Foreshadowing In The Interlopers By Saki

“The Interlopers” is a short story written by Saki, this story is the tale of two men who are battling a long fought property war. The feud has gone on for many generation, and does not look like it will end until one of the men is dead. One day the two men are both in the same prized woods. One man, Ulrich is looking for the other, Georg. When they do find each other, an unfortunate event occurs, and it looks like they will be stuck for awhile. While they are trapped, they think they hear their men coming, when it is not their men, they let out a small laugh, as many foul beasts come charging. Saki used many literary elements in “The Interlopers”, he not only used irony, theme, and foreshadowing, but many more. Saki used many incredible examples
of irony, theme, and foreshadowing. “‘Are they your your men?’ asked Georg. ‘Are they your men?’ he repeated impatiently as Ulrich did not answer. ‘No,’ said Ulrich with a laugh, the idiotic chattering laugh of a man unstrung with hideous fear. ‘Who are they?’ asked Georg quickly, straining his eyes to see what the other would gladly not have seen. ‘Wolves’” (7). In the beginning of the story, both men wanted to kill each other, except now they will not get the luxury of doing that, The woods will. The woods that their family’s have fought over for many years, will now kill them. That is one way Saki showed irony in “The Interlopers”. The theme of “The Interlopers” is, one may think that something is theirs, but in reality that thing is owned. The forest within the story was once held illegally by the Znaeym family, while the von Gradwitz actually owned the land. Both families have fought over the land for a long time, and the fighting still continues. “... there was movement and unrest among the creatures that were wont to sleep through the dark hours,” (2). The animals are on edge; because, a little later in the story a storm picks up and is proven dangerous. The animals gave a little insight about what might happen later, or about how severe the storm might be. The animals is a use of foreshadowing used by Saki. The short story “The Interlopers”, written by Saki, is used in classrooms today because of its amazing elements of literature. Saki did an amazing job with things such as theme, foreshadowing, and irony. His story is jam packed with many more elements, but those are only a few. “The Interlopers” is used in schools to this day; because, the story shows great ways of using suspense, foreshadowing, theme, and many other elements of literature.