the umbrella man essay 300 words summary

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710. The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl (Short Story)

In this episode I read out a short story written by Roald Dahl and then comment on the style, language and plot. Enjoy some storytelling and learn some English in the process. Video version available .

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Transcript & notes.

Hello listeners, how are you today? In this episode I’m going to read a short story to you, which I hope will be an entertaining and pleasant way to learn English with my podcast. I’ll also give some comments on the story afterwards and I will highlight a few bits of vocabulary at the end, but the main thing is that I’d just like to let you listen to a good-quality and entertaining short story in English. I am currently videoing myself while recording this episode and the video will be available on my YouTube channel and on my website, and I’m sharing my screen in the video so you can read my notes and the text for this story with me, if you like – sort of like an on-screen transcript. The notes and stuff will also be available on the page for this episode on my website. Check the show notes for the link for that. The story I’m going to read today is called The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl. I think it was originally published in 1980 in his book “More Tales of the Unexpected”. Do you know Roald Dahl? I have read a Roald Dahl story on this podcast before – that was The Hitchhiker in episode 545. It was a popular one, so let’s do it again. Roald Dahl is one of the UK’s favourite authors, and of course he’s popular around the world too. You might already be aware of him and his work. He was born in 1916 and died in 1990 and most of his writing was done in the 70s and 80s. His most famous stories were written for children (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, James & The Giant Peach, the BFG, Matilda and plenty of others) and my childhood was full of Roald Dahl stories (maybe yours too), but he also wrote a lot of short stories for adults or young adults, particularly earlier in his career. This is one of those stories. Get some of Roald Dahl’s books!

I’d like to suggest that you purchase some of his work – his books. I’ve got two books of his short stories for adults. The books are called “Roald Dahl: The Complete Short Stories Vol.1 & 2” and I highly recommend them. They are available from all the usual bookshops. “Roald Dahl: The Complete Short Stories Vol.1 & 2” The Umbrella Man appears in “The Complete Short Stories Vol.2” Notes on Language & Style The story was published over 30 years ago now, and was probably written earlier than that. I’m not sure when the story is set, but it feels a bit old fashioned. For the most part the English is the sort of modern, neutral English that you would come across today and so almost all of it is appropriate for you to learn and use, but some of the dialogue is a bit dated. I’ll point out some of that old fashioned language later. By today’s standards the characters sound quite posh and upper-class (and I’ll try to reflect this in the way I read it out). I’ll give more comments at the end. I’m going to start in just a moment. How to use this episode 1. Just listen, follow what I’m saying, enjoy the story and don’t feel pressured to do anything else. 2. If you want to take it further and push your learning more, then you could get a copy of the story, and use it as a learning resource. If you want the text of the story you could buy “The Complete Short Stories Vol.2” and read it there. Alternatively, I found a PDF copy of the book which has been posted by someone online, so you could click the link to the PDF and read that (link in the show notes and on the episode page)

Click here for the PDF of the story

You could read it while you listen to me so you can connect the written word to the spoken word, or you could read it again later and take more time over it.

For pronunciation , you could shadow the story with me – read aloud at the same time as you listen, perhaps with the text in front of you. You could record yourself reading the story, and then listen back and compare it to my recording, perhaps focusing on different aspects of pronunciation. For vocabulary , you could find any words or phrases that you don’t know and check them using an online dictionary like www.collinsdictionary.com (Oxford, Cambridge, Longman and Macmillan dictionaries are also available and I often use them as a teacher too) Or, as I said, just relax and listen to the story without worrying about doing anything else. Let’s get started! I will summarise this at the end in plain English so you can be sure you understood the main events.

Luke reads the story

I hope you enjoyed that!

A summary of the story

Here’s a summary from www.roaldfahlfans.com It neatly summarises the story in plain English in a couple of paragraphs. This should help you to make sure you got the main plot. As I said if you have specific bits of vocabulary that you’d like to check, you can do that on your own using one of those dictionaries. We might go through a few little details in a minute. First let me read out this summary. https://www.roalddahlfans.com/dahls-work/short-stories/the-umbrella-man/ I like this because it’s enjoyable to listen to the way the man persuades even this very suspicious woman to give him some money. I don’t think tricking people for money is good or anything like that, but I do find it interesting when people have fairly complex but effective techniques for fooling people. It’s also interesting how the woman’s attitudes about class and social status make her quite susceptible to this man’s trick, and I’m sure she wouldn’t be the only one. She judges people by their appearances and seems a bit snobbish, and he uses that to his advantage. He gives the impression of being a gentleman, and this is what allows him to take advantage of the woman. We all have natural prejudices, which can affect the way we judge people. It seems this old man uses people’s prejudices as part of his trick. Here are some comments about the way the characters are described and the English used. One of the strengths of this story is the way the characters are given depth. The story is told in a relatively simple manner with short sentences and not a lot of extraneous detail but the small details that are given make the characters 3-dimensional. This is done by showing us little contradictions in the things they say or do or at least hinting at some little conflicts that they seem to have inside them, some positive and negative traits, particularly the mother. The mother is strict, but she’s willing to give her daughter a banana split after her dental appointment. I guess she is kind and loving and wants to treat her daughter to something nice after the frightening ordeal of going to the dentist, but is it a good idea to treat your child to such a sugary dessert after the dentist has filled a hole in her tooth? I guess we all have to balance being strict, giving treats and managing the dental health of our children. But it’s interesting that we wonder slightly about what kind of mother she is. Maybe I’m reading too much into it here, but what did you think? What do you think is going on between the mother and the daughter? Does she seem to be a good mother? I suppose that’s a subjective thing. But I’d be interested to know what you think. She’s a bit stuck up and snobbish. She looks down her nose at the man when she believes he is begging for money, but then she can’t hide her admiration for him when she believes he is perhaps a titled-gentleman, maybe someone who comes from the upper-classes in society. Her attitudes about people and their status are clearly revealed by her reactions to the man at different moments. This is a good example of the principle of “show, don’t tell” which I think is a good method for telling stories. “Show, don’t tell” basically means that it’s always better to show the reader how to feel rather than telling them how to feel. Roald Dahl could have told us directly that the mother was a bit snobbish, by saying something like “My mother was always a bit snobbish and looked down on people lower than her and yet admired the upper classes highly” but it’s more effective for him to show us her attitudes by describing her reactions to the man at different moments in the story. This allows us to work out for ourselves that the mother is a bit of a snob, or maybe she’s just trying hard to get the best life for her and her family. She dreams of living a more wealthy and privileged life, having a car and a chauffeur. This shows us something about her position in society and that she’s probably middle class or upper-middle class and dreams of having more comfort and convenience in her life, like upper-class people have. She’s very untrustworthy and suspicious. Are these negative traits or is it wise to be cautious of others? But she’s also willing to be quite adventurous, chasing after the old man when she realises that he’s up to something. All of these little conflicting things, so efficiently described, help to flesh out her character and make her a lot more human and relatable. We kind of see how the daughter might feel – being a bit wary of her mother’s strictness but enjoying spending time with her, having just been treated to a nice banana split and sharing the afternoon together, also her disappointment with the way her mother treats the old man at first, learning about how to deal with strangers in the street and then the excitement of chasing after him. Roald Dahl always does this – somehow allows you to experience the excitement of being with certain other people. Then there’s the little old man who just loves a drink of whiskey but apparently doesn’t have any money of his own, and yet he has cleverly come up with a genius little plan to get money from people in the street. I suppose he won in the end, and the mother was shown up to be a bit of a snob or something. (Maybe I’m being a bit mean to the mother – is she a snob, or is she just wary of certain types of person?) I wonder if this little event affected the way the daughter saw the mother, if it brought them closer, or if the mother was embarrassed. In the end it seems that the mother and daughter just shared a funny little experience together. Ultimately it is quite adorable the way the two of them interact and I get quite a warm feeling from them. I like the neatness of the story, the cleverness of the man’s plan, the mischievous elements and the moment when the old man drinks his whiskey – it seems like he really enjoys it. What about you? What do you think of the story? Leave your comments in the comment section.

