Drama & Story Preface - South Valley University

o South Valley University Faculty of Education Department of English First Year- Basic Education Preface to Drama & Story First Year-Basic Education Compiled by Dr. Nabil Abdel Fatt...

o South Valley University Faculty of Education Department of English First Year- Basic Education Preface to Drama & Story First Year-Basic Education Compiled by Dr. Nabil Abdel Fattah Qena Faculty of Arts – South Valley University 2024 - 2025  Preface This course introduces First- level students to drama and story in literature. It starts with an introduction the emergence, development and characteristics of both drama and novel. The course also focuses on the rise of the English drama as well as novel by studying selected texts exemplify the different traditions and schools of short story and plays written in English. Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to, distinguish the characteristics of the style of each studied dramatist and novelist, apply theoretical dramatic and narrative concepts to particular plays and novels and analyze a specific play as well as short story. Best Wishes & Regards Dr. Nabil Abdel Fattah  Table of Contents Subject Page 1- Drama 2 2- A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen 7 3- The Short Story, The Novel & The Rise of the 24-47 Novel 4- "Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway 48 5- Araby by James Joyc 58 6- 'The Ambitious Guest' by Nathaniel Hawthorn 75 7- The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe 84 8 - Pamela By Samuel Richardson 95 9- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 118 10- References 204 1  Drama The elements of drama are the ingredients that give the work its shape and character. As well as characters, plot and action, consider which dramatic forms and dramatic coventions to use. The elements of drama These are the ingredients that give work its shape and character. When devising work, whatever your stimulus or theme, you should consider the following elements: Plot This is the story, or through-line of your piece. A storyline is often called a narrative. Without any narrative the work might be on one level, failing to keep the interest of the audience. The sequence of the plot is something that can be explored once you have brainstormed and improvised your narrative. Most stories have a beginning, middle and an end. However, your drama doesn’t have to run in this linear order. Some work is non-linear in structure. This means that it doesn’t follow a chronological sequence but moves about in time. This can be an excellent device for building tension and keeping the audience engaged as the story unravels bit by bit. The play, Betrayal by Harold Pinter is an excellent example of this. It begins at the end of the plot and then moves backwards in time scene by scene to how it all began. A play may contain more than one plot. A separate storyline running parallel to the main story is called a subplot. In Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the main story is about four young would-be lovers lost in a wood. A comic story about ‘rude mechanicals’ who are rehearsing a play for the Duke Theseus’s wedding runs parallel to it. Fractured narrative Some drama contains many stories and moves between them. This is called a fractured narrative. The BBC soap opera, EastEnders is an excellent example 2 where various scenes play out between different characters with the action cutting between them. Linear and non-linear plots The play, Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse is an example of a linear plot. Events are shown in chronological order even though it breaks into fantasy sequences throughout. Sunset Boulevard, the film written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, has a non-linear plot. It begins with the ending, thus revealing a main character’s death. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice can be broken down into four subplots which weave in and out of each other throughout the play before coming together at the end. Characters The characters in the work you create are also an important part of your plot development. Look at Developing characters for more information. Action in drama The action of the drama is the events that are contained within it. It’s what happens between characters in a scene and in the play. It could be a sword fight in Macbeth or a tense discussion during which neither character moves physically at all. Content This is what your drama is about. It’s the themes, issues and ideas it contains. For example, the action of the piece might be two sisters arguing, but the content is the exploration of sibling rivalry. Dramatic forms A form is the method you select to tell your story and explore themes when presenting your work. For example, you may choose to present a piece of work in the form of a mime, where the actors don’t speak, or as Physical theatre, where abstract movements symbolise relationships. 3 Remember, form is the thing itself and the style is the way you present it. In the case of a ‘comical mime’ the dramatic form used is mime and comical is the style in which it’s done. Forms of drama to consider: Mime/mute Choral work Physical theatre Musical theatre Farce Satire Commedia dell’arte Dance You could choose to combine various dramatic forms. Be creative, experiment and see which ones work for you. Climax and anti-climax This is the building and release of tension in drama. Tension is a growing sense of expectation within the drama, a feeling that the story is building up towards something exciting happening. Without tension in a scene it is hard to keep the audience engaged with what is happening so the work may be flat and dull. A climax is when the tension within a scene builds to its highest point. It’s the most exciting moment. An anti-climax is the release of tension. It happens after the tension has reached its highest point and then suddenly drops. Imagine a scene where a hostage has escaped their captors. They realise what has happened and search the room where the hostage is hiding. Pauses build the tension and the hostage is very close to being caught so the audience are on the edge of their seats. When the hostage is seconds away from having their hiding place discovered, the captors decide to leave and search somewhere else. The audience breathe a collective sigh of relief for the hostage. 4 This is an anti-climax. The tension has built and has been released. Serial dramas and television soap operas such as EastEnders often finish just before or at the point of climax so that the audience will tune in again to see what happens next. This is called a cliffhanger or the ‘duff duff’ moment on account of the music at the end of each episode! Contrast Contrast is a marked difference between two or more things placed side by side for dramatic effect, eg stillness next to activity. When two opposing things are placed next to each other their impact is strengthened. You could use contrast as a way of highlighting differences in your drama and keeping the audience interested. For example, a woman is lonely and miserable after the death of her beloved husband. Creating a flashback memory of their joyous times together, laughing, and playing with their children contrasts with the present and makes her loss more intense and moving for the audience. They fully understand what she’s lost. What contrast is being demonstrated by this image? Not only is there a contrast in the physical levels of the people in the image (one is lying down and the others are upright), there is also a clear contrast in their situations. The man lying down is homeless and jobless whilst the other characters look like fairly prosperous people on their way to work. You can use such an image as a springboard or stimulus to creating a scene using a similar contrast between characters. Cross-cutting (moving from one scene to another and back again) is also an effective way of exploring contrast in any drama you devise, especially if you are exploring a theme or issue. Characterisation The act of changing voice, body language, movement, gesture etc when in role is called characterisation. All people are different. The actor must use their skills to portray a character consistently throughout their performance. When creating characters you need to consider the following: 5 Voice: Does your character have an accent? What is the tone of their voice like? How quickly do they speak? Do they have any vocal mannerisms that are particular to them? Body language: This is what your character’s movements and way of using their body says about them. A character who is very nervous and stressed may fidget a lot or have their shoulders hunched up tight to indicate tension. Facial expression: Does your character move their face a lot? What does their facial expression say about their character? Do they have a very expressive face or do they try not to give much of themselves away? Hot-seating: (being questioned in character) is an excellent way of ensuring that you understand the role you are playing. Improvisation: in role is also very useful in rehearsal as it ensures that you can act as that character ‘off the text’. It helps you to understand how they would react in a range of circumstances. Dramatic conventions A convention is a technique employed regularly in the drama so that the audience come to attach specific meaning to it. When a technique is used repeatedly in a drama the audience recognise its significance. They buy into it as an established way of telling the story. There are a range of dramatic conventions that you can explore to make your drama interesting and engage the audience: slow motion soliloquy (a solo speech by an actor that gives an insight into what they are thinking) adding narration use of an ‘aside’ (when a character directly addresses the audience to comment within a scene) breaking into song (as in Musical theatre) using a chorus to comment upon the action splitting the stage so that different spaces represent different locations 6  using placards (signs) to give additional information to the audience split role or multi-role using music to underscore the drama Using symbols A symbol is something which stands for, or represents something else. Symbols are often used in drama to deepen its meaning and remind the audience of the themes or issues it is discussing. A prop often has a particular significance that an audience will instantly recognise when used symbolically in the work. What might the following things symbolise or represent? 1. A white coat represents medicine, science, authority 2. A dove represents peace and tranquillity 3. A torn wedding photograph represents divorce or separation 4. A lamb represents new life, spring, innocence or sacrifice Symbolic movements Movement and actions can be symbolic too, particularly if you’re using Physical theatre as a form. In Mark Wheeler’s play, Too Much Punch for Judy, the keys being thrown are significant in certain important moments in the play. Remember that the meanings behind symbols can sometimes change within the same play. Identifying drama elements Can you identify different drama elements? Watch the clip and answer the questions then check your responses against the sample answers. This clip is from the BBC4 drama Burton and Taylor starring Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth Taylor and Dominic West as Richard Burton. Taylor and Burton were world famous actors whose turbulent marriages in the 1960s and 1970s (they were married twice) made tabloid headlines. 