Summary Of The Interlopers By Saki

Put out that bloody cigarette!’ (Wilson 2060). These were the last words of Hector Hugh Munro, a British author who was killed by a German sniper during the First World War. Under the pen name Saki, his writing is described as being stylistic and technical and is presented in such a way that is “a masterful process that builds story” (Billingsley). Many critics defend Saki as being a masterful story writer, and they say, if his career was not cut short, he would have honed his skills to a degree never before seen. Being published in newspapers he wrote for, Saki’s short stories focus around exotic, almost dreamlike, lands and use suspense and irony to surprise the readers. He would continually use characters that mocked popular customs using

the common nature setting to show that, in the end, nature will always bend men to its will not the other way around. Saki’s short story “The Interlopers”, which was published after his death in 1916, is considered a short Balkan Gothic romance that “moves from thrilling to hopeful to tragic, thanks to the twist ending” (Gibson). The story begins with Ulrich von Gradwitz patrolling his land with his ‘foresters’ hunting for a trespasser named Georg Znaeym. Generations ago, a feud broke out over a strip of land, which got settled in court with Ulrich winning the land. Georg refused to abide by the court order and considered the land his own and still hunted on it. Ulrich saw this as poaching and went out to hunt Georg down. When the two meet in the forest, neither would shoot because “a man brought up under the code of a retraining civilization cannot shoot down his neighbor without a word spoken” (Saki). While the pair stared at each other, a sharp wind knocked a tree over on top of them, pinning them together with no way to escape. After a brief conversation, the two reconcile and realize that this feud was completely worthless and that they would be better off as friends rather than enemies. They agree to call for their hunters to come help move the tree, but as Ulrich looked upon several figures approaching fast he realized that they were not men, they were wolves. The unusual twist at the end never clearly specifies what actually happens to the pair but we could only assume that they were ravaged by the wolfpack due to their state of helplessness. Overall, in Saki’s story, “The Interlopers,” nature is a constant force throughout the story and is depicted through the actions of the characters, the setting of the land, and the use of irony within the text.
Throughout the entirety of the story, the characters are constantly conforming to the nature of the Carpathian mountains. One of Saki’s biggest points throughout many of his short stories was the indifference of nature. Even though these men have lived their entire lives fighting, nature could care less about this quarrel. This is shown through the apparel of the men up to the ending. The men had to wear heavy clothes to be protected from the cold winter and thick boots due to the swampy land, these boots later protect Ulrich’s legs from being crushed by the falling tree. The two men have lived in the forest, either hunting animals or each other, for so long that they have adapted to their surroundings. Saki used the fact that they hunted each other to compare men to beasts by suggesting that men are lesser than the creature of the forest because they cannot rise above feuds over a worthless strip of land. Another major plot point that shows nature's indifference would be the ending of the short story. After being pinned by the tree both men were bleeding heavily, which no doubt attracted the wolves. These wolves are programmed to survive by whatever means necessary and see the two men as free food that cannot fight back due to their predicament. If the hunters of either party arrived, both men would have walked away as friends because they would have helped each other. This ending would have been a more satisfying one, but the current ending only furthers the idea that nature is indifferent to man’s plight and shows no sympathy when it comes to basic needs in the wild. Another major player in Saki’s writing is the depiction of his stories settings.
The setting also plays a major part in Saki’s stories, which are usually very mysterious or fantasy-like in nature.“The Interlopers” takes place In the Carpathian mountains, which extend from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine.

This mountain range is depicted as a cold, dark, and dreary place. Some scholars believe that this story can be considered as a “satire on the history of the Romanian conflict” during the middle ages; a useless squabble over a useless piece of land (Byrne). In the generations before them, these two families squabbled over the land until it turned into a blood feud. The storm constantly thwarted the characters all throughout the story, especially when it knocks the tree down on top the Ulrich and Georg. The tree pinning the two men eventually made Ulrich realize that the useless piece of land he fought for so long could not even keep its own trees in the ground. This is when the two made amends and ended their feud, realizing that if they became friends they could do more together than against each other. What these men do not realize is just how wrong it is to assume whose land it was. In the end, nature rules over nature and no man can do anything to thwart that. This was shown in the bittersweet ending of “The

Interlopers’.
The last major literary element that Saki was especially fond of was irony.

Most of Saki’s works end with an ironic twist that Saki mastered over the course of this writing career. Many critics believe that if Saki's writing had time to mature, he could have had very promising impacts upon the literary world. The major ironic development within “The Interlopers” comes in at the very end of the story. Once the two men get pinned and make amends with each other, they both yell for their hunter to come help them. This racket coupled with the two bleeding out probably drew the attention of the wolfpack to the two defenseless men. Here, readers realize who the true interlopers of the forest really are. In the beginning, it is explained that Georg is the interloper on Ulrich’s land, explaining that Georg poaches on the land. On the other hand, Georg sees Ulrich as the interloper, hunting on his land despite the fact that a court order tells Georg to not go on the land. Between the two, the other is the intruder on their land. To nature, however, both Georg and Ulrich are the interlopers. This goes full circle back to the idea that nature is indifferent to man. Ulrich owns the land in the legal system, but cannot rule over nature. In a metaphorical sense, one can show that another interloper would be human violence that intrudes on the land (“The Interlopers”). This violence on the land made the land fight back. The quarrel on the land affects the setting in the beginning when

Ulrich passes through the wood. He knew his enemy was there because the animals were not taking shelter from the storm, but were frantic and running around. The two men disturbed the natural habitats of the animals of the Carpathians, which ended in their untimely deaths at the hands of nature.
Overall, the most common theme that can be drawn from this story can be summed up in a short sentence: The law is not of civilization but of the wild. This can be backed up with the development of the characters, both internally and externally, throughout the story, the depiction of the setting and its impact upon the many different elements that make up “The Interlopers”, and the shocking use of irony that twists the ending, leaving readers wondering what happened to these two men. Saki clearly had a strong grasp on the short story concept and, if allowed to mature, he could have redefined the genre had it not been for his untimely death to the hands of war.