SRR Govt.Arts& Science College Karimnagar
The Umbrella Man
Roald Dahl(1916-1990)
SATAVAHANA/OU/KU/TU-Telangana State
Telangana university- English Literature & Twentieth century-II. Sem 2. Course 10
MA ENGLISH -SEMESTER 2- PAPER III-FICTION-UNIT- V - Short stories
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, shirt story writer and popular for children books.His popular works include Charlie and Chocolate Factory, Giant Peach, The BFG, Matilda. His autobiography, Boy: Tales of Childhood was published in 1984.
The story is about a funny thing that happened in London to the narrator, a twelve years old girl and her thirty-four years old mother. The mother takes the narrator to the dentist to fill the hole in her back tooth.After the hospital visit they go to a cafe. it is raining heavily when they come out of the cafe. While they are waiting for a taxi, an old man approaches them seeking a small favour.
As the mother is a suspicious person, she doesn't trust strangers. The narrator feels embarrassed with her mother's attitude towards polite oldman since she gives him an unfriendly look.The narrator strongly believes that the old man is a nice,polite gentle man because he wears beautiful brown shoes and speaks well.The oldman offers the mother his twenty pound worth of silk umbrella forever, in return asks a pound for his taxi fare to go back home.The experienced mother poses some questions suspecting him as a trickster but the pretty old man have answers ready.
The mother slowly melts to his sweet talk and decides to take the silk umbrella. With narrator's frosty nosed looks,mother agrees to give taxi fare without taking an umbrella but he takes one pound and hands over the umbrella. The narrator notices that the old man is crossing the street hurriedly.They follow him till he enters a pub and there he takes a glass of whisky worth one pound in one long pour. To their astonishment, he comes out of the pub with a stolen umbrella and exchanges it with a tall man for a pound note in the main street. The narrator and her mother realise that they are deceived by the old man.
Themes of the story are deception, lying and trust.The narrator sees whole incident as a funny thing . Roald Dahl is well known for twists and turns in his stories, twists the story excellently in the climax. Though they have got twenty pound worth of the silk umbrella for a pound note, they feel tricked by the crooked oldman .They have fallen prey to the conman's game and failed to judge him correctly.
The story gives a message that do not judge a person by his looks.