7  'A Doll's House' by Henrik Ibsen A Doll’s House is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It concerns the lives of a group of middle class Norwegians in the 1870s, and deals with themes such as appearances, the power of money, and the place of women in a patriarchal society. Fast Facts: A Doll's House Title: A Doll’s House Author: Henrik Ibsen Publisher: Premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen Year Published: 1879 Genre: Drama Type of Work: Play Original Language: Bokmål, the written standard for the Norwegian language Themes: Money, morals and appearances, women’s worth Major Characters: Nora Helmer, Torvald Helmer, Nils Krogstad, Kristine Linde, Dr. Rank, Anne-Marie, the children Notable Adaptations: Ingmar Bergman’s 1989 adaptation titled Nora; BBC Radio 3’s 2012 adaptation by Tanika Gupta, which is set in India and Nora (called Niru) is married to Englishman Tom 8  Fun Fact: Feeling that the ending would not resonate with German audiences, Ibsen wrote an alternate ending. Instead of walking out on Torvald, Nora is brought to her children after the final argument, and, upon seeing them, she collapses. Plot Summary Nora and Torvald Helmer are a typical bourgeois Norwegian household in the late 1870s, but the visit of an old friend of Nora, named Kristine Linde, and an employee of her husband, Nils Krogstad, soon exposes the cracks in their picture- perfect union. When Kristine needs a job, she asks Nora for help interceding for her with her husband. Torvald consents, but he does so because he fired Krogstad, a lowly employee. When Krogstad finds out, he threatens to expose Nora’s past crime, a signature she forged to obtain a loan from Krogstad himself in order to afford treatment for her then-ailing husband. Major Characters Nora Helmer. Torvald Helmer’s wife, she is a seemingly frivolous and childlike woman. Torvald Helmer. Nora’s husband, lawyer and banker. He is overly preoccupied with appearances and decorum. Nils Krogstad. A lowly employee of Torvald’s, he is defined as a “moral invalid” who has leads a life of lies. 9 Kristine Linde. An old friend of Nora’s who is in town looking for a new job. Unlike Nora, Kristen is jaded but more practical Dr. Rank. Rank is a family friend of the Helmers' who treats Nora as an equal. He suffers from “tuberculosis of the spine.” Anne-Marie. The Helmers’ children’s nanny. She gave up her daughter, whom she had out of wedlock, in order to accept a position as Nora's nurse. Major Themes Money. In 19th-century society, money is considered more important than owning land, and those who have it command a lot of power over other people’s lives. Torvald has a profound sense of self-righteousness because of his access to stable, comfortable income. Appearances and Morals. In the play, society was subject to a strict moral code, in which appearances were more important than substance. Torvald is overly concerned with decorum, even more so than with his alleged love for Nora. Eventually, Nora sees through the hypocrisy of the whole system and decides to break free from the shackles of the society she lives in, leaving both her husband and her children. A Woman’s Worth. Norwegian women in the 19th century did not have many rights. They were not allowed to conduct business transactions on their own without a male guardian acting as a guarantor. While Kristine Linde is an embittered widow who works in order to escape existential dread, Nora has been brought up as if she 10 were a doll to play with her whole life. She is infantilized by her husband, too, who calls her “little lark,” “songbird,” and “squirrel.” Literary Style A Doll’s House is an example of realist drama, in which the characters interact by talking in a way that closely approximates real life conversations. According to a local critic who reviewed the premiere in Copenhagen in 1879, A Doll’s House had “Not a single declamatory phrase, no high dramatics, no drop of blood, not even a tear.” About the Author Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was referred to as “the father of realism,” and he is the second most performed dramatist after Shakespeare. In his productions, he was keen on examining the realities that hid behind the façades of middle-class people, even though his earlier work presents fantasy and surreal elements. Act I It’s Christmas Eve and Nora Helmer has just returned home from a Christmas shopping spree. Her husband Torvald teases her for her largesse, calling her "little squirrel.” The Helmers’ financial situation changed in the past year; Torvald is now up for a promotion, and for this reason, Nora thought that she could spend a little more. Two visitors join the Helmer household: Kristine Linder and Dr. Rand, two old friends of Nora’s and the Helmers', respectively. Kristine is in town looking for a 11 job, as her husband died leaving her with no money or children, and now she feels “unspeakably empty” despite not feeling any grief. Nora reveals some hardship she and her husband faced in the past when Torvald became sick and they had to travel to Italy so he could recover. Nora promises Kristine that she will ask Torvald about a job for her, now that he is up for that promotion. To that, Kristine replies that Nora is like a child, which offends her. Nora starts telling Kristine that she got the money to take Torvald to Italy from some secret admirer, but she told Torvald that her father gave her the money. What she did do was take an illegal loan, as women back then were not even allowed to sign checks without their husband or father as guarantors. Over the years, she has slowly been paying it off by saving from her allowance. Krogstad, a lower-level employee at Torvald's bank, arrives and goes into the study. Upon seeing him, Dr. Rank comments that the man is "morally diseased." After Torvald is done with his meeting with Krogstad, Nora asks him if he can give Kristine a position at the bank and Torvald lets her know that, luckily for her friend, a position has just become available and he can likely give Kristine the spot. The nanny returns with the Helmers’ three children and Nora plays with them for a while. Soon after, Krogstad resurfaces into the living room, surprising Nora. He reveals that Torvald intends to fire him at the bank and asks Nora to put a good word out for him so that he can stay employed. When she refuses, Krogstad threatens to blackmail her and reveal about the loan she took out for the trip to Italy, as he knows that she obtained it by forging her father's signature a few days after his 12 death. When Torvald returns, Nora begs him not to fire Krogstad, but he refuses, exposing Krogstad as a liar, a hypocrite, and a criminal, as he forged a person’s signature. A man "poisoning his own children with lies and dissimulation” who makes him sick. Act II The Helmers are to attend a costume party, and Nora is going to wear a Neapolitan- style dress, so Kristine arrives to help Nora repair it since it is a little worn out. When Torvald returns from the bank, Nora reiterates her plea for him to reinstate Krogstad, expressing fear at the possibility that Krogstad will slander Torvald and ruin his career. Torvald acts dismissive again; he explains that, work performance notwithstanding, Krogstad must be fired because he is too familial around Torvald, addressing him by his “Christian name.” Dr. Rank arrives and Nora asks him for a favor. In turn, Rank reveals being now in the terminal stage of tuberculosis of the spine and professes his love for her. Nora appears more unnerved by the declaration of love than by Rank’s deteriorating health, and tells him she loves him dearly as a friend. Having been fired by Torvald, Krogstad comes back to the house. He confronts Nora, telling her he no longer cares about the remaining balance of her loan. Instead, by preserving the associated bond, he intends to blackmail Torvald into not only keeping him employed but also giving him a promotion. While Nora still tries to plead her case, Krogstad informs her that he has written a letter detailing her crime and put it in Torvald's mailbox, which is locked. 13 At this point, Nora reverts to Kristine for help, asking her to convince Krogstad to relent. Torvald enters and tries to retrieve his mail. Since Krogstad’s incriminating letter is in the box, Nora distracts him and asks for help with the tarantella dance she intends to perform at the party, feigning performance anxiety. After the others have left, Nora stays behind and toys with the possibility of suicide in order to both save her husband from the shame he would endure and prevent him from saving her honor in vain. Act III We learn that Kristine and Krogstad used to be lovers. While at Krogstad’s to plead Nora’s case, Kristine tells him that she only married her husband because it was convenient for her, but now that he is dead she can offer him her love again. She justifies her actions by blaming them on dire financial straits and being lovelorn. This makes Krogstad change his mind, but Kristine determines that Torvald needs to know the truth anyway. When the Helmers get back from their costume party, Torvald retrieves his letters. As he reads them, Nora mentally prepares to take her own life. Upon reading Krogstad’s letter, he becomes enraged at the fact that now he has to stoop to Krogstad’s requests in order to save face. He sternly berates his wife, claiming she is unfit to raise children, and resolves to keep the marriage for the sake of appearances. 14 A maid enters, delivering a letter to Nora. It’s a letter from Krogstad, which clears Nora’s reputation and returns the incriminating bond. This makes Torvald exult that he is saved, and quickly takes back the words he spewed at Nora. At this point, Nora has an epiphany, as she realizes her husband only cares about appearances and loves himself above all other things. Torvald makes his situation even worse by saying that when a man has forgiven his wife, the love he feels for her is even stronger, because it reminds him that she is totally dependent on him, like a child. He chalks up the difficult choices she had to make between her own integrity and her husband’s health to her endearingly feminine foolishness. At this point, Nora tells Torvald that she is leaving him, feeling betrayed, disillusioned, and like she has lost her own religion. She needs to get away from her family in order to understand herself, as all her life—first from her father, and then by her husband—she’s been treated like a doll to play with. Torvald brings up his concern with reputation again, and insists that she fulfill her duty as a wife and mother. To that, Nora replies that she has duties to herself that are just as important, and that she cannot be a good mother or wife without learning to be more than a plaything. She reveals she had actually planned to kill herself, expecting he would want to sacrifice his reputation for hers, but that was not the case. After Nora leaves the keys and her wedding ring, Torvald breaks down crying. Nora then leaves the house, her action emphasized with her slamming of the front door. 15  A Doll's House' Characters Nora Helmer Nora Helmer is the protagonist of the play. When she is introduced at the beginning of Act I, she seems to revel in the comforts that her middle-class life allows her. She is happy to have lots of money and not have to worry about anything. Her demeanor, initially, is childish and coquettish, and her husband routinely refers to her as “lark” or “little squirrel”—in fact, Torvald does treat her like a pretty doll, getting a rush of erotic excitement when she dons a “Neapolitan-style” costume and dances the tarantella, like a puppet. However, Nora has a more resourceful side. Before the events of the play, Torvald was ill and needed to travel to Italy to heal. The couple did not have enough money, so Nora took out a loan by forging her dead father’s signature, effectively committing fraud to save her husband's health. This side of Nora fully emerges during the denouement of the play, when she finally understands that her marriage was based on societal conventions and that she is more than a simple doll for men to enjoy at their leisure. Torvald Helmer Torvald Helmer is Nora's husband and the newly promoted manager of the local joint stock bank. He routinely spoils Nora and claims to be in love with her, but he talks to down to her and treats her like a doll. He calls her names like “lark" and little squirrel," implying that he considers Nora endearing but not an equal. He was never told exactly how Nora came up with the money for his medical trip to Italy. If he knew, his pride would suffer. 16 Torvald values appearances and formality in society. The reason he fires Krogstad has less to do with the fact that Krogstad committed forgery and more to do with the fact that Krogstad did not address him with the appropriate respect and formality. After Torvald reads Krogstad’s letter detailing Nora’s crime, he becomes enraged at his wife for committing an act that could damage his own reputation (despite the fact that her goal was to save his life). Nora eventually leaves him, he emphasizes how inappropriate it is for a woman to abandon her husband and children. Overall, he has a superficial view of the world and seems unable to deal with the unpleasantness of life. Dr. Rank Dr. Rank is a rich family friend, who, unlike Torvald, treats Nora as an intelligent human being. He is quick to point out that Krogstad is “morally ill.” During the timeframe in which the play takes place, he is ailing from the final stages of tuberculosis of the spine, which, based on what he told Nora, he inherited from his philandering father, who had a venereal disease. At the end of the play, he tells only Nora that his time has come, as he thinks this information would be too “ugly” for Torvald. He has been in love with Nora for a long time, but she only loves him platonically, as a friend. He acts as a foil to Torvald in the way he talks to Nora, to whom he reveals his seriously deteriorating health. Nora, in turn, acts more like a sentient being and less like a doll around him. 17 Kristine Linde Kristine Linde is an old friend of Nora’s. She is in town looking for a job because her late husband died bankrupt and she has to support herself. She used to be romantically involved with Krogstad, but she married someone else for financial security and in order to provide support to her brothers (now grown) and to her invalid mother (now deceased). With nobody left to care for, she feels empty. She asks Nora to intercede for her in asking Torvald for a job, which he is happy to give her, given that she has experience in the field. By the end of the play, Kristine Linde reunites with Krogstad. Her life trajectory makes her a foil to childlike Nora, and she is the one who persuades Krogstad to recuse the accusations towards Nora. However, because she sees the deception at the heart of Nora's marriage, she won't allow Krogstad to destroy the original letter that details Nora’s crime, as she believes that the Helmers’ marriage could benefit from some truth. Nils Krogstad Nils Krogstad is an employee at Torvald’s bank. He is the person who lent Nora money so that she could take Torvald to Italy to recover from his illness. After Torvald fires him, Krogstad asks Nora to plead with her husband to reconsider his decision. When Nora refuses to do so, he threatens to expose the illegal loan she got from him. As the play progresses, Krogstad's demands escalate, to the point that he also demands a promotion. At the end of the play, Krogstad reunites with Kristine Linde (to whom he was once engaged) and recants his threats to the Helmers. 18 Anne Marie Anne Marie is Nora’s former nanny, the only mother-like figure Nora ever knew. She is now helping the Helmers with child-rearing. In her youth, Anne Marie had a child out of wedlock, but she had to give up the child in order to start working as Nora’s nurse. Much like Nora and Kristine Linde, Anne Marie had to make a sacrifice for the sake of financial security. Nora knows that if she leaves her family, Anne Marie will take care of her children, which makes the decision less unbearable to Nora. Ivar, Bobby, and Emmy The Helmers’ children are named Ivar, Bobby and Emmy. When Nora plays with them, she appears to be a doting and playful mother, perhaps as a nod to her childlike demeanor. A Doll's House': Themes and Symbols The main themes of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House revolve around the values and the issues of late 19th-century bourgeoisie, namely what looks appropriate, the value of money, and the way women navigate a landscape that leaves them little room to assert themselves as actual human beings. Money and Power Thanks to the onset of industrialization, the 19th-century economy moved from the fields to urban centers, and those who had the most power over money were no longer land-owning aristocrats, but lawyers and bankers, such as Torvald. Their 19 power over money extended to other people’s lives, and this is why Torvald is such a self-righteous person in regards to characters such as Krogstad (an underling of his) and even Nora, whom he treats like a pet or a doll rewarded with a heftier allowance if she behaves a certain way. Nora’s inability to handle money also reflects her position of powerlessness in society. The loan she acquires in order to get Torvald the treatment he needs in Italy comes back to haunt her when Krogstad blackmails her, should she not put a good word for him with her husband. Appearances and Morals Bourgeois society rests on a façade of decorum and is governed by stern morals meant to conceal either superficial or repressed behavior. In the case of Nora, she seemed to be the late 19th-century equivalent of a woman who had it all: a devoted husband, children, and a solid middle-class life, with the ability to afford pretty things. Her value rested in maintaining a façade of being a devoted mother and a respectful wife. On his end, Torvald has a high-paying job that allows him to afford a comfortable lifestyle. He is deeply observant of the importance of appearances; in fact, he fires Krogstad not because of his criminal past—he had reformed since then—but because he addressed him by his given name. And when he reads the letter from Krogstad incriminating Nora, the feeling he is overcome with is shame, as Nora has, in his opinion, been outed as a woman with “no religion, no morals, no sense of duty.” What’s more, what he fears is that people will believe he did it. 20 Torvald's inability to favor a respectful divorce over a sham union shows how he is enslaved by morality and the struggle that comes with keeping up with appearances. “And as far as you and I are concerned,” he concludes, “it must look as though everything were the same as before between us. But obviously only in the eyes of the world.” Then, when Krogstad sends another letter retracting his accusations, Torvald immediately backtracks, exclaiming “I am saved, Nora! I am saved!” In the end, appearances are what cause the undoing of the marriage. Nora is no longer willing to keep up with the superficiality of her husband’s values. Torvald’s feelings towards her are rooted in appearances, an inherent limit of his character. A Woman’s Worth During Ibsen’s time, women were not allowed to conduct business or handle their own money. A man, whether a father or a husband, needed to give them their approval before they could conduct any transaction. This fault in the system is what forces Nora to commit fraud by forging her dead father’s signature on a loan in order to help her husband, and despite the good-hearted nature of her action, she is treated like a criminal because what she did was, by all means, illegal. Ibsen believed in women’s rights to develop their own individuality, but late 19th- century society did not necessarily agree with this point of view. As we see in the Helmer household, Nora is completely subordinated to her husband. He gives her pet names such as little lark or squirrel, and the reason he does not want to keep Krogstad’s job is that he does not want to have his employees think that his wife had influenced him. 21 By contrast, Kristine Linde had a greater degree of freedom than Nora. A widow, she had the right to the money she earned, and could work to support herself, despite the fact that jobs open to women mostly consisted of clerical work. “I have to work if I’m to endure this life,” she tells Krogstad when they reunite. “Every waking day, as far back as I can remember, I’ve worked, and it’s been my greatest and only joy. But now I am entirely alone in the world, so dreadfully empty and abandoned.” All female characters have to endure some sort of sacrifice during the play for what is perceived to be the greater good. Nora sacrifices her own humanity during the marriage and has to sacrifice her attachment to her children when she leaves Torvald. Kristine Linde sacrificed her love for Krogstad in order to marry someone with a job stable enough to allow her to help her brothers and ailing mother. Anne Marie, the nurse, had to give up her own child in order to take care of Nora when she was a baby herself. Symbols The Neapolitan Costume and the Tarantella The Neapolitan dress that Nora is made to wear at her costume party was bought by Torvald in Capri; he chooses this costume for her that night, reinforcing the fact that he sees her as a doll. The tarantella, the dance she performs while wearing it, was originally created as a cure for a tarantula’s bite, but symbolically, it represents hysteria stemming from repression. 22 In addition, when Nora begs Torvald to coach her through the dance routine before the party, in an attempt to distract Torvald from Krogstad’s letter sitting in the letterbox, she dances so wildly that her hair comes loose. Torvald, in turn, goes into a state of both erotic fascination and repressed righteousness, telling her “I’d never have believed this. You really have forgotten everything I taught you.” Doll and Other Pet Names During the final confrontation with her husband, Nora claims that both he and her father treated her like a “doll child.” Both he and Torvald wanted her pretty but compliant. “I had the same opinions; and if I had others, I hid them; because he wouldn’t have liked it,” she tells her husband. Torvald had the same disposition as her father, which we can clearly see given the way he reacts when Nora was outed as having committed an illegal action. The pet names he chooses for her, such as squirrel, skylark, and songbird, show that he wants her to amuse and delight him like a cute, little animal. During the climax of the play, in fact, Nora notes how neither Torvald nor her father actually loved her, but that it was “amusing” to them to be in love with her, the way someone could be endeared by something lesser than a human, such as a doll or a cute pet. Resources: https://www.thoughtco.com/a-dolls-house-themes 23  The Short Story The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise narrative, and the omission of a complex plot; character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. Despite its relatively limited scope, though, a short story is often judged by its ability to provide a “complete” or satisfying treatment of its characters and subject. Before the 19th century the short story was not generally regarded as a distinct literary form. But although in this sense it may seem to be a uniquely modern genre, the fact is that short prose fiction is nearly as old as language itself. Throughout history humankind has enjoyed various types of brief narratives: jests, anecdotes, studied digressions, short allegorical romances, moralizing fairy tales, short myths, and abbreviated historical legends. None of these constitutes a short story as it has been defined since the 19th century, but they do make up a large part of the milieu from which the modern short story emerged. Analysis of the genre As a genre, the short story received relatively little critical attention through the middle of the 20th century, and the most valuable studies of the form were often limited by region or era. In his The Lonely Voice (1963), the Irish short story writer Frank O’Connor attempted to account for the genre by suggesting that stories are a means for “submerged population groups” to address a dominating community. Most other theoretical discussions, however, were predicated in one way or another 24 on Edgar Allan Poe’s thesis that stories must have a compact unified effect. By far the majority of criticism on the short story focused on techniques of writing. Many, and often the best of the technical works, advise the young reader—alerting the reader to the variety of devices and tactics employed by the skilled writer. On the other hand, many of these works are no more than treatises on “how to write stories” for the young writer rather than serious critical material. The prevalence in the 19th century of two words, “sketch” and “tale,” affords one way of looking at the genre. In the United States alone there were virtually hundreds of books claiming to be collections of sketches (Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book, William Dean Howells’s Suburban Sketches) or collections of tales (Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Herman Melville’s The Piazza Tales). These two terms establish the polarities of the milieu out of which the modern short story grew. The tale is much older than the sketch. Basically, the tale is a manifestation of a culture’s unaging desire to name and conceptualize its place in the cosmos. It provides a culture’s narrative framework for such things as its vision of itself and its homeland or for expressing its conception of its ancestors and its gods. Usually filled with cryptic and uniquely deployed motifs, personages, and symbols, tales are frequently fully understood only by members of the particular culture to which they belong. Simply, tales are intracultural. Seldom created to address an outside culture, a tale is a medium through which a culture speaks to itself and thus perpetuates its own values and stabilizes its own identity. The old speak to the young through tales. 25 The sketch, by contrast, is intercultural, depicting some phenomenon of one culture for the benefit or pleasure of a second culture. Factual and journalistic, in essence the sketch is generally more analytic or descriptive and less narrative or dramatic than the tale. Moreover, the sketch by nature is suggestive, incomplete; the tale is often hyperbolic, overstated. The primary mode of the sketch is written; that of the tale, spoken. This difference alone accounts for their strikingly different effects. The sketch writer can have, or pretend to have, his eye on his subject. The tale, recounted at court or campfire—or at some place similarly removed in time from the event—is nearly always a re- creation of the past. The tale-teller is an agent of time, bringing together a culture’s past and its present. The sketch writer is more an agent of space, bringing an aspect of one culture to the attention of a second. It is only a slight oversimplification to suggest that the tale was the only kind of short fiction until the 16th century, when a rising middle class interest in social realism on the one hand and in exotic lands on the other put a premium on sketches of subcultures and foreign regions. In the 19th century certain writers—those one might call the “fathers” of the modern story: Nikolay Gogol, Hawthorne, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Heinrich von Kleist, Prosper Mérimée, Poe—combined elements of the tale with elements of the sketch. Each writer worked in his own way, but the general effect was to mitigate some of the fantasy and stultifying conventionality of the tale and, at the same time, to liberate the sketch from its bondage to strict factuality. The modern short story, then, ranges between the highly imaginative tale and the photographic sketch and in some ways draws on both. 26 The short stories of Ernest Hemingway, for example, may often gain their force from an exploitation of traditional mythic symbols (water, fish, groin wounds), but they are more closely related to the sketch than to the tale. Indeed, Hemingway was able at times to submit his apparently factual stories as newspaper copy. In contrast, the stories of Hemingway’s contemporary William Faulkner more closely resemble the tale. Faulkner seldom seems to understate, and his stories carry a heavy flavour of the past. Both his language and his subject matter are rich in traditional material. A Southerner might well suspect that only a reader steeped in sympathetic knowledge of the traditional South could fully understand Faulkner. Faulkner may seem, at times, to be a Southerner speaking to and for Southerners. But, as, by virtue of their imaginative and symbolic qualities, Hemingway’s narratives are more than journalistic sketches, so, by virtue of their explorative and analytic qualities, Faulkner’s narratives are more than Southern tales. Origins The evolution of the short story first began before humans could write. To aid in constructing and memorizing tales, the early storyteller often relied on stock phrases, fixed rhythms, and rhyme. Consequently, many of the oldest narratives in the world, such as the ancient Babylonian tale the Epic of Gilgamesh, are in verse. Indeed, most major stories from the ancient Middle East were in verse: “The War of the Gods,” “The Story of Adapa” (both Babylonian), “The Heavenly Bow,” and “The King Who Forgot” (both Canaanite). Those tales were inscribed in cuneiform on clay during the 2nd millennium bce. General characteristics: 27  limited number of characters: often only one main character/protagonist and little/no character development (cf. novels e.g. by Charles Dickens with over 20 main characters) limited time span: only a few hours, days or weeks (cf. novels that cover a whole lifetime or even several generations) a single theme/plot (cf. novels that can deal with several/many themes and can have various sub- plots) Typical structure of the plot: exposition: introduction of main character(s) and setting (place, time, general social background), hints at theme and/or atmosphere; often no or very short exposition: story begins “in medias res”, e.g. in the middle of a dialogue rising action: development of the conflict climax: conflict reaches its highest point [turning point: a change in the conflict] [falling action: reduction of suspense] ending – denouement: conflict is resolved – open ending: conflict is not resolved, reader wonders what might happen next – surprise ending: reader’s expectations are not fulfilled Characteristics of The Short Story Setting The time and location in which a story takes place is called the setting. For some 28 stories the setting is very important, while for others it is not. There are several aspects of a story’s setting to consider when examining how setting contributes to a story (some, or all, may be present in a story): Place – geographical location. Where is the action of the story taking place? Time – When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of day, year, etc) Weather conditions – Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc? Social conditions – What is the daily life of the characters like? Does the story contain local colour (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular place)? Mood or atmosphere – What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Is it bright and cheerful or dark and frightening? Plot The plot is how the author arranges events to develop his basic idea; It is the sequence of events in a story or play. The plot is a planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle, and end. The short story usually has one plot so it can be read in one sitting. There are five essential parts of plot: Introduction /Orientation– The beginning of the story where the characters and the setting is revealed. Rising Action – This is where the events in the story become complicated and the conflict in the story is revealed (events between the introduction and climax). 29  Climax – This is the highest point of interest and the turning point of the story. The reader wonders what will happen next; will the conflict be resolved or not? Falling action – The events and complications begin to resolve themselves. The reader knows what has happened next and if the conflict was resolved or not (events between climax and denouement). Resolution / Denouement – This is the final outcome or untangling of events in the story. Generally, it is helpful to consider the climax as a three-fold phenomenon: the main character receives new information accepts this information (realizes it but does not necessarily agree with it) acts on this information (makes a choice that will determine whether or not he/she gains his objective). Conflict— Conflict is also essential to the plot. Without conflict there is no plot. It is the opposition of forces which ties one incident to another and makes the plot move. Conflict is not merely limited to open arguments, rather it is any form of opposition that faces the main character. Within a short story there may be only one central struggle, or there may be one dominant struggle with many minor ones. Did you know that there are two types of conflict? They are … 1) External – A struggle with a force outside one’s self. 2) Internal – A struggle within one’s self; a person must make some decision, 30 overcome pain, quiet their temper, resist an urge, etc. Conflict can also occur in the following situations: Man vs. Man (physical) – The leading character struggles with his physical strength against other men, forces of nature, or animals. Man vs. Circumstances (classical) – The leading character struggles against fate, or the circumstances of life facing him/her. Man vs. Society (social) – The leading character struggles against ideas, practices, or customs of other people. Man vs. Himself/Herself (psychological) – The leading character struggles with himself/herself; with his/her own soul, ideas of right or wrong, physical limitations, choices, etc. Characters Character — There are two meanings for the word character: The person in a work of fiction. The characteristics of a person. Persons in a work of fiction – Antagonist and Protagonist Short stories use few characters. One character is clearly central to the story with all major events having some importance to this character – he/she is the 31 PROTAGONIST. The opposer of the main character is called the ANTAGONIST. The Characteristics of a Person – In order for a story to seem real to the reader its characters must seem real. Characterization is the information the author gives the reader about the characters themselves. Characters are convincing if they are: consistent, motivated, and life-like (resemble real people) Can you guess how does the author reveal a character? Well, it is done in several ways through: a) his/her physical appearance b) what he/she says, thinks, feels and dreams c) what he/she does or does not do d) what others say about him/her and how others react to him/her Characters can be … 1. Individual – round, many sided and complex personalities. 2. Developing – dynamic, many sided personalities that change, for better or worse, by the end of the story. 3. Static – Stereotype, have one or two characteristics that never change and are emphasized e.g. brilliant detective, drunk, scrooge, cruel stepmother, etc. Point of view, or p.o.v., is defined as the angle from which the story is told. Innocent Eye – The story is told through the eyes of a child (his/her judgment being different from that of an adult). 32  Stream of Consciousness – The story is told so that the reader feels as if they are inside the head of one character and knows all their thoughts and reactions. First Person – The story is told by the protagonist or one of the characters who interacts closely with the protagonist or other characters (using pronouns I, me, we, etc). The reader sees the story through this person’s eyes as he/she experiences it and only knows what he/she knows or feels. Omniscient– The author can narrate the story using the omniscient point of view. He can move from character to character, event to event, having free access to the thoughts, feelings and motivations of his characters and he introduces information where and when he chooses. There are two main types of omniscient point of view: a) Omniscient Limited – The author tells the story in third person (using pronouns they, she, he, it, etc). We know only what the character knows and what the author allows him/her to tell us. We can see the thoughts and feelings of characters if the author chooses to reveal them to us. b) Omniscient Objective – The author tells the story in the third person. It appears as though a camera is following the characters, going anywhere, and recording only what is seen and heard. There is no comment on the characters or their thoughts. No interpretations are offered. The reader is placed in the position of spectator without the author there to explain. The reader has to interpret events on his own. 33 Theme — The theme in a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the author’s underlying meaning or main idea that he is trying to convey. The theme may be the author’s thoughts about a topic or view of human nature. The title of the short story usually points to what the writer is saying and he may use various figures of speech to emphasize his theme, such as: symbol, allusion, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony. Some simple examples of common themes from literature, TV, and film are: Things are not always as they appear to be. Love is blind. Believe in yourself. People are afraid of change. Don’t judge a book by its cover. 34  THE NOVEL A. Definition of a Novel: It is a fictional story written in prose usually fairly long and having incidents and fantasy a detailed plot with characters The story is usually a narrative of events arranged in their time sequence -no novel could be written without it. The story must have a beginning, a middle and an end. There can be mystery, adventure, romance and suspense involved in the story. However, when there is a casual connection between the incidents and the events are 'described-'in a "special scheme, it becomes the plot of the novel. People: No novel can be written without people. What is fictitious in a novel is not so much the story as the method by which thought develops into action -method which never occurs in daily life... history with its emphasis on external causes is dominated by the notion of fatality where as there is no fatality in the novel; there, every thing is founded on human nature and the dominating feelings is an existence where every thing is intentional, even passions and crimes, even misery. With the people the main facts in human life are: birth, food, sleep, love and death. Kinds of Novel: i) Picaresque: It is an adventurous and satiric type of a novel in which the hero ( 35 is a roving character who has his own view of reality based on his reading of old.)romances. (Dox Quixote ii) Social Reform: Novels written to bring about a reform in society by (.exposing the evils to the forefront through characters e.g., Novels by Dickens iii) Historical Novels: In which some great character of history is taken and the ( ~~events take the shape of a novel e.g. The Last Days of Po.)written by E. W. Lytton (1803-73 (iv) Domestic Novel: In which the homely atmosphere and society is depicted with balls, parties and " dances -novels of Jane Austen. (v)Romantic Novels: In_this type adventure and mystery are combined with a.sprinkling of romance like the 'Scarlet Pimpernel' series or 'Angelique l series. vi) Tragic Novels: In this the tragic element comes to the forefront. There is ( pessimism and hopelessness. Chance and fortune play the major role -the tragedies usually end in death as in the novels of Hardy and Emily Bronte ("Wuthering. Heights) There are other comic writings written for the entertainment of the readers which can be termed as (vii) Satirical Novels: Through the comic aspect there is a note of satire with the use of humour and pathos. Faults of the characters are focused to the forefront and made fun of in an underhand way.,.e.g., Fielding. Theme: A novel, like any other work of art, ·cannot be summed up in a brief statement. 36 The.· impressions which a work of fiction leaves on the reader's mind are so varied and diffused that they cannot be reduced to abstract ideas. Generalizing becomes all the more difficult in the case of a novel because of its length: it is hard to carry it in the head as a unit, complete with all the details. Therefore, statements about the theme of a novel should never be taken as a substitute for the novel itself. However, the fact remains that a novel is about something, and for practical purposes general statements about its theme are unavoidable. Such statements should deal with the overall meaning of the novel, taking into all of its important elements. It should also interpret the work on its own terms and within its own world, without bringing in external factors such as the reader's own prejudices, or even the author's own opinion if not relevant to the novel. In short, the theme of the novel when stated should be consistent with its tone and spirit, and do justice to all of its elements. Setting is description of time and environment (such as a house or landscape) in a novel. Whereas in drama the environment can only be described through stage directions and dialogue, the novel allows free scope for detailed accounts of setting. However, the nature of such descriptions varies from one novelist to another. Some novelists, like Henry Fielding and Jane Austen, do not pay much attention to the sketching of scenes, but Charlotte Bronte~ Emily Bronte, Dickens, and Hardy give elaborate settings. Realistic or naturalistic settings, such as those in Flaubert· a~nd~--Hardy; --are 37 based on the idea that man is the product of his environment. Romantic descriptions, on the other hand, aim at creating a mood, a suggestive atmosphere, for the human drama. However, this kind of scenery is overdone sometimes and is not meaningfully related to what is going on in the novel. When it is carefully done, setting becomes symbolic: a projection of the human will, a metaphor for the human mind, or a profoundly suggestive comment upon nature, life, and society. In interpreting such symbolism we should take care, however, to stay close to the text and not run away with our imagination. Discovering ironies and analogies is fine, but we should ~ee to it that the ,meanings we associate with symbols do not theme or motivations of characters. clash with 38  The Rise of the Novel in the Eighteenth Century Introduction: In the eighteenth century the years after the forties witnessed a wonderful efflorescence of a new literary genre which was soon to establish itself for all times to come as the dominant literary form. Of course, we are referring here to the English novel which was born with Richardson's Pamela and has been thriving since then. When Matthew Arnold used the epithets "excellent" and "indispensable" for the eighteenth century which had little of good poetry or drama to boast of, he was probably paying it due homage for its gift of the novel. The eighteenth century was the age in which the novel was established as the most outstanding and enduring form of literature. The periodical essay, which was another gift of this century to English literature, was born and died in the century, but the novel was to enjoy an enduring career. It is to the credit of the major eighteenth-century novelists that they freed the novel from the influence and elements of high flown romance and fantasy, and used it to interpret the everyday social and psychological problems of the common man. Thus they introduced realism, democratic spirit, and psychological interest into the novel— the qualities which have since then been recognized as the essential prerequisites of-every