The Elevator by William Sleator
Quick answer: The Elevator by William Sleator, ICSE Class 10 Treasure Chest: Martin's fear, the fat lady who stares, the broken leg, the ending between floors, themes and exam answers.
A thin twelve-year-old moves with his father into an old building where the elevator is tiny, slow and dim, and one day a fat woman gets in and stares at him for the whole ride without blinking.
William Sleator (1945 to 2011) published this story in 1989; it is set for ICSE Class 10 in the Treasure Chest anthology.
The story in brief
Martin has always feared the elevator, and his father, who despises weakness, tells him the fear is childish. The fat woman appears again and again, getting in on different floors, always staring, once laughing. Martin begins taking the stairs to their seventeenth-floor flat. Hurrying down one day he falls and breaks his leg, and now, on crutches, the stairs are impossible.
His father, impatient, makes him use the elevator. On the day Martin must ride alone, the car stops partway down and the fat woman steps in. She pushes the Stop button between floors, turns to him, and says his name, Hello, Martin. The story ends there.
The people in it
A boy, a parent, a stranger.
- Martin: small, anxious, observant, right to be afraid.
- The father: contemptuous of fear, absent when it matters.
- The fat lady: the stranger who knows his name and never explains.
Themes and meaning
Exam readings include fear and its dismissal by adults, isolation, and the horror of the ordinary. The sharper point is that the story never decides whether the woman is supernatural or merely cruel; the terror is that Martin's fear was correct and nobody believed him. Sleator writes a horror story about not being listened to.
The craft: the withheld ending
Sleator confines the story to one space and one repeated encounter, escalating by tiny changes: a stare, a laugh, a closer floor. The turn is the broken leg, which removes Martin's only escape. The ending stops at the worst moment and refuses to show what happens next. Writers can steal the escalation by repetition and the cut before the climax; a story that trusts the reader to finish the scene is what earns Emotional Impact marks in the Writory contest rubric.
For the exam
Quick material for ICSE Class 10.
- Word meanings: claustrophobic, fearing enclosed spaces; contempt, scorn; peered, looked closely; crutches, supports for walking; sullen, gloomy; lurch, sudden jolt.
- Character sketch of Martin in 60 words: Twelve, thin and nervous, Martin lives with a father who mocks his fears and expects toughness. He dreads the building's small dark elevator and grows terrified when a fat woman rides with him, staring. He tries the stairs, breaks his leg, and is forced back into the elevator alone. Observant and sensitive, he is right about the danger and believed by no one.
- Q: Why does Martin fear the elevator? A: It is small, old and dim, and a strange woman repeatedly rides with him and stares without a word.
- Q: How does the broken leg change the story? A: It removes the stairs as an escape, forcing Martin into the elevator he dreads.
- Q: How does the story end? A: The woman gets in, stops the elevator between floors, and greets him by name.
- Summary in 100 words: Martin, a timid twelve-year-old, moves with his contemptuous father into an old building with a small, slow elevator. A fat woman begins riding with him, staring without blinking and once laughing. Frightened, Martin takes the stairs to the seventeenth floor, but he falls and breaks his leg, and on crutches the stairs are impossible. His father insists he use the elevator. Riding alone, Martin sees the car stop and the woman step in. She presses the Stop button between floors, turns to him, and says, Hello, Martin. The story ends with the two of them alone in the stalled car.
What writers can take from this
- Describe the elevator itself first; the setting is the source of the fear.
- List the woman's appearances in order to show escalation.
- Explain why the ending stops where it does; examiners want you to discuss the open ending, not invent a conclusion.
- Writers, escalate through repetition with one small change each time.
- Cut before the climax and trust the reader to finish it.
Try it yourself
Write a story confined to one small space in which the same stranger appears repeatedly with one small change each time. The protagonist's only escape must be removed midway, and the story must end the instant the stranger finally speaks.
Questions
What is the theme of The Elevator by William Sleator?
Fear that adults refuse to take seriously, and the horror of the ordinary. Martin's dread of the elevator and of the staring woman is dismissed by his father, and the ending suggests his fear was justified all along.
Who is the fat lady in The Elevator?
A stranger who rides the elevator with Martin again and again, staring at him and once laughing. Sleator never explains who she is; at the end she stops the elevator between floors and greets Martin by name.
What happens at the end of The Elevator?
Martin, on crutches and alone, rides the elevator; it stops, the fat woman gets in, presses the Stop button between floors and says, Hello, Martin. The story ends there, leaving what follows to the reader.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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