1) Plot and plot structure: conflict types.
The impact of a literary work depends on all its elements. Among them plot and plot structure play an important role. The plot is a series of interlinked events in which the characters of the story participate. The events are arranged in a definite sequence to catch and hold the reader's interest. Most stories and novels have plots. But there are some which have no plots. Every plot is a series of meaningful events.
2) Plot and plot structure: the setting and its functions.
The events of the plot are generally localized; they are set in a particular place and time. The place and time of the actions of a story (or novel) form the setting. For the setting the writer selects the relevant detail which would suggest the whole scene. In some stories, the setting is scarcely noticeable; in others it plays a very important role. The functions of the setting:
3) Plot and plot structure: the exposition.
The setting is generally established at the beginning of the story, in the exposition, which is the first component of plot structure. In the exposition the writer introduces the theme, the characters and establishes the setting. The exposition contains the necessary preliminaries to the events of the plot, casts light on the circumstances influencing the development of characters and supplies some information on either all or some of the following questions: Who? What? Where? When?
4) Plot and plot structure: complications, climax, denouement.
The second structural component which follows the exposition is complications. Complications generally involve actions, though they might involve thoughts and feelings as well. As a rule, this structural component consists of several events. They become tenser as the plot moves toward the moment of deci¬sion — the climax. Such a direct scaling upwards in the moments of complications occurs in The Cop and the Anthem by O'Henry. In some stories there may be a good deal of fluctuation in intensity among the moments of complications, although the general tendency is upward.
5) Plot structure techniques. We may generalize by saying that there is a variety of plot structure techniques.
A story may have:
1) a straight line narrative presentation, when the events are arranged as they occur, in chronological order;
6) Plot and plot structure: presentational sequencing.
The intensity of the impression depends on presentational sequencing, the order in which the writer presents the information included into the story. Hence presentational sequencing is interlinked with plot structure.
The writer may withhold some information and keep the reader guessing. The reader will then be uncertain of some things or suspect certain facts. A number of questions may arise, the answers to which may either follow rapidly or emerge gradually in the course of the narrative. Most stories contain an enigma, which is an important factor in story-telling.
7) System of images: micro-images, synthetic images, extended images.
An image in art is a subjective reflection of reality. It is affected by the writer's power of imagination. Though every image is inspired by life, the writer reflects reality as he sees it. Moreover, he may create images of scenes which he could have never observed (as in historical novels). An image is, on the one hand, a generalization and is never a complete identity of a person, thing or phenomenon. There is always something left out by the writer, and something that is emphasized or even exaggerated. On the other hand, an image in art is concrete with its individual peculiarities.
8) System of images: protagonist, antagonist, villain, foil, author’s mouthpiece, a type, a caricature.
In most stories one character is clearly central and dominates the story fr om the beginning up to the end. Such a character is generally called the main, central, or major character, or the protagonist. The main character is also be called hero or heroine, if he or she deserves to be called so. The antagonist is the personage opposing the protagonist or hero. The villain is the character with marked negative features. Sometimes in a literary work the writer will give us two characters with distinctly opposing features, we then say that one character serves as a foil to the other.
9) System of images: simple and complex images.
Characters may be simple (flat) or complex (well-rounded). Simple characters are constructed round a single trait. Complex characters undergo change and growth; reveal various sides of their personalities. E.g.: Hamlet is a complex character, as he is brave and hesitant, sensitive and unyielding. Contradictory features within a character make it true-to-life and convincing.
The main character is most relevant in a literary work, since it is through his fate that the message is conveyed. The minor characters are subordinate; they are generally introduced to reveal some aspects of the main character, or his relationship with people.
10) System of images: artistic details and particularities.
Depending on the value which details have, in fiction, one should distinguish between the so-called artistic details and particularities.
The artistic detail is always suggestive. It therefore has a larger meaning than its surface meaning, as it implies a great deal more than is directly expressed by it. An artistic detail acquires expressive force and has both direct and indirect meaning. It is a poetic representation of a whole scene. In this sense an artistic detail may be treated as a metonymic expression of the whole. An artistic detail, just as any micro-image, is stimulating to the imagination.
