Sredni Vashtar – Hector Hugh Munro

In Sredni Vashtar by Saki we have the theme of escape, acceptance, control, revenge,
selfishness, independence and freedom. Narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator the
reader realises after reading the story that Saki may be exploring the theme of escape. Conradin
spends as much time as he can in the tool shed. His reason being to simply stay away from his
cousin Mrs De Ropp. What is important about the shed is that Conradin is able to create a world
for himself in whereby he can wreak revenge on Mrs De Ropp. The reader aware of the mutual
dislike that both Conradin and Mrs De Ropp have for one another. Though Saki does not provide
the reader with any information as to why Mrs De Ropp dislikes Conradin it may be a case that
she views him as an unnecessary burden. Something that is noticeable by her immediate
acceptance of the fact that Conradin may only have five years left to live. Rather than finding a
cure that might help Conradin. Mrs De Ropp appears to immediately accept what the doctor has
told her. This may be important as it is possible that Saki is suggesting that Mrs De Ropp not
only considers Conradin a burden but she may also be relieved that she will no longer have to
look after him.
Conradin’s dislike for Mrs De Ropp is easier to work out. He is aware that Mrs De Ropp doesn’t
like him so it is easy for him to dislike her back. At no stage in the story does the reader get any
sense that either Conradin or Mrs De Ropp feel guilty about disliking each other. If anything the
arrangement between Conradin and Mrs De Ropp appears to be a complete inconvenience to
both parties. It also seems to be a case that Mrs De Ropp controls Conradin as much as she can.
By getting rid of the hen Mrs De Ropp is taking away an avenue of escape for Conradin. Also by
giving him toast after she has gotten rid of the hen the reader senses that Mrs De Ropp is
attempting to appease Conradin. Though at the same time the reader is aware that Mrs De Ropp
dislikes having toast made. The fact that Conradin doesn’t eat the toast may also be important as
it symbolically suggests he is independent of Mrs De Ropp. He is not going to allow her actions
upset him.
Throughout the story there is also a sense that Mrs De Ropp acts selfishly. Firstly when she
accepts the doctor’s diagnosis without questioning it and secondly when she gets rid of the hen.
Though both events are very different in manner the one thing that they do have in common is
the fact that Mrs De Ropp is thinking only of herself and nobody else. If anything it becomes
clear to the reader that Mrs De Ropp is not suited to look after Conradin. At all stages of the
story she appears to put herself before Conradin. Forgetting that she is his guardian and should
have his interests at heart. It is also understandable as to why Conradin would create an
alternative world in the tool shed. Ironically for a boy who has been told that he only has five
years left to live. Conradin stands a better chance of survival staying as far away from Mrs De
Ropp as possible. Both Conradin through his praying to Sredni Vashtar and Mrs De Ropp by her
lack of care for Conradin are in reality at war with one another.
The end of the story is also interesting as Conradin gets the revenge he was seeking. It is as
though Conradin has freed himself. No longer does he have to continue playing Mrs De Ropp’s
game. Something that is noticeable by the fact that when Conradin realises that Sredni Vashtar
has killed Mrs De Ropp he makes himself another piece of toast. A fact that the reader is aware
would have been met with disapproval by Mrs De Ropp should she have still been alive. It is
also interesting that the maid is afraid to tell Conradin that Mrs De Ropp is dead as this suggests
that she was not aware of the relationship that Conradin had with Mrs De Ropp. Their
relationship wasn’t transparent to others. Similarly the doctor also appears to be unaware of the
relationship both Conradin and Mrs De Ropp had with one another. It is as though the battle
between Conradin and Mrs De Ropp was a private one. Which is understandable when it comes
to Mrs De Ropp’s character. She cannot allow society to see that she dislikes Conradin. Conradin
on the other hand as a ten year old has shown great strength. He knows that Mrs De Ropp
doesn’t like him but he also knows that he is only ten years old and people would have not taken
him seriously should he have raised the matter of Mrs De Ropp disliking him and making his life
difficult.
(Source 2)
Author Background
Analysis of 'Sredni Vashtar' by Saki (HH Munro) - Saki is most famous for his witty and
sometimes macabre short stories though he did write other forms of literature too. Often he
satirized the Edwardian society that he was part of. When Munro lost his mother while he was
still a child, he along with his siblings, were brought up by his grandmother and aunts in a strict
puritanical household that was devoid of all fun. This experience is no doubt reflected in the
short story Sredni Vashtar.
Relevance of the Title
A short story is by its very nature concise but that is not to say it is always simple. The title goes
a long way in telling something about the story. In Sredni Vashtar, the central character is ten
year old Conradin but it is the eponymous ferret that takes the story forward. Conradin can’t do
much by way of action considering he is just a child and one who is terminally ill but the caged
ferret is the instrument to bring Conradin’s wishes to fruition.
There is also the novelty value of the words Sredni Vashtar. It is difficult to understand how the
ten year old could have thought of such a name for his animal god but it does arouse the curiosity
of the reader. Finally, Sredni Vashtar is a symbol for all the diverse themes that this story
touches upon.
Main Themes
The main themes of Sredni Vashtar are imagination and reality, interpersonal relationships and
religion. The boy, Conradin almost exclusively lives in his imagination as he is not permitted to
do anything that would normally appeal to a boy of ten. The orchard and garden are out of
bounds as are the interesting rooms in the house. An array of windows open out to the garden
and one of them might open suddenly with his cousin calling out to him to desist from doing
whatever young boys do.
The boy hates his guardian and lavishes all his love on the Houdan hen. The guardian then has
the hen taken away. The boy channelizes all his hatred and prays to his god, which is a caged
ferret, to help him. In the child’s mind, this god, Sredni Vashtar is capable of annihilating its
enemies. Conradin almost wills the ferret to attack Mrs De Ropp.
Mrs De Ropp singularly lacks all understanding of a child’s mind. The orphan boy has only five
years left to live in this world but instead of bringing in some joy and fun into his life she ensures
that it is dull and drab. So unhappy is the child, he almost loses his will to live for those five
years even. Conradin is denied the simple pleasure of eating toast with his tea on the pretext that
“it was bad for him”.
Religion too appears as a theme in Sredni Vashtar. The formal religion that Mrs De Ropp
follows leaves Conradin dissatisfied so he seeks solace in the one that he fashions for himself,
presided over by the blood thirsty Sredni Vashtar. When full of despair and thirsting for revenge
he prays to it, the ferret god does not forsake the boy.
Characters
Sredni Vashtar has only two characters – Mrs De Ropp and Conradin, the ten year old
protagonist of the story.
Conradin
Conradin is a ten year old orphan who is entrusted to the care of Mrs De Ropp. Suffering from
some terminal illness, Conradin has been given less than five more years to live. To Conradin,
Mrs De Ropp stands for “three – fifths of the world that are necessary and disagreeable and real”.
All that he is left with is his imagination. That is what lets him live. Without his imagination,
Conradin would have died long ago.
Conradin is checked at every turn by his guardian; while she is always polite, she goes out of her
way to deny him the simple pleasures that would bring joy and satisfaction. Conradin hates her
with a ferocity that is frightening.
A few paragraphs into the story, the reader sympathizes with the absence of love in his life; he
has nothing to love either. It is easy to understand why he lavishes so much affection on the hen
and the ferret god whom he fears too as it has sharp white fangs. It is when his beloved hen is
taken away from him that Conradin becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge and prays to
Sredni Vashtar to kill his guardian.
Conradin seems to grow before our eyes once Mrs De Ropp is killed. Till then he was a normal
child in conflict with a cruel world outside. There is something sinister and frightening about the
