What is the theme of "Dusk" by Saki?

"Dusk" is a short story written by British short story writer and satirist Hector Hugh Munro, most commonly known by his pen name Saki and occasionally known by H. H. Munro. It was originally published in his 1930 collection of short stories titled The Complete Short Stories of Saki.

"Dusk" follows an intelligent and somewhat judgmental and cynical young man named Norman Grotsby, who comes across and is deceived by one, or maybe even two, con artists. There are many socially relevant themes which are represented in the story such as deception, human nature, pessimism, perception, and uncertainty; however, the main theme seems to be the importance and inevitability of fate, as Saki often mocked the overconfident and falsely superior British elites and enjoyed making them 'victims' of fate.

What is the theme of "Dusk" by Saki?

One could argue that the main theme of "Dusk" concerns the dangers of judging a book by its cover. Having observed the massed ranks of the defeated coming and going from his vantage point in the park, Norman Gortsby has come to think of himself as an expert at judging people. He can tell just by looking at them what their life situations are, which gives him a certain smug sense of satisfaction. When the young man rocks up on the bench beside him, he has no reason to think that his supposedly superior ability to read other people has in any way deserted him.

Yet it most certainly has—or perhaps he never really had this ability in the first place. Either way, Gortsby has been made to look a right fool by his prejudging of the young man. The uncomfortable truth is he doesn't know quite as much about other people as he thinks he does. Worse still, he never gets to find out whether the young man was telling him the truth or if he really was a panhandler all along.

What is the theme of "Dusk" by Saki?

The main theme of the short story "Dusk" is the inscrutability of human nature. Despite our best efforts, our conclusions about others are often nothing more than speculative convictions. We know less than we think we do about the motives, impulses, and objectives of our fellow man.

In the story, Norman speculates about the lives of those he comes across. He sees dusk "as the hour of the defeated" and believes that dusk completely hides one's true self from others. He readily admits that he is "heartsore and disillusioned." However, he does not reveal the reasons for his melancholy. Just as dusk hides others' true selves from him, Norman's reticence hides his true motives, impulses, and objectives from us.

Although Norman himself remains largely inscrutable to us, he does not shy away from speculating about the lives of others. He imagines that an old man he sees is "one of the world's lamenters who induce no responsive weeping." Norman theorizes that the old man is probably poor and shown little regard within his home circle.

Norman's reticence is only matched by his conceit. In his encounter with the young man, Norman imagines that he can rightly discern the youth's motives. However, he is soon proven wrong when the young man outsmarts him. So, the main theme of the short story is the inscrutability of human nature: we know less than we think about what compels others to act the way they do.

What is the the theme of the story "Dusk" by Saki (H. H. Munro)?

To me, the main theme of this story is that people are not able to really know what is in the hearts of the other people that they meet.  I think that this is why the story is entitled "Dusk" -- because people see other people as if it is dusk.  The others' motives are only seen in dim light and we cannot be sure of what they are.

This ties in to the idea of deception.  In this story, the young man deceives Gortsby.  He is able to do this because Gortsby (like all people) cannot see into the hearts of other people.  Gortsby is not suspicious enough of the young man and so he is fooled when he finds the bar of soap.

So a theme of the story is deception -- Gortsby can be deceived because he, like all people, lives in a kind of dusk when it comes to reading other people's motives.

What is the theme of the story "Dusk"?

Perhaps this would be a good place to try to explain exactly what the young man claims happened to him, since it seems pretty odd for a person to lose a hotel.

The young man says he "came up this afternoon." He does not say from where. He meant to stay at the Patagonian Hotel in Berkshire Square, presumably a first-class hotel in a good neighborhood.

"When I got there I found it had been pulled down some weeks ago and a cinema theatre run up on the site."

How could a big hotel be torn down and a theater built on the site in a matter of weeks? This may be a clue intended to alert the reader that the stranger's story is a hoax.

