PLOT. In constructing his plot, the author devised a plan whereby a
robber might escape with stolen money. Having invented it, he tested
each part to make it _seem_ detective proof; and in following up this
process he created a novel variety of the detective story genre.
Similar stories have effected a resolution of the complication by
a pull at some loose end left hanging through inadvertence of the
criminal, and have so conserved justice. Mr. Lewis, avoiding this usual
device, has requisitioned the peculiar advantages of dual personality
to bring about the downfall of his criminal. (Compare with this
_motif_, the one found in Frederick Stuart Greene’s “Galway Intrudes,”
a story which has much in common with “The Willow Walk.”)
A thief, therefore, who plans his get-away by first _inventing_ and
then _pretending_ to be his own “brother,” ultimately becomes the
brother. The transformation is made plausible through the histrionic
gifts attributed to the robber whereby he _is_, rather than merely
_acts_, the represented character.
To the end that ultimate confession will occur, the brother must be
religious; to the end that punishment is efficacious, the confession
must be received with incredulity. These are necessary, if unconscious,
preliminaries to this representative of the series which begins with
Poe’s “William Wilson,” and which includes “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
PRESENTATION. The author first sets forth details that lead to the
beginning of the action, the most important of which convey that Jasper
Holt is acquiring a new hand-writing, that he is a respectable paying
teller, that he is a good actor.
_Action Antecedent to the Present_: Read the story, and find under
its superstructure the groundwork of Jasper’s plan. How much
preparation has been necessary? How long has it required, probably,
to accomplish it? Has the author begun at the best point possible in
the story action?
_Incidents of the Complication Leading Immediately to the Dramatic
Climax_: