Dusk

Gortsby has been having a brief conversation with a young man on a park bench. The young man has taken the place of an elderly gent, whom Gortsby imagines has gone home to what he presumes to be...

The imagery used in Saki's short story, "Dusk," to describe the characters is very direct. Engaged readers are offered such detailed descriptions that they (the readers) can easily create mental...

To me, the old man is sort of a plot device -- he is used as a way to set up Gortsby to be fooled by the younger man. He also serves as the one who reveals to Gortsby that he has been fooled. At...

The article on Saki in Wikipedia states: "Politically, Munro was a Tory and somewhat reactionary in his views." It gives as a reference an essay by Dominic Hibberd in the Oxford Dictionary of...

When the story opens, Gortsby is sharing a bench with an elderly gentleman who has "a drooping air of defiance." His appearance in the story at all seems to be to serve as the rightful owner of the...

Joining what he perceives as men and woman who hide their "fallen fortunes and dead hopes" in the twilight as they sit on benches or stroll in Hyde Park, Norman Grotsby is "in a mood to count...

Stochastically speaking, there is at least a ninety-nine percent probability that the young grifter was lying about his whole hard-luck story, including the cake of soap. He tells Norman Gortsby he...

To understand what the author is saying, go a little past the line that you mention. There, you will see him explain the meaning of this line. What the author is saying is that dusk is a time when...

"Dusk" seems an appropriate title for this story. The author emphasizes that it is the time of day when people whom he describes as "defeated" come out because they are ashamed to be seen in the...

I often have a problem with these kinds of questions because they infer that there is something wrong with the ending that the author chose. Clearly, if we think about the story, what makes it so...

The young man lets out a loud—and very audible—expletive as he flings himself into the seat next to Gortsby. Straight away, it's pretty obvious that he's not in the best of moods. We soon discover...

In “Dusk,” the protagonist Gortsby believes that an irritated young man is trying to swindle him with an elaborate sob story about being stranded in a foreign city with no money or lodging. When...

The scene depicted of Gortsby is that of a solitary figure in an almost deserted place. This scene suggests that Gortsby is, perhaps, despondent or embittered because he seems to desire no human...

Norman Gortsby always prided himself on his incredible ability to read people. As he sits on a park bench in Hyde Park each evening, he watches the massed ranks of humanity going by and jumps to...

Saki writes: The young man turned to him with a look of disarming frankness which put him instantly on his guard. Gortsby is not an easy mark. He is a city dweller and, as the story indicates, he...

By not naming either the young man or the old man in his story, Saki underscores the fact that they are both strangers. This is also implicit in the fact that it is getting dark, so that Gortsby...

In the short story "Dusk," the young man who sits down on the bench next to Gortsby is a con man. The younger man is a scam artist. He tricks Gortsby out of his money. When the younger man sits...

One difference that stands out in comparing "Dusk" and "The Umbrella Man" is that the young trickster in "Dusk" has a far more complicated story. It is hard to keep in straight in one's mind. He...

The young man who tells about losing his hotel room in Saki's "Dusk" is trying to cheat Gortsby out of some money. The elderly gentleman who sells the narrator's mother an umbrella is not cheating...

The young con man either invented the story about the lost hotel or else he learned it from some other con man. He seems to be a novice. He should have bought a cake of soap in order to be able to...

Jim Thompson, a very good writer of hardboiled novels, describes what he calls "short cons" in his novel The Grifters, which has been made into a movie like many of Thompson's other novels,...

Perhaps we can understand the setting, tone, mood and message of “Dusk” better if we consider certain facts about the author Saki, whose real name was H. H. Munro. According to an article in...

The actual wording in the story is as follows: "...one could go to one's Consul and get the requisite help from him....Unless i can find some decent chap to swallow my story and lend me some money...

The story "Dusk" by Saki illustrates the defeated. It is at this time where many unconsidered figures moving silently through the half-light, or dotted unobtrusively on bench and chair, scarcely...

Literally speaking, the role of the soap is that it fools Norman Gortsby and makes him give money to the young man. The young man says that he has forgotten which hotel he was staying in (he had...