The young man says he went to another hotel. He sent a letter to relatives giving them his new address and then went out to buy a cake of soap because he hates using hotel soap. This is a nice touch because it characterizes him as a high-class gentleman who has to have the best soap.

"Then I strolled about a bit, had a drink at a bar and looked at the shops, and when I came to turn my steps back to the hotel I suddenly realised that I didn't remember its name or even what street it was in."

He must have left his money in his hotel room and only came outside with about a shilling. He spent all but twopence on the soap and the drink. At least this is what he tells Gortsby.

Saki strengthens the credibility of the young man's story by having Gortsby reply:

"I remember doing exactly the same thing once in a foreign capital, and on that occasion there were two of us, which made it more remarkable. Luckily we remembered that the hotel was on a sort of canal, and when we struck the canal we were able to find our way back to the hotel."

Maybe the young man made up such a complex story in order to interest Gortsby and draw him in. Maybe it is just the weirdness of the story that makes it believable. Most of us have had the experience of "losing" something if we live in a big city. Most frequently we can't find our car in a big parking lot or multi-story parking structure.

As for the theme of Saki's story, it would seem to be the infinite duplicity of humanity and the way that some clever tricksters have learned to take advantage of other people's good nature. The title "Dusk" suggests that it is hard to see people as they truly are. In a big city almost everybody is a stranger. It is hard enough to cling to one's own identity. People in a big city can change identities if they decide to do so. The young man is never given a name. Neither is the "elderly gentleman," who could be a confidence trickster too. 

Saki's story resembles Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wakefield," a story in which a middle-aged man on a mere whim leaves his wife and his home and takes up a lodging just blocks away, where he remains an anonymous non-person for many years before deciding to return home to his wife, who believes she is a widow. Hawthorne's story is also set in London. It is intended to show how ephemeral people's identities actually are.

Even the people we think we know may not be who they say they are. Norman Gortsby might not have given the young man a guinea if he hadn't found that cake of soap by the bench. He felt gratified that the stranger was actually telling the truth and wasn't just another of the many imposters in the world--although it turned out that the young stranger really was just another imposter. Or was it the elderly gentleman who was the imposter? Or both of them?

What is the theme of the story "Dusk"?

According to Daniel Snyder, among the most common themes in literature are “The Big Trick,” where someone or some group of people intentionally trick someone else, and “The Capriciousness of Fate,” where there is often a major reversal of fortune.  It could be from good-to-bad or from bad-to-good.  The common element is that there is some force guiding the person’s life over which he or she has no control.

Now, if the old man and the young man in "Dusk" were both in on the con, with the old man dropping the soap for his partner, then the theme would be “The Big Trick.”  If the young man worked alone, then we have the “Capriciousness of Fate,” since it was just fate that the old man had dropped the soap and the young man’s con had the bar of soap in it.

What is the theme of the story "Dusk"?

“Dusk” is a short story about a con game.  Even in the civilized world of London, the theme of survival of the fittest, or better yet, how Fate can step in and bring down the arrogant, is still very evident.

Gortsby represents the type of people that Munroe loved to portray and expose what they really were under their facades of superiority.  It seems at first that Gortsby has seen through the con of the young man, but fate steps in when he finds the bar of soap that backed up the con.  Unfortunately for Gortsby, the soap belonged to someone else, and the con man still gets his money.

What is the climax of Saki's "Dusk"?

Climax is the moment of highest emotional intensity in a plot, when the outcome of the conflict is finally made clear to readers; this moment occurs in Saki's "Dusk" at the point in which Gortsby discovers a bar of soap lying on the ground by the side of the bench from which the young man departs because Saki has given his story of having been robbed after leaving his hotel to buy a cake of soap no credibility.  Gortsby grabs this item and hurries to catch up with the owner, crediting him his "testimony of the soap."

