Analyse af H. H. Munros 'The Hounds of Fate'

Everyone has a unique identity created by both physical and metal characterizations. Surrounding, people, acquaintance, and circumstances are all factors that influence who we are and how we identify ourselves. In the short story "The Hounds of Fate" written by H. H. Munro under the pseudonym Saki in 1911 the essential theme is identity. The story revolves around the main character Martin Stoner who impersonates a privileged young man after being mistaken as Master Tom.

The story’s main character Martin Stoner struggles to find his true self and actual identity. Stoner arrives to an old inhospitable-looking and neglected farmhouse when he is at a very low in his unfortunate and lonesome life. Stoner is a young but homeless man barely getting through the day owing to starvation, bad weather but also because of his lack of ambition. In the story, Stoner is described as "one of those unfortunate individuals who seem to have tried everything", (p. 1, l. 12). Stoner is rather desperate for a drastic change in his life but appears to have given up all hope on this. His situation is portrayed as follows: "In his case, the hounds of Fate were certainly pressing him with unrelenting insistence; hunger, fatigue, and despairing hopelessness had numbed his brain", (p.1, l. 8). Martin Stoner is accordingly at a stage of life where nothing seems to be going right. Therefore, it comes as a shock when an old servant invites him inside the farmhouse. The old servant named George calls Stoner by the name Master Tom. Despite Stoner's incomprehension to the seemingly odd behaviour of the elderly man, he quickly accepts the invitation and the food he got offered. The main character battles with the idea of playing along as Master Tom and concludes that he should leave the next day before he would be exposed as an imposter. Notwithstanding his idea, Stoner gives in and lives his dream life as another person: "Stoner, feeling more than ever like one in a dream, went upstairs to inspect "Master Tom's" wardrobe", (p. 4, l. 16). For the first time in a very long time, Stoner had a bed to sleep in, food to eat and people to talk with. Master Tom was in many aspects the exact opposite of Stoner. Tom was a privileged man, based on the fact that he despite his young age had servants and maids to please him. Though, Master Tom is extremely unpopular in the town due to an unnamed misdeed or crime that made him flee to Australia. "In the course of his ride, he met with ample evidence to confirm the statement that local folk had neither forgotten nor forgiven the bygone crime which had come to him as a legacy from the absent Tom.", (p. 5, l. 4). Four years after Tom's disappearing, the community believes that he has returned which results in many hostile stairs, unfriendly remarks, and slander among the townsfolk.