“The Interlopers” can be read as an allegory for the folly of war, specifically World War I. Because Saki lived during and fought in World War I, his short story views the senselessness of violence with a critical eye. The brutality of war is therefore one of the underlying implications of “The Interlopers.” The central conflict is a personal feud between neighbors who both want access to a strip of land between their estates. The conflict is introduced in the short story’s beginning in this way:
The forest lands of Gradwitz were of wide extent and well stocked with game; the narrow strip of precipitous woodland that lay on its outskirts was not remarkable for the game it harboured or the shooting it afforded, but it was the most jealously guarded of its owner’s territorial possessions.
In this section, Saki makes it clear that Ulrich von Gradwitz doesn’t protect this area of woodland because it is particularly valuable. Instead, the desire to keep the land away from his neighbor is the result of a decades-long feud and has nothing to do with any attributes of the land itself. By making this clear at the start of the story, Saki introduces the idea that these men are jealous and prideful, warring over a piece of land that isn’t particularly valuable. This description of humankind and of the origins of their conflicts may reflect the story’s historical circumstances. Therefore, Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym’s war over territory can be seen as a criticism of the causes of World War I, as the story underscores the often arbitrary nature of violent aggression.
