SETTING. Note the setting of this and “The Water-Hole,” “The Knight’s
Move,” “The Weaver Who Clad the Summer,” “A Certain Rich Man.” In
which of them is the outer setting a place for the rehearsal of the
story which follows? In which is the setting that of the immediate
story-action? What is the general value of a table scene to the writer
who wishes to present his story in the “rehearsed” manner? How does a
camp-fire compare with it? (Read, for example, Kipling’s “The Courting
of Dinah Shadd.”)
INTRODUCTION, WITH EMPHASIS ON CHARACTERS. Why is so long an
introductory paragraph given to Burnaby?
Study the comment on guests and hostess, and observe that the English
financier must have an important part in the ensuing action. “Sir John
had inherited an imagination.” Is this stated characteristic proved by
subsequent disclosures?
How is Burnaby’s entrance emphasized?
“She was interested by now” (page 48), an old device and an excellent
one for catching the reader’s attention. The logic is this: “If that
fascinating lady is interested, there must be a reason.” Sir Conan
Doyle employs it often in the Sherlock Holmes stories, when Sherlock
asks for a repetition of a situation supposedly just presented. It is
thus put before the reader who assumes that it must be worth hearing
once, if Sherlock will hear it twice.
What reason exists for Burnaby’s story as a predecessor to Sir John’s?
Does it motivate the telling of Sir John’s? If so, does it also
prejudice the reader in favor of one or the other men? Does it incite
curiosity as to the squawman with a promise that curiosity will be
satisfied? Suppose that some other cause produced Sir John’s story and
the reader were left to surmise what became of Bewsher. Would sympathy
be with Bewsher in an increased or diminished degree?
Why is Burnaby’s story briefer than Sir John’s? Would it be possible
to reverse the comparative lengths with a new story-value? Try telling
Bewsher’s story as he might tell it to Burnaby at the time of the tea
incident.
How is point given to the squaw man’s name? What is the significance of
the broken champagne glass? Have literary artists often fallen back on
a broken glass by way of expressing emotion? Is it true to real life?
Does it _seem_ true in fiction?
Is there sufficient suggestion that Bewsher’s story is connected with
that of Masters to justify initial interest in Sir John’s narrative?
(See the dénouement of Burnaby’s.)
Where did you receive a hint that Masters is identifying himself with
Morton?
THE HEART OF THE WHOLE STORY: MASTERS’ STORY. Notice that Mr. Burt
recognizes, as all artists do, the various climaxes of the narrative.
This is indicated in what Sir John calls “high lights.”
_The Initial Impulse_ (_The “first high light”_): Morton’s plan to
cultivate the friendship of Bewsher.
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: The importance of himself comes home
to Morton (“The second high light”). “The third did not come until
fifteen years later” (Bewsher has been in India; Morton, in a Banking
House in London): Morton desires a wife, luxury, and social standing.
Bewsher turns up; he and Morton fall in love with the same girl.
Bewsher leads, but he needs money. The “third high light,” then,
after fifteen years, is Bewsher’s supplication. Morton makes him a
rich man, but does not promise to keep him so.
_Dramatic Climax_: Bewsher forges a check, and hands it to Morton in
part payment of his indebtedness. Morton subsequently shows the check
to the girl and then burns it before her eyes. He thus wins her, not
aware that her heart is broken. Bewsher disappears.
_Climax of Action_: “The fourth high light” Morton marries the girl.
_Dénouement_: He suffers the realization that he can never be a
gentleman; he has learned that the girl does not love him.
What statement of Sir John indicates a recognition of the turning
point in the rivalry between him and Bewsher? Show that this outer or
external dramatic climax is the counterpart of the “third high light.”
_Dénouement of the Enveloping Narrative_: After Sir John and his
wife motor away, Burnaby explains the relations between the real and
the fictive characters. What is the significance of his appellation,
“timber-wolf”?
What is the office of Mrs. Malcolm’s closing remark?
“We are told that all writing is a process of elision, but no one
seems to go further and say that short-story writing is the process of
‘hitting the high spots’ plus the art of making the intervals between
the ‘high spots’ not only interesting but of such a quality that the
‘high spots’ do not seem strained and unnatural. I find that this is
mostly done by the turn of a sentence, or by an apparently adventitious
aphorism, or a paragraph of general comment.
“I do prefer the ‘I’ narrator greatly. 1st. It does away with the
‘Smart Alec,’ omniscient atmosphere of the third person, which seems
to me the bane of most American short-stories--the author gives an
impression of groping for his story, just as a person in real life
gropes when he narrates an incident. Conrad does this, and does it so
beautifully. It seems to me that a ‘thickness’ is achieved that can
be got in no other way. This, of course, does not apply to a novel,
because in a novel the ‘thickness’ is achieved by mere length.
“Secondly, as you say, it enables one to handle surprise more readily.
“Thirdly, the story can be told in colloquial language, and not in
literary language, which makes it, so it seems to me, more poignant.
What experience I have had convinces me that the poignancy of life is
invariably expressed by silences and by broken words. The French know
so well how to use dashes, for instance.
“Fourthly, and this is not paradoxical, despite the colloquial
language, one has a slight feeling of aloofness from the characters or
sees them through the medium of a third person; and this, it seems to
me, is the way one sees things in real life....
“The story ordinarily comes to me as an incident or a theme, sometimes
as a character in a certain incident. Then usually nothing happens for
a long time. If I try to think about it too much, so much the worse.
In about a month, I’ll think about it again and then, as a rule, it
begins to evolve. A great deal of the incident occurs to me while I am
actually writing.”--_Maxwell Struthers Burt._