The Lumber Room

The Lumber Room Literary Elements

Genre

Short story

Setting and Context

The story is set in an upper-middle class British home during the early 1900s.

Narrator and Point of View

The story is narrated by an unnamed third-person omniscient narrator; the point of view stays largely with Nicholas, though occasionally it shifts to his aunt.

Tone and Mood

The tone is comic; the mood is mischievous and laden with irony.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Nicholas is the protagonist; the antagonist is his aunt.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in the story is that Nicholas seeks to defy his aunt's authority by using her rules and punishments against her.

Climax

The story reaches its climax when Nicholas returns his aunt's cruelty by using her command not to enter the gooseberry garden as a reason not to bring a ladder to help her out of the rain-water tank.

Foreshadowing

Understatement

Allusions

When pretending that he does not believe his aunt is really his aunt, Nicholas mentions "the Evil One," alluding to the Christian religious figure of Satan.

Imagery

Paradox

Parallelism

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Personification

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