nonchalant way in which he butters his toast when all around him is panic and fear.
Mrs De Ropp
Mrs De Ropp is Conradin’s guardian. She is not too pleased with the idea of having to care for
the boy; at any rate she has no ideas on keeping a dying child happy and pleased. She does not
actively dislike Conradin but she also does not mind taking away from him all that gives him
pleasure. She does not let him go into the orchard claiming that the fruit on the trees were too
rare and precious to be plucked by him. Toast with tea is banned for the vague excuse of being
“bad for him”.
For a time the presence of the tool shed and its attraction for Conradin escapes her attention.
Once she is aware of the presence of his beloved pet, the Houdan hen, she has it taken away. Still
not satisfied, she sails forth to investigate why the tool shed attracts the boy so. The caged ferret
resents her intrusion and kills her. If she had let the boy be, there is no doubt she would have
survived.
Plot
Conradin is a ten year old boy who is under the care his guardian, Mrs De Ropp. He suffers from
a terminal illness and has but five more years to live. Mrs De Ropp does not relish her
responsibility of caring for Conradin. She cares little for keeping Conradin happy. He has no one
to love him and no object to love. He has only his imagination to fall back on and he peoples his
life with phantom characters. The neglected tool-shed in a corner of the garden become a refuge
when the real world turns too oppressive. In it he keeps his most cherished possessions – a
Houdan hen and a caged ferret. While he lavishes his love on the hen, he fears the ferret and its
sharp fangs.
This fear makes him invest notions of great power in the ferret and it turns into a God with the
outlandish name Sredni Vashtar. Conradin conducts strange rituals to please the god who he
thinks will make his wishes come true.
When Mrs De Ropp becomes aware of the presence of the hen, it is taken away. Conradin’s
hatred for his guardian finds a focus now and he prays for it to take revenge. Mrs De Ropp
realizes that Conradin spends an inordinate time inside the shed and goes to investigate. The next
we know is that the ferret has escaped from the cage and killed her. Conradin is pleased at this
outcome.
Summary - Analysis of 'Sredni Vashtar' by Saki (HH Munro)
Conradin is a ailing ten year old boy with just five more years living under the care of his
guardian, Mrs De Ropp. Under the guise of doing good, Mrs De Ropp destroys what little joy
Conradin has. He takes shelter in his imagination, peopling his life with phantom characters. But
he also has two living pets hidden in an abandoned tool shed in the garden. One is a hen that he
loves dearly.
The other is a sharp fanged ferret that he loves but fears more. He soon invests it with
supernatural powers and it turns into a god named Sredni Vashtar. Special occasions, like the
three days when his guardian had a tooth ache, are celebrated as festivals with special offerings
made to the god.
Soon Mrs De Ropp realizes that Conradin spends a lot of time in the shed. The hen is discovered
and sold. Conradin’s hatred for his guardian now becomes pathological and he fervently prays to
his god for one special wish. The guardian is aware that something more remains hidden inside
the shed and goes in to investigate. The boy has no hope nevertheless prays fervently to his god.
He eagerly watches the entrance to the tool shed. The maid goes in to summon the mistress to tea
but comes out screaming.
There are shouts, crying and panic. But Conradin is composed and butters his toast calmly. His
wish has come true – the ferret has killed Mrs De Ropp.
Metaphors
Saki was himself subjected to cruelty by a sadistic aunt during his childhood. Many of his stories
have cruel and uncaring adults and suffering young children. For Conradin, the tool shed is a
haven to which he can escape when life becomes too oppressive outside. His guardian denies
him simple pleasures in the name of doing him good. In the shed he has hidden two living things,
a hen and a caged ferret. While he loves the hen, he worships the ferret as a god as it symbolizes
power.
There are several things the boy longs for but cannot attain. He suffers from a dreadful illness
that is sure to kill him soon. The cousin keeps even the mediocre fruits in the garden out of his
reach. Hot buttered toast which is denied to him becomes a symbol for the freedom that is denied
