5. The character, i.e., the main character, is "faced with the
situation."
6. For "The Ivory Tower" and probably for any novel, there is now need
to show clearly and definitely the "antecedents," i.e., anything that
had happened before the story started. And we find Henry James making
up his mind which characters have interacted before this story opens,
and which things are to be due to fresh impacts of one character on
another.
7. Particular consideration of the special case in hand. The
working-free from incongruities inherent in the first vague
preconceptions of the plot. Thus:
(a) The hinge of the thing is not to be the effect of A. on B. or of B.
on A.; nor of A. on C. or of C. on B.; but is to be due to an effect all
round, of A. and B. and C. working on each other.
(b) James's care not to repeat figures from earlier novels. Not a
categoric prohibition, but a caution not to sail too near the wind in
this matter.
(c) A care not to get too many "personally remarkable" people, and not
enough stupid ones into the story.
(d) Care for the relative "weight" as well as the varied "tone" of the
characters.
(We observe, in all this, the peculiarly American passion for "art"; for
having a system in things, _cf._ Whistler.)
(e) Consideration how far one character "faces" the problem of another
character's "character."
(This and section "d" continue the preoccupation with "moral values"
shown in James's early criticism in "French Poets and Novelists.")
8. Definite "_joints_"; or relations of one character to another finally
fitted and settled.
This brings us again to point 5. The character, i.e., the main character
definitely "faced" with the situation.