Dusk

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...

If a stranger asks us for money on any pretext, our instinct is to say "No." We don't like to part with our money. But we sometimes tell ourselves that we are being too selfish, too negative, too...

At first reading it would appear that Norman Gortsby was cheated out of the sovereign by the young man who claimed he had forgotten the name of his hotel and couldn't find the place. But there is a...

To answer this we need to establish very clearly what has made these individuals "unsuccessful" and causes such individuals to wander around at night, "bat-like" as the text describes them. Let us...

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...

In the short story "Dusk," the title is significant in that the setting takes place at dusk, the time between sunset and dark. The main character, Norman Gortsby, is sitting on a park bench at...

In “Dusk,” the young man who sits down on the bench next to Norman Gortsby spins a yarn about forgetting the name and location of the hotel where he is staying. The reason he gives is that he had...

After Gortsby's experience with the young man who contends that he has rushed from a hotel that was not the one at which he had planned on staying in order to purchase a cake of soap, Gortsby...

There is not a great deal of evidence in this story for how the society treats the old. We can infer some things from what Gortsby says about the old man early in the story, but we cannot know for...

The young man in Saki's “Dusk” appears to be something of a con artist who has just spun Norman Gortsby an elaborate story. Apparently, the young man came to London only to find that his hotel had...

It is important to remember that the significance of dusk is given to the story by Norman Gortsby, who sees in this time of day a symbolism that he finds morosely pleasing to his own state of mind...

In Saki’s short story “Dusk,” Norman Gortsby sits in a park as the sun goes down. This time of day pleases Gortsby as is it brings out the abject, the misfortunate, and those who have been...

My impression of the young man in Saki's "Dusk" is that as a con artist he is a novice. Gortsby may be his very first prospective victim. This apprentice con artist has invented a very good story....

As the story's title indicates, it was dusk--the time right between the ending of the day and dark. Gortsby was a quiet observer of the type of people who come out at dusk. These people often have...

What a great and sophisticated question! The best answer that I know of comes from Mary Douglas, the great cultural anthropologist. Her basic point is that dusk is between day and night. It is...

The stranger comes and sits down next to Gortsby on a park bench. He says that he is from out of town and has forgotten which hotel he is in. He says he went out to buy some soap and then forgot...

One poet wrote that twilight, or dusk, is a time of other worldliness, for it is that vague space between time, being neither day nor night. In twilight there is a suspension of the world and of...

In the short story "Dusk," the role of light is that things can be seen much more clearly in the light. In the dimness of dusk, things are not as clear. With nightfall approaching, the defeat in...

I don't know that anyone is really contented in this story. I don't think even the con man is content. To me, the real contrast in this story is between people who are basically honest and those...

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...

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 truth is that Gortsby relies too much on logic in ascertaining whether the young man is truthful or not, and not enough on his own judgement and intuition. Notice the way in which Gortsby...

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...

It is clear from the description and inner monologue of Norman that he is keenly perceptive of such matters, being able to spot the signs of someone in distress quite clearly. After all, by his own...

In "Dusk," there is an hour of defeat. The main character Gortsby sits on a park bench at dusk. He analyzes the men who sit on the park bench next to him. When the older man sits down, he seems...

The trickster in "Dusk" seems to be a sort of apprentice or beginner at his chosen profession. Gortsby listens to his elaborate hard-luck story and then exposes him as a fraud with a single...

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...

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...

In his novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck's isolated character of Crooks, who is separated from the other itinerant workers who stay in the bunkhouse, tells Lennie, another character how...

The young man in "Dusk" is an expert at playing on the human emotions. He tests Gortsby's ability to show compassion for his situation. The young man tells a sad story, and it would have worked had...

Let us remember that the description we receive of the people that move around at dusk comes from Norman Gortsby alone, and reflects his own "subtle failure" and his feeling of being unsuccessful...

The most interesting feature of "Dusk" is the fact that the young con man poses as a sort of aristocrat rather than a panhandler. Supposedly he has plenty of money but is just in a temporary fix...

What is interesting about both of these excellent short stories is the way that they involve a trickster who attempts to fool the protagonist(s) of the stories. In the case of "Dusk," the...

In her story "Roman Fever," Edith Wharton writes of dusk, "It was the moment when afternoon and evening hang balanced in mid-heaven." And, at this time, Mrs. Slade, one of the two matrons on...

According to the main character Gortsby, the hour of dusk is the hour of defeat for many people. During the hour of dusk, shady characters surface. It is the hour of defeat and those who live...

It is evident from the description of Gortsby's observations and reflections that he makes a habit of sitting on a bench in this general area around dusk, probably shortly after he gets off work in...

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...

Since he sits in the shadows of Hyde Park with others of his ilk, Gortsby is in a cynical mood, "heartsore and disillusioned," and inclined to entertain a certain sardonic pleasure as he observes...

In the short story "Dusk," it is about the time of day known as dusk. People who live defeated lives wander about at dusk. They fear rejection so dusk is the time of day to take a walk in the park....