Themes and message

The main themes of the short story “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki are reality versus imagination and religion. The author’s message is that people have a great capacity for evil, as both the cousin and the boy engage in evil behaviours and desires. The cousin frequently punishes and controls Conrad and even takes the only friend she knows of away from him (the hen). The boy could be seen as equally evil because he rejoices any time his guardian is sick or doing things that displease her, but this is perhaps only a childlike reaction to having evil inflicted on him. Furthermore, he even creates a revengeful god out of the ferret to which he prays for his cousin’s death as revenge for the way she treats him.

Reality versus Imagination

The theme of reality versus imagination is explored in the short story both through the plot and the character of Conradin. The boy dislikes the reality of the word he lives in represented by his cousin and prefers to create an imaginary world of his own in which he can escape. His hatred of reality is most likely caused by the fact that his cousin restricts his freedom and has a rigid attitude towards him and by the fact that his parents are probably dead.

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Religion

In the story, religion is associated with ritual, as Mrs De Ropp “indulged in religion once a week at a church”, while little Conradin engages in more rituals to worship his own “god”.

The story also differentiates between various religious, subtly hinting at their variety in the real world. Mrs De Ropp is a Christian while Conradin acts as a worshiper of a pagan god and he decides the hen should be “Anabaptist” to spite his cousin. This suggests the rivalry and adversity that exists sometimes between people of different religions.

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