11) Means of characterization: direct/indirect characterization, presentation of the character through action.
The characters may be described from different aspects: physical, emotional, moral, spiritual, and social. The description of the different aspects of a character is known as characterization. There are two main types of characterization: direct and indirect. When the author rates the character himself, it is direct characterization. E.g.: when J. Priestley says that Golspie "was dogmatic, rough, domineering, and was apt to jeer and sneer”, he uses the direct method of characterization. Direct characterization may be made by a character in the story. But when the author shows us the character in action, lets us hear him, watch him and evaluate him for ourselves, the author uses the indirect method of characterization.
12) Indirect characterization: speech characteristics.
Speech characteristics reveal the social and intellectual standing of the character, his age, education and occupation, his state of mind and feelings, his attitude and relationship with his interlocutors. When analyzing speech characteristics, one should be alert for:
l) style markers, such as
a) markers of official style ("I presu¬me", "I beg your pardon", etc.);
b) markers of informal conversational style: contracted" forms, colloquialisms, elliptical sentences, tag constructions (as "you know"), initiating signals (as "Well", "Oh"), hesitation pauses, false starts — all of which normally occur in spontaneous colloquial speech and often remain unnoticed, but in "fictional conversation" they may acquire a certain function, as they create verisimilitude and may indicate some features of the speaker's character, his state of mind and his attitude to others:
13) Indirect characterization: psychological portrayal and analysis of motive.
The penetration into the mind of the character, description of his mental processes and subtle psychological changes that motivate his actions, the penetration into his thoughts — all that is an effective means of characterization that writers very often resort to. Priestley’s Angel Pavement abounds in illustrations of psychological portrayal. E. g: the description of Miss Matfield's state of mind when she realized at the station that she had been waiting for Golspie in vain, standing there with a suitcase and a cheap imitation of a wedding ring in her bag, while Golspie was miles away from London.
14) Indirect characterization: description of the outward appearance, the portrayal of a character.
In fiction there exist some relationships between the character and his appearance. Thus, features as "hard eyes" or a "cruel mouth like scar" create the picture of a man who is capable of mean and wicked actions. The writer often marks some suitable feature in the character's portrait which is suggestive of his nature. In literature physical portrayal often suggests moral, mental or spiritual characteristics.
15) Indirect characterization: description of the world of things that surround the character.
The character's room, clothing and other belongings may also serve as a means of characterization. E.g.: "the blue serge suit that bagged and sagged and shone, ... the pulpy look about his shoes ...which soaked up the rain" characterize Turgis as a miserable creature, who lives in need, with no one to care for him. It adds to his portrait and helps the reader to understand the character.
16) Indirect characterization: the use of a foil.
Indirect characterization is a bit complex than direct characterization. In this case, the reader has to understand the nature of the character by his thoughts, speech, appearance, role, action, and his influence on other characters present in the plot. You will often come across such examples wh ere secondary characters deliver a soliloquy to define the protagonist or the protagonist himself delivers a monologue to symbolize his/her character. E.g.
17) Indirect characterization: the naming of characters.
The naming of characters may also serve as a means of characterization. The name may be deliberately chosen to fit a certain character. Take, for example, Fielding's Sir Benjamin Backbite, or Dickens's Mr. and Mrs. Murdstone (murder + stone), or O'Henry's Shark Dodson. Such names are suggestive, as they bring into play the associations which the words they are composed of have.
18) Narrative method: types of narrators.
The narrative method involves such aspects as: a) who narrates the story and b) the way the narrator stands in relation to the events and to the other characters of the story. We are all well aware of the fact that the same people and events may seem quite different when seen by various people or from different angles. In the same way the author can vary the narrative method depending on what he wants his readers to concentrate on. He can tell the story from the point of view of a character in the story, or from without — as an onlooker.
19) Narrative method: the interrelationship between the nar¬rative types and the types of narrators.
