Said to be Julio Cortázar’s first published story, this suspenseful tale is about a middle-aged brother and sister who, having never married, live quiet but contented lives in their aging family mansion. One night, their solitude is interrupted by strange noises coming from a disused wing of the house. The brother locks and bolts the door leading to that part of the house. Unfortunately, the title foreshadows the final outcome. The brother and sister know the identity of the intruders (referred to only as “they”), but this is not shared with the reader. Themes: the idle rich, isolation, fear, change.
My favorite among several possible interpretations is that the story is an allegory of social and political conditions in Argentina during the early 1940s. The siblings represent the elite, contributing little to society and living off the sweat of the working class: (We didn’t have to earn our living, there was plenty coming in from the farms…). The house represents their comfortable existence, isolated from the problems of the poor, while the intruders represent the growing labor unrest that led to the 1943 military coup and subsequent rise of Peronism.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (2,124 words)