good novel and which distinguish it from the 39 romance and other impossible stories. Reasons for the Rise and Popularity: Various reasons can be adduced for the rise and popularity of the novel in the eighteenth century. The most important of them is that this new literary form suited the genius and temper of the times. The eighteenth century is known in English social history for the rise of the middle classes consequent upon an unprecedented increase in the volume of trade and commerce. Many people emerged from the limbo of society to occupy a respectable status as wealthy burgesses. The novel, with its realism, its democratic spirit, and its concern with the everyday psychological problems of the common people especially appealed to these nouveaia riches and provided them with respectable reading material. The novel thus appears to have been specially designed both to voice the aspirations of the middle and low classes and to meet their taste. Moreover, it gave the writer much scope for what Cazamian calls "morality and sentiment"-the two elements which make literature "popular." The decline of drama in the eighteenth century was also partly responsible for the rise and -ascendency of the novel. After the Licensing Act of 1737, the drama lay moribund. The poetry of the age too-except for the brilliant example of Pope's work—was in a stage of decadence. It was then natural that from the ashes of the drama (and, to some extent, of poetry, too) should rise the phoenix- like shape of a new literary genre. This new genre was, of course, the novel. Before the Masters: Before Richardson and Fielding gave shape to the new form some work had already 40 been done by numerous other writers, which helped the pioneers to some extent. Mention must here be made of Swift, Defoe, Addison, and Steele. Swift in Gulliver's Travels gave an interesting narrative, and, in spite of the obvious impossibility of the "action" and incidents, created an effect of verisimilitude which was to be an important characteristic of the novel. The Coverley papers of Addison and Steele were in themselves a kind of rudimentary novel, and some of them actually read like so many pages from a social and domestic novel. Their good- humoured social satire, their eye for the oddities of individuals, their basic human sympathy, their lucid style, and their sense of episode-all were to be aspired after by the future novelists. Defoe with his numerous stories like Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and Roxana showed his uncanny gift of the circumstantial detail and racy, gripping narrative combined with an unflinching realism generally concerned with the seamy and sordid aspects of life (commonly, low life). His lead was to be followed by ' numerous novelists. Defoe's limitation lies in the fact that his protagonists are psychologically too simple and that he makes nobody laugh and nobody weep. But his didacticism was to find favour with all the novelists of the eighteenth, and even many of the nineteenth, century. Some call Defoe the first English novelist. But as David Daiches puts it in A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. II, whether Defoe was "properly" a novelist "is a matter of definition of terms." The Masters: Between 1740 and 1800 hundreds of novels of all kinds were written. However, the real "masters" of the novel in the eighteenth century were four-Richardson, 41 Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne. The rest of them are extremely inferior to them. Oliver Elton maintains: "The work of the four masters stands high, but the foothills are low." The case was different in, say, the mid-nineteenth century when so many equally great novelists were at work. Fielding was the greatest of the foursome. Sir Edmund Gosse calls Richardson "the first great English novelist" and Fielding, "the greatest of English novelists." Fielding may not be the greatest of all, but he was certainly one of the greatest English novelists and the greatest novelist of the eighteenth century. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761): He was the father of the English novel. He set the vogue of the novel with his Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1741). It was in the epistolary manner. It took England by storm. In it Richardson narrated the career of a rustic lady's maid who guards her honour against the advances of her dissolute master who in the end marries her and is reformed. Pamela was followed by Clarissa ffarlowe (1747-48), in eight volumes. It was, again, of the epistolary kind, Richardson's third and last novel was Sir Charles Grandison (1754). The hero is a model Christian gentleman very scrupulous in his love-affair. Among Richardson's good qualities must be mentioned his knowledge of human, particularly female psychology and his awareness of the emotional problems of common people. He completely, and for good, liberated the novel from the extravagance and lack of realism of romance to concentrate on social reality. The note of morality and sentimentality made him a popular idol not only in England but also abroad. Thus Didoret in France could compare him to Homer and Moses! 42 However, his morality with its twang of smugness and prudery did not go unattacked even in his own age. Fielding was the most important of those who reacted against Richardsonian sentimentalism and prudish moralism. One great defect of Richardson's novels, which is especially noticeable today, is their enormous length. The epistolary technique which he adopted in all his three novels is essentially dilatory and repetitive, and therefore makes for bulkiness. He is at any rate a very good psychologist and as one he is particularly admirable for, what a critic calls, "the delineation of the delicate shades of sentiment as they shift and change and the cross-purposes which the troubled mind envisages when in the grip of passion.'' Henry Fielding (1707-54): Fielding in the words of Hudson, "was a man of very different type. His was a virile, vigorous, and somewhat coarse nature, and his knowledge of life as wide as Richardson's was narrow, including in particular many aspects of it from which the prim little printer would have recoiled shocked. There was thus a strength and breadth in his work for which we look in vain in that of his elder contemporary. Richardson's judgment of Fielding-that his writings were 'wretchedly low and dirty'- clearly suggests the fundamental contrast between the two men." His very first novel, Joseph Andrews (1742), was intended to be a parody of Pamela, particularly of its priggish morality and lachrymosic sentimentalism. According to Wilbur L. Cross, Richardson "was a sentimentalist, creating pathetic scenes for their own sake and degrading tears and hysterics into a manner." In Joseph Andrews Fielding light- heartedly titled against morbid sentimentalism and sham morality. After the ninth 43 chapter of the book, however, he seems to have outgrown his initial intention of parody. Parson Adams, one of the immortal creations of English fiction, appears and runs away with the rest of the novel. Joseph Andrews was followed by Tom Jones (1749) and Amelia (1751). We may add to the list of his fictional works Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), a cynically ironical novel which, as Legouis says, must have been written "after a fit of gloom.” Fielding's novels are characterised by a fresh and realistic moral approach which admits occasionally of animalism and ribaldry, a searching realism, good-humoured social satire, and healthy sentiment In his abundant and coarse vigour, his common sense and unflinching realism, and his delight in physical beauty (especially female) he is essentially a masculine writer. He does not have the delicacy of Richardson. It may be said that it is not Richardson who is the "father of the English novel; it is in fact, Fielding. As for Richardson, he is only the "mother" of the English novel! It is to the credit of 'Fielding that unlike Richardson and most of his own successors, at least in Tom Jones (if not the other novels, too), he provided a glowing model of a well-constructed plot. According to Coleridge, Jones (with Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Ben Jonson's The Alchemist) is one of the three works in world literature which have perfectly constructed plots. Tobias Smollett (1721-71): Along with Richardson and Fielding, Smollett is generally included among the masters of eighteenth-century novel; but, as Hudson points out, "it must be distinctly understood that his work is on a much lower level than theirs." His novels 44 are of the picaresque kind, and include Roderick Random (1748), Peregrine Pickle (1751), and Humphrey Clinker (1771). Smollett was a realist and had his own art of racy narrative and eye-catching description. He was a keen observer of the coarser facts of life, particularly naval life. He exulted in coarseness and brutality. He never bothered about the construction of a plot. Nor did he bother about morality, Richardsonian or "Fieldingian." His humour, in keeping with his nature, is coarse rather than subtle or ironical and arises mostly out of caricature. Hazlitt observes: "It is not a very difficult undertaking to class Fielding or Smollett-the one as an observer of the character of human life, the other as a describer of its various eccentricities." Smollett's characterisation is necessarily poor. His heroes are mechanical puppets rather than living personalities. They are meant only for the bringing in of new.situations. As a critic puts it, "Roderick Random's career is such as would be enough to kill three heroes and yet the fellow lives just to introduce us to new characters and situations." Laurence Sterne (1713-68): His only novel is Tristram Shandy which appeared from 1759 to 1767 in nine volumes and which is described by Hudson as "the strange work of a very strange man." If this work can be called a novel, it is one of its own kind, without predecessors and without successors. Hudson observes: "It is rather a medley of unconnected incidents, scraps of out-of-the-way learning, whimsical fancies, humour, pathos, reflection, impertinence, and indecency." The plot is of the barest minimum: we have to wait till the third book for the birth of the hero! And he is put into breeches only in the sixth! What a pace of development! It was, says Cross, "a 45 sad day for English fiction when a writer of genius came to look upon the novel as the repository for the crotchets of a lifetime." Sterne's sentimentalism was to leave a lasting trace on the English novels which followed. What is quite remarkable in Tris&am Shandy is the wonderfully living characters of Uncle Toby, the elder Shandy, his wife, and Corporal Trim. The Novel after Sterne: After Tristram Shandy we find in the eighteenth century a remarkable proliferation of novels. But none of the later novelists comes anywhere near Richardson and Fielding. We find the novel developing in many directions. Four major kinds of the novel may be recognized: (i) The novel of sentiment. (ii) The so-called Gothic novel. (iii) The novel of doctrine and didacticism. (iv) The