-milk; there was a frog in my bread-and-milk,” he repeated, with the insistence of a skilled tactician who does not intend to shift from favourable ground.

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

His cousins’ aunt, who insisted, by an unwarranted stretch of imagination, in styling herself his aunt also, had hastily invented the Jagborough expedition in order to impress on Nicholas the delights that he had justly forfeited by his disgraceful conduct at the breakfast-table. It was her habit, whenever one of the children fell from grace, to improvise something of a festival nature from which the offender would be rigorously debarred[.]

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt, Girl-Cousin, Nicholas’s Brother, Boy-Cousin
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

“Bobby won’t enjoy himself much, and he won’t race much either,” said Nicholas with a grim chuckle; “his boots are hurting him. They’re too tight.”

“Why didn’t he tell me they were hurting?” asked the aunt with some asperity.

“He told you twice, but you weren’t listening. You often don’t listen when we tell you important things.”

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt (speaker), Bobby, Girl-Cousin
Page Number: 273
Explanation and Analysis:

The aunt had many other things to do that afternoon, but she spent an hour or two in trivial gardening operations among flower beds and shrubberies, whence she could keep a watchful eye on the two doors that led to the forbidden paradise. She was a woman of few ideas, with immense powers of concentration.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 273
Explanation and Analysis:

As a matter of fact, he had no intention of trying to get into the gooseberry garden, but it was extremely convenient for him that his aunt should believe that he had; it was a belief that would keep her on self-imposed sentry-duty for the greater part of the afternoon. Having thoroughly confirmed and fortified her suspicions Nicholas slipped back into the house and rapidly put into execution a plan of action that had long germinated in his brain.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Page Number: 273
Explanation and Analysis:

Often and often Nicholas had pictured to himself what the lumber-room might be like, that region that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes and concerning which no questions were ever answered. It came up to his expectations. […] [I]t was a storehouse of unimagined treasures.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 273274
Explanation and Analysis:

But there were other objects of delight and interest claiming his instant attention; there were quaint twisted candlesticks in the shape of snakes, and a teapot fashioned like a china duck, out of whose open beak the tea was supposed to come. How dull and shapeless the nursery teapot seemed in comparison!

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room
Page Number: 274
Explanation and Analysis:

“Nicholas, Nicholas!” she screamed, “you are to come out of this at once. It’s no use trying to hide there; I can see you all the time.”

It was probably the first time for twenty years that anyone had smiled in that lumber-room.

Related Characters: The Aunt (speaker), Nicholas
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:

“Who’s calling?” he asked.

“Me,” came the answer from the other side of the wall; “didn’t you hear me? I’ve been looking for you in the gooseberry garden, and I’ve slipped into the rain-water tank. Luckily there’s no water in it, but the sides are slippery and I can’t get out. Fetch the little ladder from under the cherry tree—”

“I was told I wasn’t to go into the gooseberry garden,” said Nicholas promptly.

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt (speaker)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:

“Will there be strawberry jam for tea?” asked Nicholas innocently.

“Certainly there will be,” said the aunt, privately resolving that Nicholas should have none of it.

“Now I know that you are the Evil One and not aunt,” shouted Nicholas gleefully; “when we asked aunt for strawberry jam yesterday she said there wasn’t any. I know there are four jars of it in the store cupboard, because I looked, and of course you know it’s there, but she doesn’t, because she said there wasn’t any. Oh, Devil, you have sold yourself!”

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt (speaker)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:

As for Nicholas, he, too, was silent, in the absorption of one who has much to think about; it was just possible, he considered, that the huntsman would escape with his hounds while the wolves feasted on the stricken stag.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt, Girl-Cousin, Nicholas’s Brother, Boy-Cousin
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room, The Tapestry
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Lumber Room LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Lumber Room PDF

The Aunt Quotes in The Lumber Room

The The Lumber Room quotes below are all either spoken by The Aunt or refer to The Aunt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Adults, Children, and Power Theme Icon
).
The Lumber Room Quotes

The children were to be driven, as a special treat, to the sands at Jagborough. Nicholas was not to be of the party; he was in disgrace. Only that morning he had refused to eat his wholesome bread-and-milk on the seemingly frivolous ground that there was a frog in it.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt, Girl-Cousin, Nicholas’s Brother, Boy-Cousin
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

“You said there couldn’t possibly be a frog in my bread-and-milk; there was a frog in my bread-and-milk,” he repeated, with the insistence of a skilled tactician who does not intend to shift from favourable ground.