While this would normally be falling action of the story,Saki, however, has a surprise ending which makes the climax rather anticlimatic.  After having given the young man the soap and the loan of money with his card, then, chastising himself for his lack of faith in humanity, Gortsby retraces his steps only to encounter the elderly gentleman on the same bench, searching for a lost "cake of soap."

What is the setting of "Dusk" by Saki?

The bulk of the action in this story takes place on a park bench just to the left of Hyde Park Corner in London.   When the characters migrate from this bench, it is only to walk slightly further into the Park.  “It was some thirty past six on an early March evening, and dusk had fallen heavy over the scene,” Saki writes – an apt time of day, considering the title of the story.  The first paragraph is quite descriptive, and sets a scene buried in the half-light of a waning spring day, when the lines between all things blur:

There was a wide emptiness over road and sidewalk, and yet there were many unconsidered figures moving silently through the half-light, or dotted unobtrusively on bench and chair, scarcely to be distinguished from the shadowed gloom in which they sat.

It is within this setting that Norman Gortsby is sitting idly on his park bench, observing the individuals mentioned above with the very same scrutiny they keep their heads down to avoid.  According to Gortsby, “Dusk…was the hour of the defeated.”  And Gortsby considers himself among their ranks, though exactly why eludes the reader.  So, he seeks solace in this half-empty, half-dark, half-dying time of day, among those strangers he presumes to be of a similar mind to himself.

What role does the time of day play in Saki's "Dusk"?

The title "Dusk" and the description of dusk in London have a practical purpose in addition to establishing a scene and a mood. The young con man who sits down beside Gortsby has supposedly been searching for his lost hotel for some little time. Now he has given up the search. It is getting dark. This gathering darkness is what thriller writers often call "a ticking clock." It will soon be much darker and much colder. Saki writes in the very first paragraph that the time is early in March. Both the young stranger and the elderly gentleman are wearing overcoats. Presumably Gortsby would be wearing an overcoat too. The gathering darkness and the growing cold make the young stranger's plight seem more and more serious. If he couldn't find his hotel in the daylight, how could he hope to find it at night? He tells Gortsby: 

"Unless I can find some decent chap to swallow my story and lend me some money I seem likely to spend the night on the Embankment."

This is it. This is the "touch." This is what the young grifter's hard-luck story has been leading up to--as hard-luck stories usually do. The Embankment, of course, is the bank of the Thames River, not a very healthy place for a gentleman to be spending a night, but a very good place to get mugged and even murdered. This young grifter has concocted his story in such a way that he supposedly doesn't even have enough money to sit drinking beer or coffee in some all-night "sawdust restaurant with oyster shells" (to quote T. S. Eliot). The young stranger only took enough money to buy a cake of soap and one drink, and now he has about twopence left.

So the gathering darkness makes the con man's plight seem more serious. It could be seen as a matter of life and death. Saki might have toyed with the notion of setting the time as even later than dusk. But he could see that it wouldn't be likely that a man like Gortsby would be sitting on a park bench when it was totally dark. The gathering darkness is making this young country gentleman feel so desperate that he is taking the extreme liberty, and suffering the extreme embarrassment, of approaching a total stranger in the hope of obtaining a small temporary loan. At least that is the picture of himself that the young con artist is is trying to present. This is the first and last time in his life that he will ever do such a thing!

Saki's description of London at nightfall brings to mind T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." See the enotes reference link below.

What role does the time of day play in Saki's "Dusk"?

In “Dusk” by Saki, the protagonist is a man who thinks is understands people.  He is an observer of life. The time that he loves the best is in the early evening or dusk.  

Norman Gortsby liked to sit on a park bench and watch people.  He liked dusk because this was “the hour of the defeated.”  At dusk, the people who really did not want to be seen came out.  These people had lost something in their lives.  Gortsby included himself in this group.  The reader never knows why Norman feels this way although he does say that he has no money problems.

 Men and women, who had fought and lost, who hid their fallen fortunes and dead hopes as far as possible from the scrutiny of the curious, came forth in this hour of gloaming,,,and bowed shoulders and unhappy eyes might pass unnoticed.

