Sredni Vashtar

The main conflict in "Sredni Vashtar" is between the protagonist Conradin and his cousin Mrs. De Ropp, the antagonist. For Conradin, [Mrs. De Ropp] represented those three-fifths of the world that...

In the story, we learn that the relationship between Conradin and his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp, is fraught with tension and mutual dislike. Conradin thinks of Mrs. De Ropp as a nemesis of sorts; for...

Tension permeates the powerful narrative of “Sredni Vashtar.” Saki does an amazing job at bringing it out through the eyes of Conradin: a miserable child who is as sickly as he is unfortunate. Saki...

There are a couple things that I can think of in this story that are ironic. First, it seems somewhat ironic that a boy who is supposed to be fated to die soon would want to withdraw from the...

In the short story "Sredni Vashtar" by H.H. Munro (Saki), the ferret is not only linked to death but also it is worshiped as a god by Conradin, the sickly ten-year-old boy, and is responsible for...

In general, Saki employs irony in his stories along with satire of the foibles of Edwardian society. In his short story "Sredni Vashtar," the author adopts an ironic tone and he satirizes in an...

The ending of Saki's "Sredni Vashtar" is powerful because it has elements of the mysterious and the preternatural that converge with the realism of the story. Saki's narrative is rife with intense...

The protagonist of the short story "Sredni Vashtar" is Conradin, a ten year-old sickly child who lives with his cousin, Mrs. de Ropp. She is his antagonist. The protagonist of the story is the main...

Of course, Mrs. De Ropp does not actually deserve to die. Her offenses against Conradin are grave, but they are not capital crimes. However, she is to blame for her own death because she makes a...

The themes of "Sredni Vashtar" are wishes and faith. The young boy is sick and doesn't have any agency or happiness; he knows that he's likely to die soon. He places his faith in a ferret that he...

The ending of “Sredni Vashtar” is powerful in many ways. First, it is a very cathartic ending, where the reader can finally feel some vicarious relief through the eyes of the main character, 10...

Conradin is a 10 year-old child who lives with his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp. Despite of being his cousin, Mrs. De Ropp dislikes Conradin a lot. Conradin's life is very sad and miserable. He is sick...

In order to determine the role of the polecat-ferret, the Houdan hen, and the empty barnyard in Conradin's life, we should examine how these things come to be significant in Conradin's life. Upon...

In this, one of Saki's most enigmatic short stories, Conradin is a child who is emotionally neglected, not just because he is an orphan, but also because his guardian and cousin, Mrs. De Ropp, is...

The basic idea of this story is that a 10 year old boy named Conradin (who is terminally ill) is living with his cousin, Mrs. DeRopp. They hate each other. She is pretty harsh with him, always...

Mrs. De Ropp dies when she is attacked by Conradin's polecat-ferret, Sredni Vashtar. The story of how she dies is faithfully described by the author and is presented as a case of poetic justice....

By portraying Conradin's aunt as a domineering and suffocating presence in his life, Saki causes us to sympathize with the protagonist. Additionally, since Conradin's life is one of unmitigated...

The short story "Sredni Vashtar" is one of the few examples of macabre stories by H.H. Munro, also known as Saki. It is included in Saki's Chronicles of Clovis. In a fashion that detours from...

If we go simply by the actual text of the story, there is absolutely no way for us to know what happened to Conradin's parents. His parents are never mentioned in any way in the story. All we...

The ending of Shredni Vashtar is so powerful because it illustrates the horrific glee and the quiet satisfaction of a child at his guardian's death. The resolution is made even more poignant when...

There are several traits that Conradin himself possesses which are cause for the reader's sympathy. There are also other characteristics of the cousin/guardian which provide a reason for the reader...

One of the best ways authors generally bring out the theme of conflict in their writing is to portray a struggle between opposing values. For example, in this short story, Conradin and his guardian...

The writer memorably portrays the experience of being a child in Sredni Vashtar by: 1)Using humor. This is a sad story of one boy's experience living under the guardianship of a cousin who seems...

Hello! To answer your question, Saki uses a few literary devices to bring out the feeling of Conradin being oppressed and in search of freedom. I describe the two most prevalent devices below....

The description of the ferret in "Sredni Vashtar" as a god is an example of personification. Personification entails awarding human traits and features to an inanimate object or to something which...

Saki wrote Sredni Vashtar against the backdrop of Edwardian bourgeois or upper-class society. As a well-known satirist, Saki (or Hector Hugh Munro) mercilessly lampooned aunts and female guardians...

Anabaptism is an offshoot of protestantism that holds that baptism should only be done to people who have made the conscious decision to believe in God. As a result, Anabaptists do not believe in...