to him. In the end when Mrs De Ropp is dead and he is free, he helps himself to hot buttered
toast.
Language
Saki wrote stories that were deceptively simple. He does not use complicated metaphors or
unnecessary sentences. Everything is pared down to the minimum. The only thing exotic here is
the title. Sometimes the things that Saki leaves unsaid are more eloquent. For example, after the
hen is taken away and Conradin appears distraught, the guardian offers him toast. He refuses to
have it. “I thought you liked toast”, she says. “Sometimes” replies Conradin. That one word
expresses so much.
Later, when he fervently prays to Sredni Vashtar, he asks for “one thing” without specifying
what it is. Gods are supposed to know everything. Only at the end we know that he had prayed
for Mrs De Ropp’s death.
Important Quotes
1. Mrs De Ropp was Conradin’s cousin and guardian, and in his eyes she represented those
three-fifths of the world that are necessary and disagreeable and real; the other two-fifths, in
perpetual antagonism to the foregoing, were summed up in himself and his imagination.
Saki says that the larger part of the world stands for those things that are required and are there
but that is the part that is unpleasant too. Ranged against this majority was the minority made up
of Conradin and his imagination. He was constantly battling a larger enemy.
2. In the dull, cheerless garden overlooked by so many windows that were ready to open with a
message not to do this or that or a reminder that medicines were due, he found little attraction.
Conradin feels spied upon all the time. A bank of windows opens out into the garden and any of
them could be flung open and admonitions thrown out. The garden itself was not a pleasing one.
Conradin was as though in prison with no place where he could do what he pleased.
3. And one day, out of Heaven knows what material, he spun the beast a wonderful name and
from that moment it grew into a god and a religion.
Conradin’s secret refuge was the abandoned tool shed in which he kept his two pets – a Houdan
hen and a caged pole-cat ferret. They were his pride and joy. On them he lavished the love that
had no other outlet. The ferret, he feared too as it had sharp fangs and a lithe body but it was a
treasured possession. One day he gives it a name spun from his imagination and it gets
transformed instantly into a powerful god that the boy prays to every Thursday.
4. On one occasion, when Mrs De Ropp suffered from toothache for three days, Conradin kept
the festival during the entire three days, and almost succeeded in persuading himself that Sredni
Vashtar was personally responsible for the toothache.
As days go by, for Conradin, the ferret assumes the persona of a real god capable of causing pain
and misfortune to Conradin’s enemies. Mrs De Ropp’s toothache would have been a real god-
send as he would have escaped the constant monitoring that he was subjected to usually.
Conradin’s festival was usually on Thursday but on this occasion, he had a three-day celebration.
5. Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.
Conradin’s frequent trips to the tool shed did not escape his guardian’s gimlet eyes. One night,
without his being aware, his precious hen is taken away and sold. This news affects him
profoundly. His only refuge now is his god, Sredni Vashtar. He implores the god for a boon
without specifying what he wants. After all, gods are omniscient.
6. And while they debated the matter among themselves, Conradin made himself another piece
of toast.
By the end, ten year old Conradin has an adult nonchalant air. The entire household is in tumuly
following Mrs De Ropp’s death. The maids believe that the boy will be shattered by the news
and don’t want to be the ones who will break it to him. But ironically, Conradin knows just what
has happened and he exults in it.
Questions
1. Why is Conradin’s imagination the mainstay of his life?
2. Why do you think Conradin hates his guardian? Give two examples to support your answer.
3. The tool shed is a refuge for Conradin. But he keeps it a well guarded secret. Why was this so?
4. Saki employs ironic humor in Sredni Vashtar. Pick out any two examples.
5. “Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.” Why does Conradin implore Sredni Vashtar to help
him?
6. Can it be said that Mrs De Ropp brought about her own end? Support your answer with
relevant arguments.