The story is told from the viewpoint of a young Londoner named Norman Gortsby. He is certainly not a gentleman of leisure but probably a man with a good position in a bank, brokerage, or trading...

Norman Gortsby strikes me as a sophisticated young man who has lived in the great city of London for years and has been approached for money innumerable times. He is eminently approachable because...

There is no irony in “Dusk” until the end. Gortsby is observing the men and women he thinks of as “the defeated,” but he is not feeling sorry for them. The scene pleased Gortsby and harmonized...

In his story "Dusk," author Saki employs light/dark imagery to create a certain mystery in his narrative; in addition, his skillful utilization of irony and satire enhances the startling effect of...

Norman Gortsby is the viewpoint character in "Dusk." The author's intention is to show Norman having a learning experience which will convey a message to the reader. At first Norman does not feel...

In the story "Dusk," the young man is plain lucky. When he cannot produce a bar of soap, Gortsby does not believe his story. The young man tells a story of forgetting where his hotel is. He claims...

Like Saki's story "The Open Window," his "Dusk" contains a story within a story. The con artist's story has been carefully worked out and rehearsed. The details are complex but the whole hard-luck...

Saki describes the setting of "Dusk" from the point of view of a young man called Norman Gortsby. Dusk, to his mind, was the hour of the defeated. Men and women, who had fought and lost, who hid...

A brillant satirist, Saki is true to his inimitable style of ironic deception and clever dialogue that reveals his unsentimental depiction of life in his comedy of manners, "Dusk." Ridiculing the...

People who live in the country can satisfy some needs, especially for food, without money. But city people need money for everything. Money is their preoccupation. Both “Dusk” and “The Umbrella...

The setting for Saki's story, "Dusk" is London at Hyde Park Corner where there is a park that is bound by bushes and fence against the busy noise of traffic and blazing city lights with the...

In several ways, Norman Grotsby of "Dusk," and the mother in"The Umbrella Man" are similar, yet there are some differences. Norman Grotsby While Norman Grotsby considers himself among the...

Both the young con man in "Dusk" and the old man in "The Umbrella Man" have concocted stories that will bring them relatively large sums of money if they have the desired effect on the victim. If...

The most important element of deception in the young man's story is that he doesn't want anybody to give him money but only to lend him some money until he can find his hotel, get back into his...

Both the mother in "The Umbrella Man" and Norman Gortsby in "Dusk" are intelligent, experienced urbanites who are suspicious of strangers and characteristically alert and watchful. They are both...

Gortsby sounds like a street-smart urbanite who has heard all kinds of sob stories, but he seems too generous and too gullible to be a confidence trickster. Why should he give a sovereign to a...

After Gortsby gives the sovereign and the cake of soap to the young man, he returns to the vicinity of the bench where he had been sitting and ...he saw an elderly gentleman poking and peering...

In the story "Dusk," Gortsby was out witted by a young man who claimed to have lost a bar of soap. Gortsby is sitting in the park when an older gentleman sits down. Gortsby who is a good judge of...

Norman Gortsby is sitting on a park bench when another man comes before him claiming to be lost in London. He weaves a story in which he had gone out from his hotel to buy a bar of soap and have a...

This is an excellent question to ask. However, in my opinion, I don't think that this is correct. I think that the young man is presented as a trickster who lacks experience and is not actually as...

Of course, the quote you have cited could be argued to be the main message of this excellent story that uses situational irony so well in its ending. Note how the story is told using the third...

The story "Dusk" by Saki is about a man who gets duped despite of his self-proclaimed attainments in the understanding of people and their behaviors. This self-proclaimed ability to analyze people...

Dusk, that time of day that cannot clearly be defined as either day or night that falls shortly after twilight is a time Edith Wharton called, "The moment when afternoon and evening hang balanced...

My impression of the young man is that he is very bold and temperamental. He must be smart to be able to memorize the complicated story he tells Norman Gortsby. It is so complicated that it is hard...

The double negative in the words "not disinclined" means essentially the same as "inclined." The word "inclined" itself is a modification of the notion that Gortsby was enjoying other people's...