The author may sel ect either of the following four types of narrators: 1) the main character, 2) a minor character, 3) the omniscient author, 4) the observer-author.
First-person narrative: main character tells the story (Internal analysis of events)/ minor character tells the story (Outside observation of events);
Third-person narrative: omniscient or analytic author tells the story (internal analysis of events)/observer-author tells the story (outside observation of events).
There are common features between the four types of narrators.
20) Narrative method: the first-person narrative.
A first-person narrative is a very effective means of revealing the personality of the character who narrates. The narrator tells what he thinks and feels, and the reader easily understands his motives, his nature. The writer without resorting to analysis gets the advantage of defining this character more closely. He does not have to say whether the character is sensitive, easily affected or self-controlled, kind or cruel, he simply lets the character demonstrate his features. That becomes clear and visible to the reader.
These two narrative methods increase the credibility of the story. The narrator's statements gain in weight and are more readily accepted by the reader, for they are backed by the narrator's presence in the described events — he relates what he himself has seen.
21) Narrative method: the omniscient author.
There are no limitations on the freedom of the omniscient author. He is all-seeing and all-knowing. He can follow any character to a locked room or a desert island. He may get inside his characters’ minds; add his own analysis of their motives and actions. It is the author's voice, his evaluations, his opinion of the events and characters that the reader hears and, therefore, the reader can easily understand the author's point of view. Moreover, the omniscient author may wander away from the subject of the narrative to state his personal view or to make a general statement. Such a statement is known as the author's digression.
22) Narrative method: the observer-author.
In the case of the observer-author, the story is a scene or a series of scenes, narrated by an onlooker who does not interfere for any comments or reflections of these events. The main focus of interest is the study of actions and events. The advantage of this narrative method is that the observer-author lets the reader see, hear, and judge the characters and their actions for himself. He stimulates the reader to form his own impression and make his own judgments.
23) Narrative method: the dramatic and pictorial forms.
Stories told by the observer-author may be presented in either of the following two forms: 1) the dramatic, or 2) the pictorial form.
A story is said to have a dramatic form, when one scene follows another and the characters act and speak as in drama. Arrangement in Black and White by D. Parker and The Killers by E. Hemingway serve as examples.
A story is considered to have pictorial form, when the observer-author pictures the scenes, but he tells of what anyone might see and hear in his position without entering into, the minds of any of the characters, without analyzing their motives. (Indian Camp by E. Hemingway illustrates the pictorial form of presentation).
24) Narrative method: the dominant point of view.
The narrative method determines the dominant point of view. Depending on who tells the story, the dominant point of view may be either that of the character (if he tells the story), or that of the author (if the story is told by the author). The dominant point of view does not rule out the possibility of introducing other viewpoints into the story. If the viewpoints are presented as independent, the story is said to be “polyphonic”. However, the dominant point of view generally subordi-nates the other viewpoints.
The narrative method conditions the language of the story. Thus if the story is told by an omniscient author, the language is always literary.
25) Tonal system: atmosphere, the author's attitude, tone.
There is no art without emotion. Fiction (as all other art-forms) appeals to the reader through the senses and evokes responsive emotions. In every literary work the writer's feelings and emotions are reflected in the tone, attitude and atmosphere.
Atmosphere is the general mood of a literary work. It is affected by such strands of a literary work as the plot, setting, characters, details, symbols, and language means. Thus, in The Oval Portrait E. A. Poe sets the story in a remote turret of an abandoned castle. The main event takes place at midnight. The oval portrait is in a niche and "in deep shade".
26) Tonal system: two aspects of tone. In fiction there are two aspects of tone, too.
Tone expresses the relationship between the author (or narrator) and the subject matter. Hence it may be sympathetic, or impassive, cheerful or serious, vigorous or matter-of-fact, humorous or melancholy and so on. On the other hand, tone expresses the relationship between the author (or narrator) and the reader. Hence the tone may be familiar or official. There are scales of variations of tone. Thus, the tone may be casual, familiar, impolite, defiant, offensive; it may be sarcastic, ironical, sneering or bitter. Tone in oral speech is primarily conveyed by modulations of the voice pitch, whereas in written speech the tone is mainly conveyed verbally, primarily by emotionally coloured words.