Source 3
A Summary and Analysis of Saki’s ‘Sredni Vashtar’

The 1911 short story ‘Sredni Vashtar’ contains many of the ingredients we find in Saki’s best
fiction: it challenges the idea that children are innocent and free from designs or cunning (or,
indeed, evil), it pricks the pomposity of adults and their conservative treatment of children, and it
suggests a kinship between children and animals, something we can also observe in Saki’s
earlier story, ‘Gabriel-Ernest’. But ‘Sredni Vashtar’ might also be considered a darker version
of the familiar trope found in children’s fiction: the idea of the child having a wish granted. It
might also be viewed as a satirical take on religious practice and observance. The story is shot
through with Saki’s celebrated wit, and deserves closer analysis.

First, a brief summary of the plot of ‘Sredni Vashtar’. Conradin, a young boy of ten, has a deadly
disease. He lives with his cousin and guardian, Mrs De Ropp, whom he dislikes. He likes to
spend his time in the garden shed among the two living companions he likes: a hen and a ferret.
The latter has become more than a pet: Conradin has made him the basis of his own personal
religion, and he worships the ferret as a god, giving it the name ‘Sredni Vashtar’ and bringing it
offerings of stolen nutmeg. The shed has become his own private church.
But Mrs De Ropp thinks Conradin has been spending too much time in the shed, so she sells the
hen. Conradin knows that the ferret, his god, will be next, so he prays to Sredni Vashtar to help
him, without literally stating what he wishes for – though it involves Sredni Vashtar bringing
‘death’ to his enemies. Sure enough, when Mrs De Ropp goes into the shed to fetch the ferret,
she is killed by Sredi Vashtar, who emerges from the shed with ‘dark wet stains around the fur of
jaws and throat’ – his victim’s blood. The ferret drinks some water from the brook, and then
disappears out of the garden. Conradin nonchalantly toasts some bread and eats it with lots of
butter, while the maid discovers the dead body of Mrs De Ropp and the visitors to the house
(presumably neighbours, relatives, and officials) wonder how they will break the news of his
guardian’s death to ‘the poor child’.

It is significant that Mrs De Ropp is short-sighted, for at least two reasons. First, it means that
she is oblivious to Conradin’s facial expressions and what he’s up to half the time, allowing him
to get one over on her. Second, her myopia might be analysed in more metaphorical terms, as
symptomatic of her moral ‘short-sightedness’, in selling Conradin’s beloved hen when she
knows he enjoys spending time with the animal. Just as we talk about a particular act being
‘short-sighted’ because it fails to predict the long-term damage that act will do, so Mrs De Ropp
sows the seeds of her own destruction when she gets rid of the hen. Indeed, we are told that she
is ‘locked out’ from the realm of his ‘imagination’. She has hardened into adulthood and lost the
imagination and invention associated with childhood.

Similarly, Conradin belongs to the stock of young male characters – boys or youths, either in
adolescence or a little bit younger – who populate much of Saki’s best fiction. Nobody could do
wild teenagers or ‘feral ephebes’ – in the phrase coined by Sandie Byrne to describe such
characters in her book, The Unbearable Saki: The Work of H. H. Munro – quite like Hector
Hugh Munro. But Conradin seems almost psychopathic in his calmness after the event: his
cousin has just been brutally killed by his pet ferret, and yet he seems entirely unmoved as he
makes his toast.

It seems unavoidable that Saki’s own upbringing – when he was still Hector Hugh Munro –
played a part in determining the sort of stories he wrote, and ‘Sredni Vashtar’ might almost be
read as the revenge of the young Munro on his aunts, who raised him, and were by all accounts
were not very pleasant. (Munro’s father was an Inspector General for the Indian Imperial Police;
his mother died when he was just a year old, after she was charged by a cow. She was pregnant
at the time, and the shock caused her to miscarry; she died soon after.) But perhaps any further
probing into Munro’s biography is unnecessary (to say nothing of the possibilities that
psychoanalysis might present – animals as well as children are often wild and off the leash in
Saki’s stories, just like the cow that did for Munro’s mother when he was so young).

We speculate that Conradin shows signs of the psychopathic cast of mind, given his nonchalant
munching upon his toast at the grisly end of ‘Sredni Vashtar’. But what makes Saki’s story, as
with much of his fiction, so much more than just a showdown between the evil precocious child
(one wonders whether Eoin Colfer, creator of the teen criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl, had
read Saki) and his ‘respectable’ and conservative adult antagonist (who is almost always female
in Saki’s stories) is the way he weaves in elements of childlike ignorance amongst the cunning
and evil plotting:
The Houdan hen was never drawn into the cult of Sredni Vashtar. Conradin had long ago settled
that she was an Anabaptist. He did not pretend to have the remotest knowledge of what an
Anabaptist was, but he privately hoped that it was dashing and not very respectable.

In Saki’s fiction, nothing is worse than to be ‘respectable’. But the above excerpt brings home
the cleverness of Saki’s fiction: his ability to tell the story largely through the child’s eyes, and to
capture his (and it is usually a ‘he’) innocence as well as his calculating evil or his scheming
side. In the last analysis, although children appear to have lost their innocence in Saki’s world,
they still thrive on imagination and creativity and, every now and then, Saki lets a little bit of the
ordinary child shine through.