Posh / Old-Fashioned Sounding Vocabulary

• Again, if there are specific words or phrases that you’d like to check, I’ll let you do that yourself using the book or the PDF and a good dictionary, but I mentioned before about how some things sounded quite old fashioned and posh, and I’d like to point those things out. Things that sound posh or formal, or at least old-fashioned. (posh people often sound a bit old fashioned for some reason) I wouldn’t really use these phrases in my normal everyday life. Obviously you can speak how you like. I’m just pointing out things which I think sound a bit old-fashioned or posh.
• “I assure you!” → “Honestly!”
• “Old people like me become terribly forgetful” → “really”
• “I beg you to believe me, madam” → “Believe me, please!”
• “Isn’t it the silliest thing to do?” → “Isn’t it such a stupid thing to do?”
• “I summon a taxi to get me home” → “I get a taxi” or “I call a taxi to get me home”
• “Oh mummy ” (a lot of posh kids call their Mum, “mummy” – I think most British kids call their mother “Mum”)
• “Don’t be so beastly to him!” → “Don’t be so horrible to him!”
• “It’s of no importance so long as I get home” → “It’s not important…”
• “I wanted to satisfy myself that he wasn’t a trickster” → “I wanted to be sure…”
• “ Goodness Mummy, what a hurry he’s in” → “Oh my god!” “Wow”
• “ Good heavens , it’s a pub!”
• “ By golly , he’s got a nerve!”
• “That’s a jolly expensive drink” → “That’s a really expensive drink”
• “ Super ” → “Amazing, brilliant”

Fancy another Roald Dahl story?

I have read a Roald Dahl story before on the podcast. Some of you might remember. I read The Hitchhiker in episode 545. You can check it out in the archive if you’d like to listen to it. There’s also a link to that on the page for this episode on my website. https://teacherluke.co.uk/2018/09/07/545-the-hitchhiker-by-roald-dahl-short-story/ Finally, let’s listen to the author himself introducing the story at the start of an episode of Tales of the Unexpected, the TV show. Check this out.

I believe that Roald Dahl witnessed a real umbrella man on the streets of New York, but I wonder if he really did try the trick himself, and whether you are tempted to try it too, but I’m not sure the whole world needs more tricksters, does it?

Thanks for listening, speak to you again in the next episode, but for now – good bye bye bye…

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Roald Dahl Fans

Fan site for author Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

“The Umbrella Man”

Sections: Information  | Plot Description  

Information

• A Second Roald Dahl Selection: Eight Short Stories
• Completely Unexpected Tales
• Further Tales of the Unexpected
• More Tales of the Unexpected
• Tales of the Unexpected (Volume 1)
• The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
• The Complete Short Stories: Volume Two
• The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories
• The Umbrella Man and Other Stories
• The Australian Women’s Weekly (1981-03-11) - March 11, 1981
• Further Tales of the Unexpected read by Geoffrey Palmer, Joanna David, Tom Hollander
• Tales of the Unexpected (1979)

Plot Description

Spoiler warning! The narrator of this story is a 12-year-old girl who has gone to London with her mother to visit the dentist. The girl has a tooth filled, and then she and her mother go to a café afterwards. When it’s time to go home, they discover that it’s pouring rain and they have no umbrella. They decide to get a taxi. While they’re watching for a cab, an old gentleman sheltering under an umbrella approaches them. He asks for a favor. The girl’s mother is very distrustful of strange men. The old man explains that he has forgotten his wallet and would like to sell them his umbrella in return for taxi fare back to his home. He explains that it’s a very nice silk umbrella worth twenty pounds, but his legs are weak and he simply must take a taxi home. The mother likes the sound of the deal, but the little girl worries that they’re taking advantage of the old man. The mother offers to simply give him the cab fare, but he insists that they take the umbrella. The transaction is made and everyone is happy.

As the mother is proudly explaining the importance of correctly judging people, the daughter notices that the old man has quickly crossed the street and is hurrying away. “He doesn’t look very tired to me,” she said. The mother is displeased. “He’s up to something.” They decide to follow him and find out. They quickly follow him as he rushes through the rainy streets. Eventually they find themselves at a pub called “The Red Lion” and watch through the window as the old man enters and uses the pound note to pay for a triple whiskey. “That’s a jolly expensive drink,” said the little girl. “It cost him a twenty-pound silk umbrella!” They watch as the old man finishes his drink and goes to retrieve his coat and hat. Just before he leaves the pub, he smoothly plucks a wet umbrella from the coat rack and takes it with him. “So that’s his game!” the mother explained. They see him head back to the main street and sell the umbrella to another unsuspecting person. Then he heads off in another direction for another pub. “He could be doing this all night,” the girl says. “Yes, of course,” says the mother. “But I’ll be he prays like mad for rainy days.”

