Man Versus Nature

Of the two characters, Ulrich von Gradwitz appears first in the story, and the author gives the reader somewhat more access to his thoughts. One might, therefore, call him the protagonist and Georg Znaeym the antagonist. To Znaeym, though, the matter appears the other way around, for Gradwitz is his antagonist. But the story slowly reveals that for both men the true antagonist is Nature. Even when Nature—a force which Saki personifies in his writings with an initial capital—drops a tree on the two men, they continue to think of their situation in interpersonal terms. Only when a pack of wolves arrives at the story’s end do the men take Nature seriously as a shared antagonist.

Ulrich and Georg are both obsessed with an insignificant piece of land—not because of the land itself but because of their quarrel. In the second paragraph of the story, Ulrich notices the agitation of the roebuck and immediately ascribes it not to the impending storm but to Georg’s presence. Later, when the two men decide to become friends, Georg makes a speech about how everything will be peaceful from now on, with no “interlopers” spoiling their perfect harmony. It is only during the last lines of the story that both men are compelled to turn away from one another and recognize the danger that has surrounded them on this stormy night in this wild forest that does not truly belong to either of them. They have assumed that the central conflict was one of man against man, and this has been resolved, but the conflict of man against Nature has not.

Honor Culture

Saki’s writings convey an ambivalent attitude to upper-class practices and conventions. He tends to see the upper classes as guardians of civilization, but at the same time he understands how corrupt civilization is and how often its guardians fall short of their own ideals. While the English upper classes were the primary target of Saki’s satire, he was also international in his outlook. By the time he wrote “The Interlopers,” he had already published When William Came, a novel sending up German militarism. He may well have written “The Interlopers” while fighting against Germany in the First World War.

The nationality of Ulrich von Gradowitz and Georg Znaeym is never revealed. Although they are probably not German, they are clearly from the part of Central Europe that is heavily influenced by Germanic culture. This culture was widely seen in the nineteenth and early twentieth century as a highly militarized one, obsessed with physical courage, honor, and the continuation of ancient feuds. Above all, it was a culture of dueling. In Three Men on the Bummel, a relatively sympathetic humorous 1900 work about a trip around Germany, British author Jerome K. Jerome describes the bloodthirsty nature of German duels and the hideous scars worn as badges of honor by members of the upper classes. This is the background against which Ulrich and Georg’s feud takes place. They have hated each other since boyhood—not for any personal reason but as the result of a culture of ritualized militarism and family honor. Saki shows how false this culture is by depicting how it breaks down almost immediately when these antagonists are forced by happenstance to spend time in one another’s company.

Class Conflict

Ulrich von Gradwitz may be seen as a representative of the old Prussian Junker aristocracy that had consolidated great estates in Central Europe over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the early twentieth century, many individual members of this class, such as Paul...