Essay Questions

The driving mechanism behind the plot of “The Interlopers” is a dispute over a small strip of land on the border between the two main characters. What is the larger thematic metaphor at work here?

The territorial dispute over the small parcel of land in the forest did not even begin with the Ulrich and Georg, but rather traces two generations back in time to their grandfathers. In this way, the feud between the two men is stripped of any individualized personal slights of one upon the other. It is an inherited feud that both men have accepted on the premise that the property rightfully belongs to him. This makes the story directly symbolic of the territorial disputes between European nations going back for centuries which have passed down through generations as an inheritance deemed worth fighting for. The persistence of wars between European nations over longstanding disputes over land rights becomes the basis for a metaphorical rendering whittled down to just two members of two families fighting over one meaningless patch of forest. That both men die on this disputed ground is symbolic of the futility of a constantly warring continent.

In which of Saki’s stories do supernatural elements trump the conventionally realistic aspect of his most frequently anthologized tales?

“Laura” deals the possibility resurrection through reincarnation. “Sredni Vashtar” and “Tobermory” fit comfortably within the horror subgenre of psychopathic child murderers just as comfortably as they fit in the fantasy genre of talking animals. Though not often associated with horror genre, several of Saki’s short stories do feature strange and uncanny elements which would not be out of place among conventional horror writers. “The Peace of Mowsle Barton” has another plot resting on the existence of a feud, but is less universal than that in “The Interlopers” because it is a feud between witches. The werewolf seems to be the horror staple which most fascinated Saki, however. “Gabriel-Ernest” is flat-out werewolf story and a gruesomely ironic one at that. As the title indicates, “The She-Wolf” plays around on the edges of the werewolf myth. “The Wolves of Cenogratz” seem to possess strange powers and definitely manifest a howl that is more like a banshee’s shriek and which is reserved for certain people. Even what may arguably be the writer’s single most famous tale, “The Story-Teller,” features in its story-within-a-story a reference to the myth with the little girl being eaten by a wolf.

How does the story-within-a-story construction of “The Open Window” create precisely the opposite effect: informing the reader it is not a tale of the supernatural? “

The Open Window” is not a traditional story-within-a-story construct. Throughout most of the narrative, it appears to be a single, coherently integrated ghost story. Everything appears to be leading directly to what would be the most significant line in the story if this so: “The child was staring out through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes.” This description of genuine terror could serve dual purposes: either the girl really does see ghosts or she is disturbed and only thinks she sees ghost. Since Mr. Nuttel confirms that she really does see something, if the story ended here, it could still exist as ambiguous: perhaps Mr. Nuttel is a victim of engineered hysteria or else the truth about what they both see is simply never revealed. This would definitely make it a ghost story, but Saki takes the story past that point specifically to reveal that it is not a ghost story at all. More to the point, it is only by having the narrative to this point turn out to be a story-within-a-story that it becomes an example of Saki’s number one literary stock in trade: the ironic twist ending.