Imagination vs. Reality Theme Analysis

At the heart of Saki’s “Sredni Vashtar” is a lonely young boy named Conradin, who escapes from a real world that he hates by imagining that the polecat-ferret that he keeps in a cage in an abandoned toolshed is actually a pagan god named Sredni Vashtar. This violent, impatient god that Conradin invents is the polar opposite of Conradin’s older cousin and guardian, Mrs. De Ropp, who is very religious in a more traditional Christian way and who constantly watches over Conradin and prevents him from doing things he enjoys. At first, it seems that Conradin’s elaborate mythology of Sredni Vashtar is nothing more than the imaginings of a lonely child trying to escape a harsh reality. But when Mrs. De Ropp discovers the ferret and vows to get rid of it, Conradin begins praying to Sredni Vashtar to “do something” to change his circumstances, and the line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred: Sredni Vashtar ends up killing Mrs. De Ropp. Ultimately, Saki leaves it ambiguous as to whether the ending of “Sredni Vashtar” is really a moment of divine intervention inspired by Conradin’s imagination-fueled faith or if it’s just a morbid coincidence. In this way, the ending of the story makes clear that “respectable” people like Mrs. De Ropp can’t conceive of all that’s possible in the world, and, further, that sometimes it isn’t even possible to tell the difference between the imagined and the real.

While Conradin’s escapist fantasies are his own invention, they are a reaction to his experience of real-world events. In particular, Conradin’s fantasies arise from his resentment toward his respectable cousin Mrs. De Ropp. The cult of Sredni Vashtar (Conradin’s invented pagan religion) is described as a religion that “[lays] special stress on the fierce impatient side of things, as opposed to the Woman’s religion [i.e., Mrs. De Ropp’s Protestant Christianity], which, as far as Conradin could observe, went to great lengths in the contrary direction.” Saki’s phrasing is humorous, since it is clearly Conradin who is setting his religion in opposition to Mrs. De Ropp’s and not the other way around. Moreover, the irregularly scheduled festivals of the cult of Sredni Vashtar also seem to be directly connected to events in the real world. The longest festival lasted the three-day period during which Mrs. De Ropp was suffering from a toothache. At this point in the story, there is clearly a cause-and-effect link between the real world and Conradin’s fantasies, but the influence goes one way, with real-world events dictating what happens in Conradin’s fantasies.

Though Conrad’s invented religion gives him joy and a sense of freedom, initially even he doesn’t actually believe in it. When Conradin begins to actually pray to Sredni Vashtar to “do one thing for me,” however, the line between an imaginary religion and an actual religion begins to blur a bit. When Conradin prays “Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar,” he does not specify what the thing is, trusting his great ferret god to be able to figure it out. By doing so, he suggests that Sredni Vashtar is omniscient, a truly godlike trait. This increasing trust in Sredni Vashtar’s power doesn’t seem to represent real religious devotion from Conradin (given his skepticism later that his prayers will actually be answered), but it does suggest a deeper commitment to the elaborate fantasy he’s created. Conradin’s devotion intensifies when Mrs. De Ropp finds the key to Sredni Vashtar’s hutch in Conradin’s room and goes to get rid of the animal (which at that moment she thinks is a guinea pig). Conradin in that moment even begins to chant a battle hymn describing Sredni Vashtar conquering his enemies. Yet even as Conradin desperately chants, the narrator notes that Conradin doesn’t believe his own prayers. Conradin’s religion still doesn’t exist anywhere other than in his imagination. Even so, his invented religion takes up an increasingly large part of his thoughts and provides him solace in a miserable moment, suggesting that the made-up religion is gaining power, even if this power is still limited to what goes on in Conradin’s head.

However, when at the climax of the story Mrs. De Ropp is killed by the Sredni Vashtar, it seems so much like an answer to Conradin’s desperate prayers that it calls into question the divide between an imaginary religion and a real one. Saki deliberately withholds information so that it’s impossible to tell exactly what happens at the end of the story. While Conradin is able to imagine a likely scenario (that the short-sighted Mrs. De Ropp leaned in too close to the straw where Sredni Vashtar was hiding), there is no way of knowing if this is actually what happened. The narrator’s perspective mirrors Conradin’s, watching the action from a distance far outside the dark shed. What is not in doubt, though, is the fact that Mrs. De Ropp has been killed by Sredni Vashtar. The shouting of the maid and the confusion of the other servants all attest to the fact that Conradin has not simply imagined the death of his guardian. But how the death occurred—whether it was just an unlikely everyday accident or whether Sredni Vashtar truly did gain some sort of power from Conradin’s worship—is left in the dark of that shed.

The story’s ambiguous ending makes it impossible to tell exactly where the line between imagination and reality ends. Ultimately, Conradin’s imagination triumphs over Mrs. De Ropp’s petty practicality, and as a result, the climax of the story has a tinge of fantasy, like a darkly comic fairy tale, even though there is no explicit evidence of any supernatural events. To try to figure out whether Conradin’s prayers were really answered by Sredni Vashtar would be futile and perhaps missing the point—only in the dull mind of someone like Mrs. De Ropp are fantasy and reality so easily distinguishable.