The artistry of the author has worked consciously or unconsciously
to create a finished piece of work. Told as a single episode in the
experience of a traveler, it has the _magnitude_ of the short-story.
PROPORTION. This essential is placed first, here, as being the chief
means by which the effect is obtained. This effect comes, cumulatively,
and is increased by giving climactic value to a coincidence. The
coincidence, properly prepared for, is not of the kind that would have
had great worth at the end of a longer story.
To illustrate how it might have been diminished, rather than increased:
Throw the time back to the youth of Giovanni and Rosa. Develop, at
length, the love affair of the two young people. (This, alone, would
require several pages.) Show the struggle of the girl, torn between
religion and love. Present her prayer to the Virgin, the answer, and
her decision (done dramatically, all this, perhaps in two pages), and
her entrance into the nunnery. (So much would be done, logically, from
Rosa’s point of view.) Shifting the spot-light to Giovanni, show him
stabbing the picture of the Virgin; his disappearance; his meeting
the funeral, and his being informed of Rosa’s death. The fact that
it occurred at the time he stabbed the picture, as the coincidence,
revealed after so long a development, would lack comparative height or
worth.
Consider such treatment, and by force of comparison see that the author
did best to treat the occurrences at a time long after they happened.
The rehearsed story is in this instance undoubtedly the best. Further,
by its use, the last words (page 188), “I am Giovanni,” are possible,
intensifying the effect.
Considering the plot, what should you say are the chief steps in the
development? Analyze both the inner story and in its relation to the
enveloping action. The initial impulse, for instance, in the whole
narrative is, the motivation for the monk’s telling his story. The
dénouement, similarly, is the fact that Giovanni and the monk are
identical. What are initial impulse and dénouement of the rehearsed
narrative?
SETTING. What is the worth of the setting in such a story, both as
regards unity and convincingness? Note all the details which are
distinctly Italian. What connotation have the cypress trees? Do they
intensify the mood? In connection with the immediate scene in the
chapel, what value has the sentence, “Beneath it, on a little stand,
lay a slim-bladed vicious knife, covered with dust”?
CHARACTERIZATION. What added _theme_ is conveyed in the description,
“He was old, the oldest man Blagden had ever seen, etc.”? Does one get
it on first reading, or on reflection?
Is Blagden a character, or a reason for telling the story?
DETAILS. Point out the several examples of mysticism.