GERMINAL IDEA. “‘Get Ready the Wreaths’ was, of course, inspired by the
overwhelming drama of the Russian Revolution and my own feeling that
even Siberia had at last been justified.”--_Fannie Hurst._
ANALYSIS. The predominating interest and hence line of action, since
it composes a line of action, is Mrs. Horowitz’s desire, struggle,
to return to Russia. This struggle has been going on for years; it
has its roots and beginnings in the past. Alone it would not make a
short-story; for the conflict is too level, too empty of actual event.
The beginning of the complication is the engagement of Selene Coblenz,
her love affair constituting the second line of interest. This is
the truly complicating line, although there is also a third line of
interest, properly subdued. It enters as a factor, first, in the first
line. Mark Haas shows his interest in Mrs. Coblenz by offering to
arrange for her the details of the Siberian journey. For a long time
this interest exists, seemingly, only as a means for developing the
main struggle: there is an entire amalgamation of the two interests.
(See e.g., page 342, “Mark Haas is going to fix it for me,” etc.).
Selene Coblenz’s request brings on the immediate struggle. It is
only a step, however, in Mrs. Horowitz’s long fight to get back. It
turns out to be not a deciding step, but one in complication. See
that by considering the old lady’s struggle and the daughter’s mental
anguish, Shila’s search for ways and means starts from it, rather
than is decided by it. There is no specific struggle after it, only a
complication waiting to be solved. Mrs. Coblenz could not have started
for Russia until after the reception, anyway. If Mrs. Horowitz had
lived, she could have gone. Nothing is determined by this minor climax:
much mental trouble starts from it for Shila. It simply advances events
to a state, where at a later moment they will need a struggle and a
decision.
But for another reason this decision of Mrs. Coblenz’s is a big
crisis, though not the big plot crisis; especially is this true
if you regard the story as a character story. Shila’s devotion to
her mother: her devotion to her daughter--which will win? Will her
sense of duty triumph over her indulgence? The girl’s reasoning,
the impracticability of her mother’s desire assist to “play up” the
struggle. Selene is dominant with Shila. She is a great-hearted woman,
but she has a weakness. If she had not had, Selene might have been a
less self-centred girl.
With the news of the reception evening, the three lines of interest
come together; the high point of the complication is reached. There is
a momentary crisis for Mrs. Coblenz. Her mother can go back to Russia
now; she will insist. Selene’s line enters as an accomplished fact to
prevent: It helps with the other to compose a crisis here. The third
line is present as a factor to assist: But Mrs. Coblenz is blind to it:
it is a suspended resource.
If, as you might have expected, the writer had derived her solution
from that line, she would have done the obvious thing. Also she would
have made Shila’s escape from her weakness, easy. And, last of all, she
would have finished a struggle which had its derivation in blood and
sacrifice with a conclusion too quiet and unheroic.
The author did what technically might have been a very bad thing.
To get your solution out of a physical or natural stroke, by sudden
illness or an accident of nature, is equivalent to using a god from
the machine,--a charge often laid at the feet of Euripides. But here
the death is so logical a consequence--so well prepared for--that you
cannot quarrel with it. And there is a heroic touch in having Mrs.
Horowitz die beneath her tremendous recollection and appreciation of
all the triumph had cost. The outcome is satisfying: she died in a high
moment. Shila is not too much to blame, and consolation for her is at
hand. And Selene, being right from her angle of youth and life, is both
happy and sufficiently rebuked.
The story, then, has both an opposing and an assisting line. The climax
at which all meet and the forces balance is the Revolution news. It is
not the deciding moment in the Selene story: that is over.
* * * * *
The emotional effect of this story represents in a high degree one of
the author’s best achievements. Her stories are notable for their human
appeal. One man went so far as to state to the present critic that he
would willingly have bartered his soul to enable that old lady to go
back to Russia. Study all the ways by which she reaches your sympathy.
* * * * *
GENERAL METHODS. “Almost invariably my plots emerge from characters,
rather than characters from plots. I doubt if this latter is ever as
sound in method except in the detective or picaresque story.
“I have never based a short story upon a concrete incident, written
a character directly from ‘life,’ or, except rarely, incorporated a
speech actually heard into dialogue.
“A situation may suggest the beginnings of a story, or a chance word be
the seed of an idea, but most often I find myself puttering around the
hypothetical psychology of folks....
“... Unity of Effect, no matter how the unities must be smashed
to attain it, I consider the corner stone of short-story writing.
Without it, architectural beauty and continuity of development are
impossible....”
--_Fannie Hurst._