There is a definite sense in which situational irony
operates in this excellent story, and the mood of course helps to convey the change in
our expectations and then the way that our hopes for a happy ending are crushed in the
final paragraph. Let us remind ourselves that the mood of the story at the beginning is
one of intense, unyielding and bitter opposition and emnity between Ulrich von Gradwitz
and Georg Znaeym, which is even echoed by the violence in nature itself. However, once
they find themselves in a very compromising position, and they have made peace, the mood
of the story changes as they anticipate the future ahead of them based on their newfound
peace:
For a
space both men were silent, turning over in their minds the wonderful changes that this
dramatic reconciliation would bring about. In the cold, gloomy forest, with the wind
tearing in fitful gusts through the naked branches and whistling round the tree trunks,
they lay and waited for the help that would now bring release and succour to both
parties.
We can see there is
a dramatic shift in the mood to one of hope and reconciliation, as the two central
characters make their peace and contemplate a brighter future. However, the final word
that Ulrich says, which closes the story, brings us around full circle, as we realise
that the figures that Ulrich can see are not the men that will save them, but wolves
that will eat them savagely. Such a twist in the story plunges us back into a mood of
despair and hopelessness.
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