"The Open Window" is a satirical short story that mocks the decorum, pomposity, and ignorance of the English leisure class. Saki's desire to critique social mores can be understood in the context of the growing awareness of social injustice during his time. There was an air of change at the turn of the century, as society, and those representing it through art and literature, moved on from the Victorian period and began to look ahead towards their expectations of modernity. At the same time, there was nothing new about Saki's use of satire to make fun of the English elite; in the eighteenth century, for example, satirists like Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope made steady use of the genre to ridicule the ignorance and hypocrisy of aristocratic society.
As a genre and writing style, satire rests on an attentive eye that is used for literary ridicule. A satirist's aim is to use wit, cynicism, irony, exaggeration, and juxtaposition to accurately capture some irksome aspect of society—and thereby resist it. The satirist hopes that their work will encourage change, either as a result of disturbing or amusing the reader (or very often a combination of the two). Although not all satires are funny, Saki seeks to amuse the reader in "The Open Window" through his critique of Edwardian high society.
If the satirist is in the position of outside observer in the moment of writing, the reader is invited to this same vantage point in the moment of reading. The reader is positioned on the outside of what is being mocked and inside of the act of mocking, alongside the satirist. In "The Open Window," the reader is laughing at characters like Mr. Nuttel and Mrs. Sappleton, and laughing with Saki. While satire is based on this gesture of laughing at, there is also a key element of hope involved; a satirist like Saki may be described as critical, indignant, perhaps even sneering, but he is also hopeful. In order to point out behaviors and customs in need of reform, one must be firm in one's moral convictions and have a clear sense of the ways the world should change for the better. Saki pokes fun at the Mr. Nuttels of the world, but also empathizes with them for their inability to function in a world that is steered by convoluted and contrived conventions
