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Irony In The Interlopers By Saki

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The Interlopers is a short story written by Saki which details a feud between two men, Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym over a strip of land in a forest on the Carpathians. They plan to fight to the death when they come across each other in the woods, but end up being pinned down by a large tree. Eventually, they resolve their feud while they’re stuck under the tree and become hopeful as they hear a noise, assuming it’s their fellow hunters coming to save them. It turns out to be a pack of wolves, which allows the reader to assume the pair get killed in the end. Saki uses irony in this short story to show that one should let their past be the past and not let it interfere with the present and future. Irony is “a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected” (Dictionary.com). …show more content…

“Each had a rifle in his hand, each had hate in his heart and murder uppermost in his mind” (Saki). Ironically, their feud is delayed by the unpredictability of nature. “A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads… a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them” (Saki). After so many years of their vendetta, it all came crashing down with the tree because they were trapped by it, with nowhere else to go. The two, of course, came to a mutual agreement to settle their conflict and become friends, all in a short time span despite the fact that the controversy had lasted their whole lives. Finally, they hear a noise in the distance and strain their eyes. They immediately assume it’s a group of men coming to save them, but they are unsure. “‘Who are they?’ asked Georg quickly, straining his eyes to see what the other would gladly not have

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