novel of manners, Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling (1771) is prominent among the novels of sentiment. According to Cross, "written in a style alternating between the whims of Sterne and a winning plaintiveness, [it] enjoys the distinction of being the most sentimental of all English novels." The Gothic novel, which appeared towards the end of the eighteenth century, indulged in morbid sensationalism with impossible stories of supernatural monsters and blood-curdling incidents. Horace Walpole, 46 Mrs. Radcliffe, "Monk" Lewis, and William Beckford were the most important writers of this kind of novel. The novel of doctrine and didacticism includes such works as Mrs. Inchbad's Nature and Art (1796) and William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794). These works used the form of the novel just for propagating a specific point of view. The novel of manners was mostly patronised by fairly intelligent female writers such as Fanny Burney and Maria Edgeworth who aimed at a light transcription of contemporary manners. Sarah Fielding's David Simple (1744), Dr. Johnson's Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759), and Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefleld (1766) also deserve a special mention in an account of eighteenth-century novel. Sarah Fielding's work was inspired by the success of Pamela. It abounds in faithfully rendered scenes of London life. Dr. Johnson's work is hjighly didactic. It emphasized "the vanity of human wishes" in the form of an allegorical tale which he wrote in a very despondent mood induced by the death of his mother. Goldsmith's work is, in the words of Cross, "of all eighteenth-century novels, the one that many readers would the least willingly lose." This novel is admirable, among other things, for the sensitive characterisation of Dr. Primrose and the general sanity of the "philosophy of life" which peeps through, it. 47  "Cat in the Rain" by Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American journalist, novelist, and short-story writer. His economical and understated style— which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two non-fiction works. Three of his novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star before leaving for the Italian Front to enlist as an ambulance driver in World War I. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms (1929). In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of what would be four wives. The couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s "Lost Generation" 48 expatriate community. His debut novel, The Sun Also Rises, was published in 1926. After his 1927 divorce from Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer; they divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had been a journalist. He based For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) on his experience there. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940; they separated after he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II. He was present at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill-health for much of the rest of his life. Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida (in the 1930s) and Cuba (in the 1940s and 1950s). In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where, in mid-1961, he shot himself in the head. 49  "Cat in the Rain" The Text There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the bright colors of the hotels facing the sea. Italians came from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke into a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. The motor cars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across the square in the doorway of the cafe a waiter stood looking out at the empty square. The American wife stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on. "I'm going down and get that kitty," the American wife said. "I'll do it," her husband offered from the bed. "No, I'll get it. The poor kitty is out trying to keep dry under the table." The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed. "Don't get wet," he said. The wife went downstairs and the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she 50 passed the office. His desk was at the far end of the office. He was an old man and very tall. "Il piove," the wife said. She liked the hotelkeeper. "Si, si, Signora, brutto tempo. It is very bad weather." He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel- keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands. Liking him she opened the door and looked out. It was raining harder. A man in a rubber cape was crossing the empty square to the cafe. The cat would be around to the right. Perhaps she could go along to the eaves. As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her. It was the maid who looked after their room. "You must not get wet," she smiled, speaking Italian. Of course, the hotel-keeper had sent her. With the maid holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path until she was under their window. The table was there, washed bright green in the rain, but the cat was gone. She was suddenly disappointed. The maid looked up at her. "Ha perduto qualque cosa, Signora?" "There was a cat," said the American girl. "A cat?" "Si, il gatto." "A cat?" the maid laughed. "A cat in the rain?" "Yes," she said, "under the table." Then, "Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty." When she talked English the maid's face tightened. "Come, Signora," she said. "We must get back inside. You will be wet." 51 "I suppose so," said the American girl. They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed outside to close the umbrella. As the American girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She went on up the stairs. She opened the door of the room. George was on the bed reading. "Did you get the cat?" he asked, putting the book down. "It was gone." "Wonder where it went to," he said, resting his eyes from reading. She sat down on the bed. "I wanted it so much," she said. "I don't know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty. It isn't any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain." George was reading again. She went over and sat in front of the mirror of the dressing table looking at herself with the hand glass. She studied her profile, first one side and then the other. Then she studied the back of her head and her neck. "Don't you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out?" she asked, looking at her profile again. George looked up and saw the back of her neck, clipped close like a boy's. "I like it the way it is." "I get so tired of it," she said. "I get so tired of looking like a boy." George shifted his position in the bed. He hadn't looked away from her since she started to speak. "You look pretty darn nice," he said. 52 She laid the mirror down on the dresser and went over to the window and looked out. It was getting dark. "I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel," she said. "I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her." "Yeah?" George said from the bed. "And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes." "Oh, shut up and get something to read," George said. He was reading again. His wife was looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in the palm trees. "Anyway, I want a cat," she said, "I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat." George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the window where the light had come on in the square. Someone knocked at the door. "Avanti," George said. He looked up from his book. In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoise-shell cat pressed tight against her and swung down against her body. "Excuse me," she said, "the padrone asked me to bring this for the Signora." Words: to face sthg/sb to be opposite to, to have or turn the face towards to glisten to shine brightly (esp. when wet) 53 gravel small stones used to make the surface of paths or roads pillow cushion where you rest your head on (esp. in bed) receive get, accept, take a letter, phone call, good education, congratulations complaint noun of “to complain”, to say that you are unhappy, don't like sthg. dignity a quality that earns or deserves respect to wonder would like to know kitty (informal) young cat shift change or move from one position to another clip cut with scissors to shorten tortoise slow moving four-footed reptile with a hard shell tortoiseshell cat cat with yellowish brown markings to be disappointed you feel sad because sthg has not happened or has not been as good as expected darn nice = extremely nice, damn nice Cat in the Rain Summary The story takes place in a hotel on the Italian coast on a rainy day. We are introduced to an American couple waiting out the rain in their room above the town square. He is reading. She is looking out the window. The wife spots a cat outside, huddling under a table in the rain, and decides to go out to rescue it. Her husband, with no great concern, tells her not to get wet and goes back to his reading. 54 Downstairs, the owner or "padrone" of the hotel bows to the wife and Hemingway lingers for a moment on all the reasons why the wife likes him so much. She goes outside, followed by the maid with an umbrella, but doesn't find the cat and returns to her room. The husband, George, is still reading as the wife sits down before her mirror and starts listing the array of things she wants and wants to change. Frustrated, George quickly tells her to "shut up" and returns to his book. The wife complains that if she can't have any of the other things on her list, she at least wants a cat. Just then, there's a knock at the door. It's the hotel maid, holding a large cat—a gift for the "Signora," she tells them, from the padrone. Cat in the Rain Theme of Gender Hemingway barely describes the American wife in "Cat in the Rain." Is she pretty? Is she tall? Is she a blonde or brunette? We have no idea. The only physical description we get is of her short haircut that she complains about to her mirror. She laments that she gets "tired" of "looking like a boy." Short hair on women is something we're pretty used to seeing now, but in the 1920s, this was not the case. The wife's hairstyle would have read as being much more overtly "boyish" than it would today—especially in a more traditional European setting like this Italian town. In America, the style for women in this era leant towards androgyny: short haircuts and drop-waisted dresses that de-emphasized hips, waist, and bust. On the surface, this meant greater freedom for women, but it doesn't seem to be having this effect 55 on the American wife. The fact that she is "tired" of such a relatively new and revolutionary trend is particularly notable. Like all the other "liberated" aspects of the young couple's life-style—their intellectualism, their globetrotting, their non-materialism—Hemingway seems to be critiquing this progressive style as not entirely satisfying. He portrays a young woman who is longing to look like a woman and do traditionally feminine things. We might protest that Hemingway is being a little closed-minded about women and their roles here, but there could also be a larger critique of the celebration of "newness" and liberation at the time. Cat in the Rain Theme of Foreignness and The Other The opening sentence of "Cat in the Rain" introduces this theme perfectly: There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. (1) Even though we proceed through the story from the perspective of these Americans, and even though the writer is an American himself, the husband and wife are being put in the position of "foreigner" and "outsider." By creating this situation, Hemingway allows us (as well as the wife) to look at the American attitude more critically. Ernest Hemingway: Cat in the Rain Questions: 56 1. Which significance has the setting (atmosphere) for the interpretation of the story? 2. Describe the American couple and their relationship to each other. 3. Describe the relation between the American wife and the hotel owner. 4. What does the cat mean to the American wife and to the Italian maid? What does the “cat” stand for? 5. Do you think that at the end of the story the wife's problems are solved? 6. Did you notice something in particular about the style of the story? 7. Explain the term "short story". 8. Is Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" a short story? Give your arguments. 9. What is an "omniscient narrator"? Is there an omniscient narrator in "Cat in the Rain"? 10. Write a summary in 100 words. 57  Araby by James Joyce James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland. He published "Portrait of the Artist" in 1916 and caught the attention of Ezra Pound. With "Ulysses," Joyce perfected his stream-of-consciousness style and became a literary celebrity. The explicit content of his prose brought about landmark legal decisions on obscenity. Joyce battled eye ailments for most of his life. He died in 1941. Joyce was one of the most revered writers of the 20th century, whose landmark book, Ulysses, is often hailed as one of the finest novels ever written. His exploration of language and new literary forms showed not only his genius as a writer but spawned a fresh approach for novelists, one that drew heavily on Joyce's love of the stream-of-consciousness technique and the examination of big events through small happenings in everyday lives. Joyce came from a big family. He was the eldest of ten children born to John Stanislaus Joyce and his wife Marry Murray Joyce. His father, while a talented singer (he reportedly had one of the finest tenor voices in all of Ireland), didn't provide a stable a household. He liked to drink and his lack of attention to the family finances meant the Joyces never had much money. 58 From an early age, James Joyce showed not only exceeding intelligence but also a gift for writing and a passion for literature. He taught himself Norwegian so he could read Henrik Ibsen's plays in the language they'd been written, and spent his free time devouring Dante, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas. Because of his intelligence Joyce's family pushed him to get an education. Largely educated by Jesuits, Joyce attended the Irish schools of Clongowes Wood College and later Belvedere College before finally landing at University College Dublin, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on modern languages. Joyce's relationship with his native country was a complex one and after graduating he left Ireland for a new life in Paris where he hoped to study medicine. He returned, however, not long after upon learning that his mother had become sick. She died in 1903. Joyce stayed in Ireland for a short time, long enough to meet Nora Barnacle, a hotel chambermaid who hailed from Galway and later became his wife. Around this time, Joyce also had his first short story published in the Irish Homestead magazine. The publication picked up two more Joyce works, but this start of a literary career was not enough to keep him in Ireland and in late 1904 he and Barnacle moved first to what is now the Croatian city of Pula before settling in the Italian seaport city of Trieste. There, Joyce taught English and learned Italian, one of 17 languages he could speak, a list that included Arabic, Sanskrit, and Greek. Other moves followed, as the Joyce and Barnacle (the two weren't formally married until some three decades after 59 they met) made their home in cities like Rome and Paris. To keep his family above water (the couple went on to have two children, Georgio and Lucia) Joyce continued to find work as a teacher. All the while, though, Joyce continued to write and in 1914 he published his first book, Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories. Two years later Joyce put out a second book, the novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. While not a huge commercial success, the book caught the attention of the American poet, Ezra Pound, who praised Joyce for his unconventional style and voice. The same year that the Dubliners came out, Joyce embarked on what would prove to be his landmark novel: Ulysses. The story recounts a single day in Dublin. The date: June 16, 1904, the same day that Joyce and Barnacle met. On the surface, the novel follows the story three central characters, Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, a Jewish advertising canvasser, and his wife Molly Bloom, as well as the city life that unfolds around them. But Ulysses is also a modern retelling of Homer's Odyssey, with the three main characters serving as modern versions of Telemachus, Ulysses, and Penelope. With its advanced use of interior monologue, the novel not only brought the reader deep into Bloom's sometimes lurid mind, but pioneered Joyce's use of stream of consciousnesses as a literary technique and set the course for a whole new kind of novel. But Ulysses is not an easy read, and upon its publication in Paris in 1922 by Sylvia Beach, an American expat who owned a bookstore in the city, the book drew 60 both praise and sharp criticism. All of which only helped bolster the novel's sales. Not that it really needed the help. Long before Ulysses ever came out, debate raged over the content of the novel. Parts of the story had appeared in English and American publications and in the US and the UK the book was banned for several years after it was published in France. In the US, Ulysses's supposed obscenity prompted the Post Office to confiscate issues of the magazine that had published Joyce's work. Fines were levied against the editors, and a censorship battle was waged that only further hyped the novel. Still, the book found its way into the hands of eager American and British readers, who managed to get hold of bootlegged copies of the novel. In the US, the ban came to a head in 1932 when in New York City Customs Agents seized copies of the book that had been sent to Random House, which wanted to publish the book. The case made its way to court where in 1934 Judge John M. Woolsey came down in favor of the publishing company by declaring that Ulysses was not pornographic. American readers were free to read the book. In 1936, British fans of Joyce were allowed to do the same. While he sometimes resented the attention Ulysses brought him, Joyce saw his days as a struggling writer come to an end with the book's publication. It hadn't been an easy road. During World War I, Joyce had moved his family to Zurich, where they subsisted on the generosity of English magazine editor, Harriet Weaver, and Barnacle's uncle. Eventually Joyce and his family settled into a new life in Paris, which is where they 61 were living when Ulysses was published. Success, however, couldn't protect Joyce from health issues. His most problematic condition concerned his eyes. He suffered from a constant stream of ocular illnesses, went through a host of surgeries, and for a number of years was near blind. At times Joyce was forced to write in red crayon on sheets of large paper. In 1939 Joyce published Finnegans Wake, his long awaited follow up novel, which, with its myriad of puns and new words, proved to be an even more difficult read than his previous work. Still, the book was an immediate success, earning "book of the week" honors in the US and the United Kingdom not long after debuting. A year after Finnegans' publication, Joyce and his family were on the move again, this time to southern France in advance of the coming Nazi invasion of Paris. Eventually the family ended back in Zurich. Sadly, Joyce never saw the conclusion of World War II. Following an intestinal operation, the writer died at the age of 59 on January 13, 1941 at the Schwesternhause von Roten Kreuz Hospital. His wife and son were at his bedside when he passed. He is buried in Fluntern cemetery in Zurich. The Text NORTH RICHMOND STREET being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces. 62 The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp: The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout Communnicant and The Memoirs of Vidocq. I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow. The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the late tenant’s rusty bicycle-pump. He had been a very charitable priest; in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister. When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness. When we returned to the street light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas. If my uncle was seen turning the corner we hid in the shadow until we had seen him safely housed. Or if Mangan’s sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother in to his tea we watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street. We waited to see whether she would remain or go in and, if she remained, we left our shadow and 63 walked up to Mangan’s steps resignedly. She was waiting for us, her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door. Her brother always teased her before he obeyed and I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side. Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood. Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs’ cheeks, the nasal chanting of street- singers, who sang a come-all-you about O’Donovan Rossa, or a ballad about the troubles in our native land. These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her 64 words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires. One evening I went into the back drawing-room in which the priest had died. It was a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds. Some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed below me. I was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: “O love! O love!” many times. At last she spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer. She asked me was I going to Araby. I forgot whether I answered yes or no. It would be a splendid bazaar, she said she would love to go. “And why can’t you?” I asked. While she spoke she turned a silver bracelet round and round her wrist. She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent. Her brother and two other boys were fighting for their caps and I was alone at the railings. S