Vera (The Open Window)
Mentioned by name just once, Vera nevertheless dominates the “The Open Window” as the de facto narrator of its story. That story is actually a story-within-a-story and Vera’s story is told in the third person. By contrast, Mr. Framton is mentioned by name more than a dozen times, but few indeed are the readers who likely recall it. “The Open Window” is Vera’s story all the way. In a nicely subtle touch of Saki’s legendary love of irony, the derivation of the name Vera is from the Latin…for “truth.”
Georg and Ulrich (The Interlopers)
The two landowners at the center of the center of “The Interlopers” have spent a considerable chunk of their recent lives accusing the other of being the titular trespasser on land actually entitled to the other. The story ends with one of the most grisly uses of irony in the entire canon of Saki as they discover that they are in fact both interlopers on land where men trapped beneath a fallen tree are no match for the wolves who are the true landlords
Henri Deplis (The Background)
Henri is one of the most whimsical and unusual examples of Saki’s distinctly ironic worldview. Both previous stories conclude on a note of stinging irony and “The Background” is no different, though it ends up in an ironic environment quite different from where one probably expects. Henry Deplis can make quite a strong argument for being the literary character with the single greatest claim to having made the single worst decision inside a tattoo parlor ever.
Harvey Bope (The Toys of Peace)
If the irony of “The Interlopers” is like a frozen icicle thrust into the gut and the irony of Henri’s bad tattoo choice is like a frosty mug containing a chocolate milkshake turning out to be a Kahlua mudslide, then the irony that befalls Harvey Bope can only be considered a life lesson that should likely have been learned earlier. For god’s sake, the man is an adult! His response to his sister’s concern about her two young sons playing with toy soldiers is to advise them to behave more like political philosophers such as John Stuart Mill. He also gives them a much more instructive plaything: a municipal dustbin in which “all the refuse and litter of a town is collected…instead of lying about and injuring the health of the citizens." Inevitably, the boys turn the dustbin into a toys more appropriate for war. The irony of good intentions historically resulting in war and aggressive behavior may be lost on some readers just like reality was for so long lost on Harvey Bope. The dope.
Sredni Vashtar
Interestingly, the irony of “The Toys of Peace” is nowhere near to being the darkest of the lot of Saki. That honor, arguably for sure, most likely goes to the story which takes its title from one of the author’s strangest characters. “Sredni Vashtar” is a story in which the main character is actually a somewhat weird little sick kid named Conradin who holds a major grudge his legal guardian: his aunt, Mrs. De Ropp. The title character is a ferret-like rodent; think Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’s dark side. Conradin invests Sredni Vashtar with the power of a deity and his revenge upon his aunt is really more along the lines of just plain dark than darkly ironic.