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

His cousins’ aunt, who insisted, by an unwarranted stretch of imagination, in styling herself his aunt also, had hastily invented the Jagborough expedition in order to impress on Nicholas the delights that he had justly forfeited by his disgraceful conduct at the breakfast-table. It was her habit, whenever one of the children fell from grace, to improvise something of a festival nature from which the offender would be rigorously debarred[.]

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt, Girl-Cousin, Nicholas’s Brother, Boy-Cousin
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

“Bobby won’t enjoy himself much, and he won’t race much either,” said Nicholas with a grim chuckle; “his boots are hurting him. They’re too tight.”

“Why didn’t he tell me they were hurting?” asked the aunt with some asperity.

“He told you twice, but you weren’t listening. You often don’t listen when we tell you important things.”

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt (speaker), Bobby, Girl-Cousin
Page Number: 273
Explanation and Analysis:

The aunt had many other things to do that afternoon, but she spent an hour or two in trivial gardening operations among flower beds and shrubberies, whence she could keep a watchful eye on the two doors that led to the forbidden paradise. She was a woman of few ideas, with immense powers of concentration.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 273
Explanation and Analysis:

As a matter of fact, he had no intention of trying to get into the gooseberry garden, but it was extremely convenient for him that his aunt should believe that he had; it was a belief that would keep her on self-imposed sentry-duty for the greater part of the afternoon. Having thoroughly confirmed and fortified her suspicions Nicholas slipped back into the house and rapidly put into execution a plan of action that had long germinated in his brain.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Page Number: 273
Explanation and Analysis:

Often and often Nicholas had pictured to himself what the lumber-room might be like, that region that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes and concerning which no questions were ever answered. It came up to his expectations. […] [I]t was a storehouse of unimagined treasures.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 273274
Explanation and Analysis:

But there were other objects of delight and interest claiming his instant attention; there were quaint twisted candlesticks in the shape of snakes, and a teapot fashioned like a china duck, out of whose open beak the tea was supposed to come. How dull and shapeless the nursery teapot seemed in comparison!

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room
Page Number: 274
Explanation and Analysis:

“Nicholas, Nicholas!” she screamed, “you are to come out of this at once. It’s no use trying to hide there; I can see you all the time.”

It was probably the first time for twenty years that anyone had smiled in that lumber-room.

Related Characters: The Aunt (speaker), Nicholas
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:

“Who’s calling?” he asked.

“Me,” came the answer from the other side of the wall; “didn’t you hear me? I’ve been looking for you in the gooseberry garden, and I’ve slipped into the rain-water tank. Luckily there’s no water in it, but the sides are slippery and I can’t get out. Fetch the little ladder from under the cherry tree—”

“I was told I wasn’t to go into the gooseberry garden,” said Nicholas promptly.

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt (speaker)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:

“Will there be strawberry jam for tea?” asked Nicholas innocently.

“Certainly there will be,” said the aunt, privately resolving that Nicholas should have none of it.

“Now I know that you are the Evil One and not aunt,” shouted Nicholas gleefully; “when we asked aunt for strawberry jam yesterday she said there wasn’t any. I know there are four jars of it in the store cupboard, because I looked, and of course you know it’s there, but she doesn’t, because she said there wasn’t any. Oh, Devil, you have sold yourself!”

Related Characters: Nicholas (speaker), The Aunt (speaker)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:

As for Nicholas, he, too, was silent, in the absorption of one who has much to think about; it was just possible, he considered, that the huntsman would escape with his hounds while the wolves feasted on the stricken stag.

Related Characters: Nicholas, The Aunt, Girl-Cousin, Nicholas’s Brother, Boy-Cousin
Related Symbols: The Lumber Room, The Tapestry
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis: