=18. Symbols for Visualization.=--On analyzing a story for the purpose
of discovering the elements of which it is composed, and the kind and
degree of appeal which they have for us, we shall find it convenient to
employ a few symbols for the purpose of labeling our findings for
discussion in the class room. Some of the directions which we make will
be based upon differences in the way in which the things presented are
effective in our minds, others upon differences in the things presented,
themselves. First we shall work with symbols of description and
visualization, of which for convenience we may distinguish four sorts
shading one into the other, not clearly defined, and yet worth
discussing, that we may cultivate a sharper sense of qualities of
effectiveness in visualization. For these four sorts of visualization we
may employ the symbols, _V__1, _V__2, _V__3, _VB__3. For the first of
these the symbol _V__1 is not very satisfactory, since we will employ it
for simple description which presents rather the idea of the thing than
a mental picture, but it will perhaps be simpler to use it than to use a
symbol for the word description. Having in mind the idea of a thing, we
may by mental effort, if the idea is defined with sufficient clearness,
call up the image of the object. _V__2 is the symbol for a visualization
through a suggestion which the mind, by reason of the interest kindled,
fills out to something more than the mere idea, more or less definite
imagery resulting. In the _V__3 form, we are, as it were, compelled to
see the image without mental effort, so swiftly and surely do the verbal
memory images reestablish old sensations or combine with old sensations
to the formation of new. In the fourth form, we will add the _B_
(Beauty) when the image which we see is such as to appeal pleasurably to
the aesthetic sense. That there should be perfect agreement in the use of
any one of these symbols in any particular case is, of course, not to be
expected. Our individual experiences have been so different and the
associations of sensation are so varied that the character and intensity
of any visualization must differ in each individual. This, of course, is
one of the things that complicate the problem of literary composition
and make study of these things of particular importance.
=19. Audition and Other Sensations.=--As the problem of audition is of
less moment than that of visualization, we will make but the one
distinction between such presentation of sound as calls up the idea of
the sound only, _a__1 and such as produces in us the sense of the sound
itself, _a__2, premising that any one who chooses may make the three
divisions preceding.
Appeals to the other senses as occurring less often, we may group
together under the symbol _S_, using 1 with this, as with _a_, when it
comes to us in the conceptual way, and 2 when it comes as an excitant of
sensation.
=20. Instances of Visualization.=--Before we go farther, it will be well
to examine briefly an example or two of literary description.
"The rim of the sun was burning the hilltops, and already _V__2
the vanguard of his strength stemming the morning mists,
when I and my companion first trod the dust of a small _V__2
town which stood in our path. It still lay very hard and
white, however, and sharply edged to its girdle of olive _V__1
and mulberry trees drenched in dew, a compactly folded
town well fortified by strong walls and many towers, with
the mist upon it and softly over it like a veil. For it _V__2
lay well under the shade of the hills awaiting the sun's
coming. In the streets, though they were by no means _V__1
asleep, but, contrariwise, busy with the traffic of men _S__2
and pack mules, there was a shrewd bite as of night air; _V__2
looking up we could perceive how faint the blue of the
sky was, and the cloud-flaw how rosy yet with the flush
of Aurora's beauty-sleep. Therefore we were glad to get
into the market place, filled with people and set around
with goodly brick buildings, and to feel the light and _S__2
warmth steal about our limbs."
--MAURICE HEWLETT, "Earthwork out of Tuscany."
Here we shall first use the symbol _V__2, because the image presented is
one that appeals at once to experience, experience too that has not been
dimmed by frequence. The instant when the _rim_ of the sun comes up
bright and red is the instant when our expectation is most kindled
toward the glory of the dawn and of the day which it foretokens. "The
vanguard of his strength" in the next clause suggests the purely
fanciful. This mixture of the concrete and the abstract does not go back
to sensation, a thing worth noting and so the visualization is
destroyed. The dependent clause brings up a new visualization, a _V__2,
in the "dust of a small town." The second sentence is _V__1, until the
close when it becomes _V__2 through the quickening of memories that have
been emotional. The vagueness of a village hidden in the mist has
appealed to our imagination in the assurance of a something unknown. The
next sentence is _V__1, and so also is the next until in "the shrewd
bite as of night air" we get an _S__2. The _V__2 of the faint blue of
the sky is destroyed, as in the first sentence, by the merely
intellectual playing of fancy in "Aurora's beauty-sleep." The next
sentence gives us an _S__2 in the closing clause, for which the two
preceding have been a preparation.
"Solemn and vast at all times, in spite of pettiness in the near
details, the impression becomes more solemn and vast towards
evening. The sun goes down, a swollen orange, as it were, into
the sea. A blue-clad peasant rides home, with a harrow smoking
behind him among the dry clods."
In this from Robert Louis Stevenson the last sentence brings the
description to a _V__3; the smoking harrow is suggestive of so much more
than the cloud of dust that has not yet settled to the earth in the
stillness of the approaching twilight when the work of the day is done.
=21. Motor Effects of Visualization.=--There is another way in which
things seen touch sensation. Look at a picture of the Laocoon for a
moment. Fix your eyes upon the contortions of the limbs, see the agony
of the face, note the fangs of the serpent ready to embed themselves in
the flesh. While fastening these fearful details in your mind have you
not felt some of the horror of it, and has not that feeling shown a
tendency to innervate some of the muscles, has not your face shown some
of the suffering which you have been studying, and have you not felt a
tendency toward the muscular movements of one writhing in agony?
Certainly, such motor impulses do result from certain kinds of
visualization, and it need hardly be said that they are peculiarly
effective in making us really alive with the emotion which inheres in
the movement or the attitude which we see. If the gestures of a speaker
are to be effective, they must seem natural to us; that is, they must be
such as we would make if we were in that fashion attempting to express a
similar emotion. Otherwise the motor suggestions of the words and the
motor suggestion of the gestures may inhibit or neutralize each other,
or at least produce a feeling of confusion. Halleck, in his "Education
of the Central Nervous System," says, "All states of consciousness
contain a motor element." When a visualization or an audition, as that
of a sharp command, seems to have motor effects, we may add to the
symbols of kind and degree of sensation the symbol _x_.
=22. Inference in Literature.=--It was apparent in the visualization
quoted from Stevenson that some of the impressions which we get from
literature we get as inferences. Dust does not arise from a harrow so as
to have the appearance of smoke on a windy day, and therefore we know
that it is quiet. In the opening of a story some things must be
explained directly, and for such explanatory matter, matter from which
we infer nothing beyond the statement, we will employ the symbol _Exp._;
but for other presentation of matters of fact we will employ the symbol
_F__1. From facts as presented--and we will use the term in a
comprehensive sense--we may or may not draw inferences, and we will
distinguish facts from which no inference is drawn by the symbol _F__1,
and those from which inference is drawn by the symbol _F__2. An
inference may be preponderatingly intellectual or emotional; we may,
when desirable, add the symbol _a_ for one and _b_ for the other. An
inference we may call an "effect," and a fact as effect, whether the
effect be emotional or conceptual, is clearly more potent in a literary
way than a mere fact.
=23. Effects of Incident and Mood.=--Allied to the fact as effect is the
incident which makes us know something more than the happening itself.
All incidents we may distinguish under the symbols _In__1, _In__2_a_,
_In__2_b_, the secondary symbols having the significance as with _F_
above. Mood effects are, in general, more important, and it will be
worth while to distinguish three sorts, _m__1, an inference which we
draw regarding the mood of the writer, _m__2, a like inference which
becomes infectious, creating in us in some degree a like feeling, and
_m__3, an "effect" enabling us to draw an inference regarding the mood
of a character in the story. In addition to this we shall find direct
statement of mood, but that we shall mark with some of the preceding
symbols, generally _F__1, perhaps. We may understand further that the
mood effects are of both kind and degree. When the showing of mood is
such as to make us realize in it the intensity of strong emotion or
passion, we may indicate the heightening of the feeling by the addition
of the symbol _d_, using _k_ alone, or with _d_ to indicate that the
character of the mood is shown.
=24. Methods of Characterization.=--In our everyday life we are
continually drawing inferences in regard to the characters of those
about us, and we do the same thing in a story. Some writers tell us as
clearly as they can the natures of the men and women they are revealing
to us, while others leave that almost wholly for us to conjecture. We
shall employ, then, two sets of symbols for character, one for direct
statement of character, and one for character effects. The realization
of character through direct statement may include presentation of
motives, ideas, passions, will, special phases of development. It may
come through report of the talk of others, or through statement of
opinion generally entertained. _c__1 we will use for direct statement of
character,--"John was a hard old miser,"--and we will add to this symbol
the symbol _a_ to indicate that this is only so far potent with us as to
make us know the writer's understanding of the character merely, _b_ to
indicate that we recognize the writer's feeling for the character but do
not share it, and _c_ to indicate that the writer's feeling for his
character affects us sympathetically to a like feeling. Another group of
symbols, _c__2, _c__3, and _c__4, we will use for character "effects,"
for such knowledge of character as we gain by inference. _c__2 is a
symbol for a general inference regarding a group of people or a
community; _c__3 and _c__4 are symbols for inferences regarding the
individual, _c__3 indicating the recognition of type or class qualities,
_c__4, the recognition of more individual traits of character. The
distinction here is merely one of matter of fact, a distinction not
always to be made with sureness, since it is one of degree rather than
altogether one of kind. When the way in which a man is good or cheerful
or avaricious is differentiated for us from the way in which another man
is good or cheerful or avaricious, he is so far individualized. Class
characterization, _c__3, may be found along with individualization. The
extreme accentuation of one or a few characteristics to the disregard of
others gives the effect of individualization, but we shall understand
this as in fact type characterization, since our natures are so complex
that in almost no case can the conduct of any one be understood through
knowledge of a few dominant traits of character. Individualization gives
us intimacy of acquaintance; type or class characterization makes us see
merely the striking, peculiar, or controlling expressions of
personality. Guy Mannering in Scott's "Guy Mannering" is but a type of
the conventional soldier. Tito Milema in George Eliot's "Romola"
presents so many sides of a complex nature that we easily distinguish
him from all other characters in fiction whatever.
=25. The Subjective and Objective.=--Writers, in their methods of
presentation, may be broadly divided into two classes, those who write
subjectively and those who write objectively. A subjective writer is one
whose own personality, point of view, feeling, is insistent in what he
writes. An objective writer, on the other hand, is one who leaves the
things of which he makes record to produce their own impression, the
writer himself remaining an almost impassive spectator, telling the
story with little or no comment. Chaucer, in the prologue to the
"Canterbury Tales," betrays his personal feeling for his characters
continually, and so is subjective. Shakespeare in his plays is
objective, presenting all sorts of men and women without show of his own
attitude toward them.
=26. Interest of the Plot and its Purpose.=--We have seen that interest
in incident is a first interest in the story. This interest, we must
understand further, is not to be maintained by having things happen in a
matter regulated only by chance or the exigencies of the author's
invention at the moment. The unification of a story that results from
the subordination of minor incidents to a final outcome is an essential
necessity of the plot. The plot, indeed, is the arrangement of incidents
with reference to the denouement. The development of the plot should be
such as to indicate an end toward which the succession of incidents is
tending, and yet such as to keep the reader in suspense with regard to
the nature of that end. There must be novelty in the happenings, and yet
the novelty must not be so great as to keep the reader confused or
strain belief. The permanent hold upon us of a piece of fiction is
enhanced if it embodies some central truth, illustrating the working out
of some law of life, or involved in the personal attitude of the writer
toward some problem of existence. Only dilettanteism and superficiality
forget that an artist, giving the form of beauty to his conceptions, is
trying to make them as significant to others as they are to him, and
that aesthetic and ethical, or spiritual, significance are inextricably
interwoven. It will, of course, be the care of the artist to see that
any didactic purpose is not obtrusive.
_F_2b_ 1. A tray of glasses was placed on the table with great
solemnity by the "wricht," who made no sign and invited
none. 2. You might have supposed that the circumstance
_F_2b_ had escaped the notice of the company, so abstracted and
unconscious was their manner, had it not been that two
graven images a minute later are standing by the table.
_m_3k_ 3. "Ye 'ill taste, Tammas," with settled melancholy.
_m_3k_ 4. "Na, na; I've nae incleenation the day; it's an awful
_F_2a_ dispensation, this, Jeems. 5. She wuld be barely saxty."
_m_3k_ 6. "Ay, ay, but we maun keep up the body sae lang as we're
here, Tammas."
_c_2/c_4_ 7. "Weel, puttin' it that way, a'm not sayin' but yir
_m__2 richt," yielding unwillingly to the force of circumstance.
_c_4/m_3_ 8. "We're here the day and there the morn, Tammas. 9. She
_m__3 was a fine wumman--Mistress Stirton--a weel-livin' wumman:
this will be a blend, a'm thinkin'."
_c_4/m_3_ 10. "She slippit aff sudden in the end; a'm judgin' it's
_m__3 frae the Muirtown grocer; but a body canna discreeminate
on a day like this."
11. It was George Howe's funeral that broke the custom and
_F_2b_ closed the "service." 12. When I came into the garden
where the neighbors were gathered, the "wricht" was
Exp.+_m_2_ removing his tray and not a glass had been touched. 13.
Then I guessed that Drumtochty had a sense of the fitness
of things and was stirred to its depths.
14. "Ye saw the wricht carry in his tray," said Drumsheigh
as he went home from the kirkyard.
_m_3d_ 15. "Weel, yon's the last sicht o't ye' ill get or a'm no
_m_3k_ Drumsheigh. 16. I've nae objection masel' to a neighbor
tastin' at a funeral, a' the more if he's come from the
upper end o' the pairish, and ye ken I dinna hold wi' thae
_m_3d_ teetotal fouk. 17. A'm ower auld in the horn to change noo.
_m_3/F_2b_ 18. But there's times and seasons, as the Gude Buik says,
and it wud hae been an awfu' like business tae luik at a
gless in Marget's Garden, and puir Domsie standing in ahent
the brier bush as if he cud never lift his heid again."
=27. Interpretative Application of the Symbols.=--A little discussion of
the foregoing from a "A Scholar's Funeral" in the "Bonnie Brier Bush"
may serve to make some of these things clearer. The fact that the
"wricht" is silent here in the first sentence makes us know that this is
the usual custom and that these people have an underlying sense of
decorum. Sentence two has the same effect in their abstraction, and this
is emphasized again in the "two graven images." The third sentence is a
mood "effect" of kind, since we recognize the conventionally sobered
feeling without the "settled melancholy." This is true again in sentence
four, and in five we have a "fact as effect," drawing the inference that
they are a long-lived race in Drumtochty. From the yielding to an
invitation so framed as to put aside the semblance of yielding to
inclination, we get a knowledge of character which seems to us
individual, but which is used by the author to indicate a local
community characteristic. The author's mood of amused observation is
evident here, too, in his unbelieving acquiescence in Tammas's point of
view. In sentences eight and nine we come to know Jeems in a more
individual way, through the mingling in him of moods of conventional
solemnity and everyday discussion. This is repeated in sentence ten. In
sentence twelve we draw an emotional inference concerning the degree of
their feeling from the fact that "not a glass had been touched." This is
told in the explanatory way in thirteen with the addition of a
suggestion of the author's sympathetic understanding and appreciation.
Knowing Drumsheigh's reserve, from things that have gone before this in
the story, we feel that only strong emotion could have called out
sentence fifteen; and the apologetic tone of sixteen and seventeen
indicates rather mood than such heightened feeling. Sentence eighteen
returns to the mood of fifteen and sixteen, and through the fact of
Domsie's standing "ahent the brier bush" reveals both Domsie's mood and
Drumsheigh's own in our knowledge of its emotional appeal to him.
=28. Different Forms of the Story.=--It is to be understood that certain
types of the short story are not included in this study as not being
available for detailed work. Stories in which the interest is almost
wholly dependent upon the succession of incidents can profitably be
studied only with relation to the plot. Generally in such cases the
things that make the story effective will be readily apparent, and they
can be brought out by a few questions. To give variety and interest to
the work the teacher will occasionally find it desirable to call
attention to stories in current periodicals, requiring the class to
bring in analyses of them showing structure of the plot, methods of
managing the reader's sympathies, fundamental motive of the story, the
treatment of character and methods of presenting it, and such other
things as seem most of moment in the story in question. When library
facilities permit, it will be found worth while to make some comparison
of the short story as it is now written in America with the short
stories of fifty years ago and of the present day in England and France.
No classification of stories is attempted here, since such
classification is of no particular moment to the writer of stories.