A person can hide in the dusk. The author describes these people as nocturnal.  There was just enough light from the street lights, windows, and traffic. 

On this day, it was early evening in March.  Sitting next to him was an old gentleman who seemed defiant which may have been the only feelings that he had left. It was obvious that this man had given up on life. He soon left.

Norman’s next companion was a young man.  He was in a bad mood.  Engaging him in conversation, Norman learned that the young man could not remember where the hotel was in which he was staying.  The young man had gone out to buy some soap.   He left the rest of his money in the hotel room, so he guessed that he would have to spend the night out in the open air. 

He knew no one in London.  Obviously, the young man would have liked some money.  To prove that he was not telling the truth, Norman asked where the soap was.  After making an attempt to find it, he said that he must have lost it. 

When sitting alone on the bench, Norman analyzed the young man's story.  Norman observed to himself that if the young man had been clever, he would have had some soap to prove his story.

As Norman was leaving, he observed a package lying on the ground.  It was soap.  He decided that it must have fallen out of the young man’s pocket as he sat on the bench. Hurriedly, Norman chases down the young man and apologizes for his mistrust.  Norman gives him some money. 

Passing by the bench on his way home, Norman sees the same elderly man who had sat on the bench earlier.  The old man was looking for something.  Norman asked him for what he was looking.  The old man replied that he had lost some soap that he had bought.

The twist at the end is unhinging.  The reader would love to know how Norman reacted to learning that the soap belonging to the old man.  With his cynical approach to life, Norman may never trust anyone again.

Hopefully, Norman will learn some lessons from this encounter.  First, usually the first decision that is made turns out to be the best.  Something in the young man warned Norman not to trust him. 

Secondly, Norman allowed himself to be influenced by external forces.  Despite Norman thinking that he was a good judge of character, he did not follow up on his own beliefs. 

Even though Norman appears to be cynical, his behavior with the young man proves that there is good in every man.  He thought that he had wronged him, and he wanted to make up for it. It is a good quality that Norman felt the need to follow the young man and apologize and loan him money. 

Explain or paraphrase the story "Dusk" by Saki.

A more specific question would help you to get a better answer...

This is the story of Norman Gortsby.  He is sitting on a park bench next to a bum.  The bum leaves and another man comes up and feeds Gortsby a story about why he needs some money.  Gortsby does not believe him and the man leaves.  After the man leaves, Gortsby finds a bar of soap on the ground near where the man had been.  This makes the man's story seem true so Gortsby chases him down and gives him the soap and some money.  Gortsby goes back and sits down, at which point the bum comes back looking for the bar of soap that he had dropped.  Gortsby has been defrauded...

The story shows how hard it is for people to understand what is in the hearts of other people.

What is the role of light in "Dusk" by Saki?

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 man comes crawling out.

In this short story, the dimness of dusk causes the man on the bench to be skeptical, for he believes that dusk brings out the defeat in mankind. The man on the bench is skeptical of the two men that sit on the bench next to him.

While he may have been wrong about the first man's situation, he definitely was right in being skeptical of the second man's story. The second man was a true con artist who could not produce a bar of soap to collaborate his story of not knowing the name of his hotel.

When the man on the bench finds a bar of soap under the bench, he is a bit chagrined or embarrassed that he did not believe the con man's story. Chasing the con man and giving him money as the man on the bench does so is his only mistake.

When the first gentleman comes looking for his bar of soap, the man on the bench learns a lesson. He should have trusted his instincts. Dusk brings out the type of man of which to be skeptical. Of course, it is too late now for the man on the bench will never see repayment of the money he gave the con artist.

Dusk is a time when those of lesser reputation begin crawling about. It is a time to be skeptical and aware. The man on the bench fell for a con man and loses precious investment in the life of a con artist. Ironically, the man on the bench was quite aware of such a type to come crawling out at dusk.