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‘The Umbrella Man’ by Roald Dahl: Short Story Analysis

May 12, 2020 By fizapathan Leave a Comment

‘The Umbrella Man’ by Roald Dahl was published in the year 1980 in the short story collection More Tales of the Unexpected . Today, it’s one of the best-remembered short stories of the master of the twist in the tale – Roald Dahl . ‘The Umbrella Man’ is a story of a master trickster who for a pound robs umbrellas from pubs worth even twenty pounds. He aims to show his vulnerability and ‘so-called’ genuine concern for the person he is tricking to loan him the money. The point is, he tries to say that he has forgotten his wallet while out on a walk. He asks for a pound note for taxi fare home and in return to the person who gives him the note he bestows upon them as a gift an umbrella. The pound note is for a tumbler of neat whiskey. The umbrella is just a ruse to get the pound. In this story, this elderly alcoholic called simply the Umbrella Man tricks a thirty-four-year-old stern mother and her twelve-year-old daughter. Although there are only three characters in the story, thanks to Dahl’s unique descriptions and suspense, ‘The Umbrella Man’ is a tale worth your money.

The story is told from the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl who has just been taken to the dentist by her mother. This reminds us of all the wonderful Roald Dahl novels which are always told from the perspective of the child and had children as main protagonists of the novels. This nameless girl gives the bare minimum description of who she is, which sums up her character quite well:

• She is twelve years old.
• She is a girl.

What more could a child say in all honesty at that age during Roald Dahl’s time. The girl is perky, extroverted, and very humorous. Her narration of the story indicates a great judge of character on her part. Though in the story her mother claims that she is the better judge of character, it is quite evident that the daughter is much more precocious than the mother. The mother is young but already a mother of a soon-to-be teenager. She is strict with her daughter but also allows the girl to have a banana spilt ice cream, after the child’s dental appointment. The mother is wary of strangers and comes across as a very coldhearted personality. She is shrewd but even her shrewdness was not enough to catch on to the umbrella man’s trick. She yearns for material comforts, which she does not have, like a car with a chauffeur. She believes the nicer a strange man seems to be the more suspicious should a woman be of his intentions. She is stuck-up but ready for an adventure which is evident when she and her daughter scurry after the old umbrella man to see what he was up to. Roald Dahl, as usual, gives wonderful descriptions of his characters that remain with you long after the story is done. The person who is described the most is the Umbrella Man. He is a marvelous actor and ready to do anything to get his tumbler of neat whiskey. He is clever enough to not go to the same pub twice for a drink so that he wouldn’t be caught stealing the umbrellas. There are many humorous scenes in the story which add color to the otherwise simple ‘twist in the tale’ story of ‘The Umbrella Man’:

• The daughter mentions that the mother is suspicious even of boiled eggs, for she pokes around the inside of it which makes the daughter wonder whether the mother is looking for a mouse.
• When the daughter, in the middle of the chase, asks her mother what would they do if the elderly man spotted them, the mother states quite frankly that she didn’t care as he had lied brazenly to them and was running them off their feet.
• The daughter sarcastically asks the mother if the man was not a ‘titled gentleman’ as she earlier supposed, indicating that the girl was very cheeky and highly precocious.
• The humorous image that we see in our minds of a mother and daughter under a silk umbrella stalking a wiry old man to a pub in the pouring rain.
• The frosty nose stares of both mother and daughter to other people and each other.
• The daughter mentions that once when her mother gave her principal a frosty nosed stare, the poor principal started simpering and stammering.
• The shock of the mother and daughter when the umbrella man entered the pub. The fact that they were shocked is indicative of the social backwardness of the decade when this story was penned by Roald Dahl.
• The parting line in the story where the mother checkmates the daughter by saying that however clever the Umbrella Man was, his whole ruse would have failed if it didn’t rain on a particular day. So, she says that the man must be praying like crazy for rainy days.
•  The image of the Umbrella Man drinking down his tumbler of neat whiskey with such relish when he had tried to portray to the mother and daughter that he was an old man who just wanted to go home after a long walk.

