CLASSIFICATION. This short-story illustrates grouping for sake of
climactic effect. Events of forty years are illuminated by the
happenings of a day. The narrative has both an outer and an inner
action.
PLOT. The plot of the combined inner and outer story is quite simple.
The _initial impulse_ consists of Mark Faraday’s interest in Miss
Allison Clyde. The _dramatic climax_, if such it may be called, lies
in the finding of the love-letters which his Uncle William had written
and never sent to Allison. The _climax of action_ is his handing the
package of letters to Allison.
The inner plot is found in the letters. The _initial impulse_ of
William’s love for Allison operates until the _dramatic climax_.
This dramatic climax is William’s knowledge that he must die and his
feeling that he must never speak again to Allison of his passion. Up
to the _climax of action_ (his death) his letters have the note of
renunciation; before the dramatic climax they looked to union with the
girl he adored.
The two parts are linked in William’s giving the package to
Allison. Would you have been satisfied to see him read them without
passing them on to her? Are you satisfied to construct your own
dénouement--Allison’s emotion, etc.?
CHARACTERIZATION. Since development or deterioration of character is
difficult to indicate within the compass of the short-story, this
specimen shows a distinct advantage in massing the incidents near
the climax. For Allison may be shown finished, perfect,--the lovely
“personage,” to quote the oracle, Mrs. Herrick,--whom Mark finds. At
the same time, her development is made logical by the emphasis on
her youthful beauty of mind and heart as her lover saw it. Study, in
the usual way, the many methods by which Mrs. Roof has made vivid her
portrait. Mark’s point of view regarding her is particularly good;
also, the foil, Stella, serves adequately to set her off. Observe, too,
the relation she bears to her setting, her fitness for it.
Since Mark is the one through whom the reader learns the facts of the
action, his mind is open to the reader’s vision. Is there too much
of the artist about him, not enough of the man? Would you have him
different? Is he the nephew of his uncle, from a consideration of
sentiment?
What effect is produced by the names, in connection with their
owners?--Mark, Stella, Allison, William?
DETAILS. What is the intensifying worth of the sundial? Of the buzzing
bee? A second line of interest may be said to lie in the music theme,
which intensifies the line of the love interest and Mark’s interest in
Miss Allison.
Do you feel jarred or pleased by the shift to Allison’s angle (in her
letter, page 204)?
Does Mark too easily come across the daguerreotype, or does the casual
manner of his finding it fit into the smooth and leisurely progress of
the story?
Why is the picture of Allison “standing by the tall mantle in the
candle-light” one that lingers? Why does one remember the picture of
Beatrix (in “Henry Esmond”) coming down the stairs in white, with
cherry colored ribbons, holding the candle in her hand?
Do the letters of William strike you as having been composed by a man
or a woman? Why?