27) Tonal system: homour.
Humour is a device used in fiction and intended to cause laughter. The object of humour may be a funny incident or an odd feature of human character. The essence of humour is generally warmth, sympathy, fellow feeling. Humour requires wit and sensibility on the part of the humorist. Addison gives humour its genealogy. A humorous tone is created by an apt usage of deliberate exaggerations (or hyperbole), a round-about way of naming things (or periphrasis), unexpected comparison (or simile), jargonisms, dialectal words, words whiсh sound amusing in the particular situation because they do not belong in it. The usage of these means often produces humorous effect and testifies to the inventiveness and wit of the author.
28) Tonal system: irony.
Irony is generally defined as a double sense based on contrast between the explicitly expressed and the implied meaning. The implied is always the direct opposite of what is actually said. Thus, a word or a statement in a particular context or situation may acquire a meaning opposite to what it has as a rule. The irony suggests the discrepancy between the word or statement and its actual sense, which is the true one and which the intelligent reader is expected to infer. E.g.; "This is beautiful weather!" (when the weather is bad). The word beautiful is the direct opposite of what it literally means. In oral communication beautiful would be marked by ironical intonation, whereas in writing it might be marked by means of italics, inverted commas or it might not be marked at all. As a rule, the ironist does not tell us directly that he is being ironical.
29) Tonal system: the prevailing tone and the system of emotional overtones.
One should distinguish between the prevailing tone of a literary work and emotional overtones, which may accompany particular scenes in the story. They all form a "tonal system" which reflects the changes of the narrator's attitude to his subject matter. The emotional overtones generally form a “tonal unity”, which means a consistency of attitudes towards the events and characters. This consistency of attitudes is reflected in the consistent use of language appropriate to the events and characters.
30) Tonal system: the official tone, the familiar tone.
The official tone is set up by words and idioms that have an official ring, e.g. "relevant"(for “important”), "up to the present time" (for “up-to-now”). It may be set up by carefully organized syntax and carefully expressed ideas admitting no deviations fr om the standard. In general, the official tone accompanies narratives with a well-defined progression of ideas. The familiar tone is established by features of the spoken language, the conversational style in particular. To these features belong col¬loquial words and idioms. Informality of tone may be achieved bу the occurrence of very formal language alongside jargonisms and slang, without its being linguistically inappropriate, since that is a characteristic feature of conversation.
31) The message of a literary work: the theme.
The theme of a story is the main area of interest treated in the story. There are stories on the theme of love, or love for one's Motherland; there are books on the theme of family relations, or on the anti-war theme. The plots of different stories on one and the same theme may be based on an identical type of conflict, as The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield and Arrangement in Black and White by D. Parker. The theme of both the stories is human relations in society; both are based on the conflict between man and the established order with its racial hostility, injustice and exploitation.
32) The message of a literary work: the systems of implications.
Implication is the suggestion that is not expressed directly but understood. Implication may be conveyed by different techniques, such as parallelism, contrast, recurrence of events or situations, artistic details, symbols, arrangement of plot structure, etc. Thus parallelism may be deeply suggestive. E.g.: in The Roads We Take by O'Henry there is deep implication in the parallel actions of the dream and reality. Parallelism here invites the reader to compare these actions. It is suggestive not only of the ugly nature of the protagonist, but also of the immoral means he uses to make money. Events which begin and end a story sometimes parallel. This circling of the action back to its beginning implies that nothing has changed and this may be the whole point.
33) The message of a literary work: the title.
The title is the first element to catch our eye, but its meaning and function may be determined only retrospectively. The title acquires its precise meaning when related to the whole story.
34) The objective message and the author’s message.
On revealing the author’s message, the reader generally analyses his own rational and emotional response to the story, draws his own conclusions. These conclusions may not necessarily coincide with the author's message.