Note in the story how the mother and daughter mistakenly think that the Umbrella Man had spent more in gifting his silk umbrella to them and only taking a pound. They are misled by this thought only for a while until they see him flick an umbrella after collecting his hat and coat. The Umbrella Man comes off as a cool character, a real fraud, but someone good at heart who likes to help others indirectly by at least giving them an umbrella in exchange for their pound note. His eccentricities endear us to him and make us smile from within when he goes flitting from one pub to another for a tumbler of neat whiskey which he doesn’t even get any change in return for.

All in all, ‘The Umbrella Man’ is one of the short story classics that appear in most school textbooks. I have never gone through a single year in my ten-year teaching career without teaching this extraordinarily brilliant Roald Dahl story which is certainly, a story of the unexpected. If you are interested in more book reviews, book analysis, short story analysis, poems, essays, essay analysis, and other bookish content, you can visit my blog insaneowl.com . If you are interested in buying my books then visit my website fizapathanpublishing.us or fizapathan.com . Happy reading to you this week!

Copyright ©2020 Fiza Pathan

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The Literary Affair

For the fierce reader…

THE UMBRELLA MAN- SIDDHARTHA GIGOO (2015)

A thing which had been discarded and, instead of having been disposed off with the other useless things, had found refuge in the solitary ward of Number 7. It was the most beautiful thing in the entire asylum, more beautiful than the bed of wild flowers along the wall of the compound.

The Umbrella Man is a short story about the inmate of an asylum. Insanity has caused him to lose his identity to a mere Number 7 . He lives a monotonous and dreary life, almost numb in a place that has forgotten what beauty was.

There was just one possession that he treasured and that was an umbrella which he carried with him.

He felt lucky to have chanced upon the umbrella with yellow-and-red stripes. It had become his playmate.

All he wished for was rain, and yet the non arrival of it didn’t sadden him. Even though the author paints a very dismal picture on the surface, if we delve deeper, we can see that Number 7 is not quite without anything. The story weighs heavy with symbolism.  Every night he talks to the image of a little child and comforts him.

  For years, during his life in isolation in the asylum, the child never grew up. The man grew old.

In other words, Number 7 may have grown old, barely alive, but his inner self was still young and hopeful and that hope was not in vain.

Eventually, the clouds gathered up and rain splattered on the ground on the very day he is released. Number 7 is a free man and he is seen walking away from the prison of his mind into hope and freedom, a road he has never seen before, leaving nothing but wet footprints in his wake.

The analogy created between the umbrella and mankind is beautiful:

The umbrella was utterly worthless without the rain. Likewise, what is mankind without hope? With the absence of hope, a man is dead even before he actually dies.

The Umbrella Man is an ambivalent short read that talks about the intricate relationship between man and hope in life, and its vitality for survival.

My rating for this short story – 4/5 stars

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9 Comments Add yours

Well done! Wanna read this book now.

Like Liked by 1 person

It is definitely a nice five minute read!

Good story. Hope eventually overtakes despair. Deep message with deep impact. Hope everyone reads . Siddharth I look forward to more stories from you.

Yes, we all do!

Nice post, Leha. I happen to stumble upon your blog through Spotlight. n m glad. 🙂 I have recently developed a liking for short stories and this one seems quite interesting, more because it carries my belief- to hope nevertheless. Will surely read it. Naice review, btw. 🙂

Thanks so much Rashi.. Hope is everything !

This seems like a wonderful read. Thoughtful of you, to highlight the quotes.

Thank you! You can find it on Kindle reader

What is the significance of the rain that number 7 was hoping for?

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The Umbrella Man - Pages 663 - 664 Summary & Analysis

The old man’s reasoning was not successful in persuading the mother to give him a pound, so he offered her a silk umbrella worth “twenty pounds” (663). The mother was ready to accept the offer, but the daughter gave her a “frosty-nosed” (663) look to suggest that it would be immoral to accept the umbrella. This caused the mother to offer the pound for free, but the old man insisted that she accept the umbrella. The mother gave her daughter a “triumphant” (663) look before accepting the offer.

