Ulrich's wish is to meet Georg in a deserted spot in the forest and end Georg's life. Half of his wish comes true, as he does indeed meet Georg "man to man" and "face to face." He does not kill him, though. The irony is that (1) while Georg loathes interference from interlopers, he encounters interlopers originating in the forest and that (2) while both men want to kill each other, they are crushed by the forest and confronted with killers from the forest.
What Is Ulrich's Wish?
On this night of violent storm and disturbed creatures in the "forest lands of Gradwitz," Ulrich von Gradwitz stood guarding against the poacher Georg Znaeym. Georg is the son of a poacher who was the son of a poacher who disputed the legal ownership of the forest lands and took his dispute to the "Courts" to be settled by a "famous lawsuit." The Znaeym family never "acquiesced in the judgment of the Courts," and the courts were the original interlopers in the conflict over the forest, the first "cursed interlopers [who] come between us." The Znaeyms began an earnest campaign of poaching from the forest lands of Gradwitz. Now, when Ulrich thirsts for the other's "blood," he wishes that—on this wildly stormy night, with no witnesses around, deep in his own forest and separate from his men for a few minutes—he might meet Georg "man to man," end his life and, with it, Georg's poaching from Gradwitz forest.
[Ulrich] wandered far down the steep slopes amid the wild tangle of undergrowth, peering through the tree trunks and listening through the whistling and skirling of the wind and the restless beating of the branches for sight and sound of the marauders. . . [That] he might come across Georg Znaeym, man to man, with none to witness—that was the wish.
Half of Ulrich's wish comes true. He steps "round the trunk of a huge beech" and comes "face to face" with Georg. Both enemies glare at each other "for a long moment," each with a rifle in hand. They are civilized men, not used to shooting another man in cold blood, never having had to defend "hearth and honor." Neither shoots. In that moment between them, bred of shared civilization, nature proves itself a second interloper in the matter of the forest: a branch of the "huge beech" falls on both men with a "splitting crash" in a "fierce shriek of the storm." Ulrich's wish is to be "man to man" with Georg and, in an unwitnessed moment, to kill him. The first part comes true: he meets George "face to face." Yet nature's beech tree interloper prevents either man from descending from their civilized impulses into murder, as this is what they both wish to do, even from their youth: "as boys they had thirsted for one another's blood." Consequently, the second part of Ulrich's wish does not come true; in fact, he changes his mind about what he wants and asks Georg to be his friend.
What is ironic is the role of the interlopers in the story. Interlopers are individuals who intrude themselves into matters that are not their own, where they are not wanted, and where they are seen as not belonging. The Znaeyms considered the judges of the "Courts" who ruled against them to be interlopers, which is why Georg—ironically—tells Ulrich that they will fight the matter of the forest out between themselves without interlopers interfering:
"Good," snarled Georg, "good. We fight this quarrel out to the death, you and I and our foresters, with no cursed interlopers to come between us."
It is ironic that, while Georg's family for three generations have railed against the interlopers of the "Courts," who put the forest into the hands of Ulrich's family, it is now the forest itself that plays the interloper and crushes both men beneath a massive beech branch. It is ironic that while life was strong and the will to live strong—for three generations, in both families—the will to rail against interlopers was stronger, causing families to dream of blood, not peace. Yet, ironically, here they are, trapped—in danger of a wintry death—by nature's own forest interloper. It is ironic that once they decide to view each other as unique human beings with feelings, bone and blood, pain and suffering, and to become friends and share life together on correct social and legal terms, nature sends other interlopers through the forest to finish the issue once and for all. Ulrich and Georg decide for life and friendship, while nature decides for interlopers who kill. Nature sends interlopers that are hungry, running, "making all the speed they can, brave lads": wolves.
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