The Baker's Dozen Flashcards
by H.H. Munro (SAKI) — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: The Baker's Dozen
Where is "The Baker's Dozen" set?
On the deck of an eastward-bound steamer, with the two main characters seated in adjacent deck chairs.
How did Emily ensure she and the Major would be seated together?
She deferred her departure three weeks to travel on his boat and bribed the steward to place their deck chairs side by side in a secluded corner.
What crisis arises after the Major and Emily agree to marry?
They realize their combined children total thirteen, which the Major considers horribly unlucky.
How many children does Emily have, and how did she get them?
She has eight: four of her own and four stepchildren from her late husband's first marriage.
What scheme do the Major and Emily hatch to reduce the number of children?
They try to persuade Mrs. Paly-Paget, who has only one child, to adopt one of theirs.
How does Mrs. Paly-Paget react to the Major and Emily's hints about adoption?
She is deeply offended and storms off, vowing to avoid their company for the rest of the voyage.
What is the twist ending of the playlet?
The Major recounts his children and realizes he only has four, not five -- he had accidentally counted Albert-Victor as two, making the total twelve instead of thirteen.
What did the Major do at breakfast to make Emily jealous?
He paid violent and unusual attention to a young flapper throughout the meal after discovering Emily was on the boat.
Who is Major Richard Dumbarton?
A widower and former military officer traveling by steamer who reunites with his old flame Emily and proposes marriage.
Who is Mrs. Carewe (Emily)?
A widow who was once romantically involved with the Major. She is witty, forward, and practical, having engineered their reunion on the steamer.
Who is Mrs. Paly-Paget?
A fellow passenger with only one daughter who becomes the target of the couple's adoption scheme. She is proud and easily offended.
How does Emily differ from the Major in their courtship dynamic?
Emily is the more proactive and self-aware partner, having arranged everything from the seating to the reunion, while the Major fumbles through social conventions.
What are the names of the Major's four children?
Richard (named after himself), Albert-Victor (born around the Coronation year), Maud, and Gerald.
How does superstition drive the plot of the playlet?
The Major's fear of the number thirteen causes all the conflict, leading to the failed adoption scheme, even though the actual count turns out to be wrong.
What does the story suggest about the rituals of courtship?
It satirizes courtship conventions by showing Emily doing all the practical work while the Major insists on performing the traditional male role of proposing.
How does the story treat the theme of self-deception?
The Major deceives himself about both his arithmetic and his role in the romance, creating problems that only exist because of his own errors.
What role does social class and propriety play in the story?
The characters are upper-class Edwardians whose polite maneuvering -- bribing stewards, indirect proposals, coded adoption hints -- satirizes the era's obsession with decorum.
Why did Saki write "The Baker's Dozen" as a one-act playlet rather than a traditional narrative?
The play format lets the humor emerge entirely through dialogue and timing, with no narrator to explain the jokes, making the wit sharper and more immediate.
What is the comic technique of bathos, and where does it appear in this story?
Bathos is an abrupt shift from the elevated to the ridiculous. The Major's romantic reunion crashes into panic over arithmetic and the number thirteen.
How does dramatic irony function in "The Baker's Dozen"?
The audience suspects the Major miscounted long before he does, making his increasingly desperate schemes to offload a child absurdly funny.
What is the significance of the title "The Baker's Dozen"?
A baker's dozen means thirteen. The title signals the superstition driving the plot, and the irony that the actual total was never thirteen at all.
What does "flapper" mean in the context of this Edwardian-era story?
A young, socially active woman. In the early 1900s it referred to a lively young girl not yet formally "out" in society, before the 1920s Jazz Age meaning.
What does "Velodrome" refer to in Mrs. Paly-Paget's anecdote?
Here it refers to a London entertainment venue (not a cycling track) where the party watched a dancer performing an interpretive act.
What does "mid-Victorian" mean as used by the Major?
It refers to the middle period of Queen Victoria's reign (roughly 1850s-1870s), associated with strict moral standards and social prudishness.
Who says "Fate! Nothing of the sort; it's only me" and what does it reveal?
Emily says this, immediately establishing her as the practical, self-aware partner who engineered their meeting while the Major romanticizes it as destiny.
What does the Major mean when he says "You can't expect a boy to be vicious till he's been to a good school"?
It is a satirical jab at the English public school system, implying that elite education is required to produce proper depravity -- a classic Saki inversion.
Who says "Once a female, always a female. Nature is not infallible, but she always abides by her mistakes"?
The Major says this to Mrs. Paly-Paget, showcasing Saki's epigrammatic wit and the Major's blundering tactlessness that ruins their adoption scheme.