After he left, the mother began talking to her daughter about how the man was “a real gentleman” (663). She then lectured her daughter about how one should be patient when assessing a person or situation. The daughter interrupted because she saw the man dodging “nimbly” (664) through traffic to reach the other side of the street. The mother...

(read more from the Pages 663 - 664 Summary)

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On Umbrella Morals By A.G. Gardiner: Summary and Questions

Table of Contents

On Umbrella Morals By A.G. Gardiner

Summary of On Umbrella Morals

The essay ‘ On Umbrella Morals ’ is a satire written by A.G. Gardiner . In this essay, the author after losing his umbrella pulls his thoughts and emotions towards serious things like morals and conscience. He feels unhappy that many people forget to return books taken from others or a library . such people even do not hesitate from picking up other people’s umbrellas and hats. The author really feels annoyed at such behaviour of certain people. He says that such people keep befooling themselves that they are honest people. They become so immoral that they don’t feel any shame in picking things of others. The author has entitled this essay ‘ On Umbrella Morals ’ because losing his umbrella leads him to think about morals and conscience.

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Short Answer Type Questions

Q.1 What does the author say about ‘Umbrella Morals’? Ans. The essay ‘On Umbrella Morales’ written by the British author A.G. Gardiner is a satire in which the author comments on certain people’s odd habit of picking things belonging to others. The author calls such people having umbrella conscience. He says that such a man is not a robber or a pickpocket but he is thoroughly an honest man who allows his honesty the benefit of the doubt. Such a man does no crime but picks others umbrellas or forgets to return a book. Then he befools his conscience saying that it has been done by mistake. In this way, he plays the game of hide-and-seek with his own conscience. The author calls such a man without a bolt who seems unspotted from the world.

Q.2 ‘It is not enough to be find out by others; we refuse to find out by ourselves.’ Discuss. Ans. The author A.G. Gardiner taunts certain people’s habit of picking other’s things. He says that such people even though pick things belonging to others yet, they consider themselves thoroughly honest. They consider their act of picking other’s things just a mistake. They befool themselves in the name of a mistake. Such people don’t look at things until they are far away from the place. Then gives an expression of surprise as if the act has been done unintentionally. The author says that it is not enough to be found out by others. But we refuse to be found out by ourselves. He meant to say that we are not honest even to ourselves, let alone others we keep playing the game of hide-and-seek with our own conscience.

Q.3 Describe how and why did the author return the Umbrella?

Ans. The author says that it may be possible that sometimes things are exchanged by mistake only. He remembers an incident in which he was involved in the exchange of an umbrella of a politician. Once he was invited to dine with some politicians. As it was the summertime he did not have the need to carry his umbrella for the next few days then one day he discovered a splendid umbrella with a gold band and a gold tassel in the umbrella stand of his house. He was terrified to see that umbrella because it did not belong to him. Luckily, the name of a politician was engraved upon it. The author quickly wrote a letter to that politician and apologized for his mistake. He dispatched the umbrella along with the letter. Even the politician was very nice about it. And took all the blame on himself. In this way, the author was saved from the shame of exchanging another’s umbrella.

Q. Write the critical summary of the essay, ” On Umbrella Morals”. Ans. See the summary of the essay above. Q. Justify the title of the essay, “On Umbrella Morals”. Ans. See the summary of the essay above. Q. What has the author to say about morals concerning books? Ans. As for as books are concerned, the author says that people do not follow any morals in taking books from others or a library. He is very annoyed that many people forget to return the books of others. It is common all over the world and even some reputable people don’t think about morals concerning books. He gives the example of a famous divine and literary critic whose library was sold after his death. The library had a great collection of rare books, all borrowed from others or libraries. Finally, the author says that it is hard to part with a book that one has come to love.

Q. What does the author mean by ‘play hide and seek’? Ans. The author says that people, who pick things belonging to others, play hide & seek with their conscience. Such people keep befooling themselves than their act of picking other’s thing is a matter of mistake only. They give this excuse that it was not done deliberately. They are not ready to accept the truth even in their hearts. In this way, they deceive their conscience & play hide-and-seek with it.

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