The Death Trap - H H
Munro (Saki)
The one-act play “The Death Trap” revolves around the
conspiracy against the reigning prince of Kedaria, Prince Dimitri, who turns
the table on his assassins at the end of the play. Prince Dimitri, the young
ruler of Kedaria, had a rivalry with Prince Karl, who desired to capture the
political power of Kedaria by murdering the reigning prince. So, Dimitri’s
enemies hatched a plan to assassin him, and they were waiting for the right
moment to execute it.
Three Military Regiments namely Andrieff Regiment,
Lonyadi Regiment and Kranitzki Regiment guarded Prince Dimitri, the reigning
Prince of Kedaria. Dr Stronetz, a faithful physician, was also very loyal to
the prince Demitri. The Kranitzki Regiment was loyal to the enemy. The three
officers of this Regiment, Colonel Girnitza, Major Vontieff and Captian Shultz
were planning to murder Prince Dimitri as soon as the loyal Andrieff Regiment
had left from its duty. These officers of Kranitzki Regiment were disloyal to Prince
Dimitri but very loyal to Prince Karl, who was willing to kill Prince Dimitri
and become the king of Kedaria.
When the play opens, the three guards of Kranitazki
Regiment were plotting the assassination of Prince Dimitri so that Prince Karl
could ascend the throne. The conversation among the three disloyal guards
reveals that they were openly conspiring to murder the prince. They were very
aware that Prince Dimitri was already suspecting them. Yet, they went ahead
with the murder plan because of the political support of Prince Karl.
Prince Dimitri came to power at his very young age when
he did not know anything about the rules of governance or responsibility. This
shows his helplessness, which was an advantage to his enemies. He was
well aware that he was “trapped” and that his guards were plotting to kill him.
This was a painful realisation for him. He also knew very well that he would be
killed at any moment as soon as his loyal Andrieff Regiment leaves. He did not
have any weapon to defend himself. No one was allowed to see him except his
friend and personal physician Dr. Stronetz. Out of kindness and loyalty, Dr
Stonetz devised a clever plan as a physician. Instantly, he asked the Prince to
remove his robes for a fake physical examination, which would help him to fool
the officers of the disloyal Kranitzki Regiment. His efforts would temporarily
delay the murder of the Prince. But this delay helped the Prince to take
revenge on disloyal officers.
However, the hard truth behind the physical examination
of the Prince revealed that he was suffering from incurable heart disease. This
was another shocking realization to the Prince. He decided to commit suicide
instead of being killed in the hands of his disloyal guards. He requested Dr
Stronetz to provide him with a phial of poison, which could kill him so that he
could invite his death as a ruler without being killed. Dr Strontez gave him a
phial of poison. But as the final act of revenge, when death was inevitable to
him, Prince Dimitri wanted to die only after punishing his enemies. So he mixed
the entire phial of poison in a bottle of wine and invited the three officers
for a final drink. He shared the poisoned wine after drinking it himself. It
was a sight of pity for the Prince, but at the same time, he showed a clever
act of revenge. The Prince thus overcame his helplessness by his intelligence
even though he could not avoid his death.
Thus the title of the play “The Death Trap” projects how
the Prince and his helplessness becomes the ‘death trap’ to the officers of
Kranitzki Regiment as a result of their disloyalty.
No comments:
Post a Comment