The Interlopers

by

Saki

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Ulrich von Gradwitz Character Analysis

The wealthy owner of wide stretches of hunting grounds and forest in the Carpathian Mountains, Ulrich most closely guards one particular strip of forest because Georg Znaeym also claims ownership over it. In Ulrich’s grandfather’s time, his family used the court to seize the land from the neighboring Znaeym family, who the Gradwitzs believed illegally possessed the land. The Znaeyms never accepted the court’s decision, and have continued to hunt in the forest patch. Ulrich has become even more devoted to protecting the land and defeating the Znaeyms than the earlier generations of his family were. He roams the forest with a posse of men and his rifle, hoping to shoot Georg instead of game. However, when Ulrich is finally alone with Georg, a near-death experience causes Ulrich to rethink his priorities, and offer peace and friendship to his life-long rival.

Ulrich von Gradwitz Quotes in The Interlopers

The The Interlopers quotes below are all either spoken by Ulrich von Gradwitz or refer to Ulrich von Gradwitz. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power, Property, and Identity Theme Icon
).
The Interlopers Quotes

The forest lands of Gradwitz were of wide extent and well stocked with game; the narrow strip of precipitous woodland that lay on its outskirt was not remarkable for the game it harboured or the shooting it afforded, but it was the most jealously guarded of all its owner's territorial possessions.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz
Related Literary Devices:

If only on this wild night, in this dark, lone spot, he might come across Georg Znaeym, man to man, with none to witness - that was the wish that was uppermost in his thoughts.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym

But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining civilisation cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without word spoken, except for an offence against his hearth and honour.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: Rifles, The Beech Tree

And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action a deed of Nature's own violence overwhelmed them both.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

We fight this quarrel out to the death, you and I and our foresters, with no cursed interlopers to come between us. Death and damnation to you, Ulrich von Gradwitz.

Related Characters: Georg Znaeym (speaker), Ulrich von Gradwitz
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

Both men spoke with the bitterness of possible defeat before them, for each knew that it might be long before his men would seek him out or find him; it was a bare matter of chance which party would arrive first on the scene.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

In the pain and languor that Ulrich himself was feeling the old fierce hatred seemed to be dying down.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

Lying here to-night thinking I've come to think we've been rather fools; there are better things in life than getting the better of a boundary dispute.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz (speaker), Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

And each prayed a private prayer that his men might be the first to arrive, so that he might be the first to show honourable attention to the enemy that had become a friend.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree
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Ulrich von Gradwitz Quotes in The Interlopers

The The Interlopers quotes below are all either spoken by Ulrich von Gradwitz or refer to Ulrich von Gradwitz. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power, Property, and Identity Theme Icon
).
The Interlopers Quotes

The forest lands of Gradwitz were of wide extent and well stocked with game; the narrow strip of precipitous woodland that lay on its outskirt was not remarkable for the game it harboured or the shooting it afforded, but it was the most jealously guarded of all its owner's territorial possessions.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz
Related Literary Devices:

If only on this wild night, in this dark, lone spot, he might come across Georg Znaeym, man to man, with none to witness - that was the wish that was uppermost in his thoughts.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym

But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining civilisation cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without word spoken, except for an offence against his hearth and honour.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: Rifles, The Beech Tree

And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action a deed of Nature's own violence overwhelmed them both.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

We fight this quarrel out to the death, you and I and our foresters, with no cursed interlopers to come between us. Death and damnation to you, Ulrich von Gradwitz.

Related Characters: Georg Znaeym (speaker), Ulrich von Gradwitz
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

Both men spoke with the bitterness of possible defeat before them, for each knew that it might be long before his men would seek him out or find him; it was a bare matter of chance which party would arrive first on the scene.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

In the pain and languor that Ulrich himself was feeling the old fierce hatred seemed to be dying down.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

Lying here to-night thinking I've come to think we've been rather fools; there are better things in life than getting the better of a boundary dispute.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz (speaker), Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree

And each prayed a private prayer that his men might be the first to arrive, so that he might be the first to show honourable attention to the enemy that had become a friend.

Related Characters: Ulrich von Gradwitz, Georg Znaeym
Related Symbols: The Beech Tree