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I. Antagonist A. The forces arrayed against the protagonist. B. Can be persons, things, conventions of society, nature, or traits of his/her own character.
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II. Character A. The people, human-like animals, cyborgs, or whatever are involved in the plot. 1. Major characters will usually be complex and fully developed (the author will tell you more about them and describe them and their actions more). When they are not developed, readers will not care what happens to them. 2. The reader may be introduced to the characters by means of what a minor character says or does; what the characters themselves say or do; or what the author says. B. Fiction has several types of characters: 1. Flat Character a. barely one or two traits are developed, stereotypical, and can be summed up in one sentence. 2. Round Character a. Well developed, closely involved in and responsive to the action, complex and many-sided, and may take several pages to analyze and develop. ¨ Readers expect characters to behave as “real people” in those situations might behave. ¨ As such they are not perfect and the flaws revealed --greed, gullibility, naiveté, shyness, a quick temper. ¨ A lack of insight or judgment or tolerance or even intelligence -- make them believable. 3. Stock Character a. A common, stereotyped figure. 4. Dynamic Character a. One which undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of personality or outlook. b. (Mr. Scrooge was a developing character.) 5. Static Character a. One who is unchanging even though encountering the same challenges as the dynamic character; the same at the end of the story as at the beginning. b. Flat characters tend to be static, but even complex, well-developed major characters may be static. c. The point of the story may even hinge on a character’s inability to change. ¨ For example, Emily in “A Rose for Emily” is unwilling or unable to accept that the world around her and the people in it have changed. C. Ask these questions about Characters: 1. What are their most striking traits? 2. How do these individuals interact with one another? 3. What motivates them? 4. Are the characters fully developed, or are they stereotypes whose sole purpose is to express a single trait (good, evil, generosity) or to move the plot along?
III. Climax A. The end of the struggle or conflict.
IV. Conflict or Tension A. A clash of actions, ideas, beliefs, desires, or wills. B. Conflict is resolved only when one force overwhelms the other (success) or surrenders (failure).
V. Effect A. Dominant mood that the story inspires in the reader.
VI. Foreshadowing
1. Proper use builds suspense and helps readers anticipate future plot developments.
VII. Irony A. Always indicates a discrepancy; it is the unexpected. Irony takes these forms: 1. Verbal: an incongruity that is known and intended by a character B. Dramatic: a discrepancy not known or directly intended
VIII. Cosmic: a huge, long-range incongruity
IX. Motivation A. The reasons behind a characters behavior. 1. Because round characters are complex, they are not always easy to understand. 2. They may act differently in similar situations, just as real people do. a. They wrestle with decisions, resist or succumb to temptation, make mistakes, ask questions, search for answers, hope and dream, rejoice and despair. 3. Whether we approve of the characters actions is less important than whether we think they are plausible --whether they make sense in light of what we know about the character.
A dramatic speech in which a character who is alone on stage voices hes or her thoughts. Soliloquies give the audience a view of a character's thoughts, feelings, or motives.
X. Plot A. The sequence of events of which a story is composed. 1. Often involves one or more characters in one or more types of conflict over a specified period. 2. Plot is “what happens” in fiction. Types of plot include: a. man versus man b. man versus environment or nature c. man versus himself. 3. Ask these questions to determine plot: a. How do the events in the story relate to one another? b. How do they relate to the story as a whole? c. What conflicts occur in the story? d. How are these conflicts developed or resolved? e. Does the story include any noteworthy plot devices, such as flashbacks or foreshadowing.
XI. Point of View A. The angle from which the story is told; usually one of these types: B. Third person, Omniscient a. The narrator has the ability to jump from one character to another and the power to tell readers what each character is thinking and feeling at all times. b. This viewpoint may or may not be reliable. C. Third person, Limited 1. the author is telling the story through the eyes of one of his characters and is “limited” to only the knowledge of that character (uses third person “he/she” in telling the story). D. First Person: personal 1. Limited, but allowing a closeness between the story and the audience. 2. The author is not telling the story; instead, it is the character who is speaking (called the narrator) which may or may not be the author. E. Objective 1. Distant, formal, removed tone that does little to suggest an influence by who is telling the story. F. To determine point of view, ask yourself these questions: 1. What person or persons are telling the story? 2. Is the story told in the first person (I or we) or in the third person (he, she, or they )? 3. Does the narrator see from various perspectives, or is the story restricted to the perspective of one person--a major character, a minor character, or just an observer? 4. How much does the narrator know about the events in the story? 5. Does the narrator present an accurate or inaccurate picture of events? 6. Does the narrator understand the full significance of the story he or she is telling?
XII. Protagonist A. The central character in the conflict, whether he is sympathetic to the conflict or not. 1. This character struggles against other people or forces.
XIII. Setting A. The time and place the story takes place, but it is more than just the approximate time and place in which the work is set. B. Setting also encompasses a wide variety of physical and cultural elements. 1. Where a story takes place (on a tropical island; in a dungeon; at a crowded party) influences our interpretation of the story’s events and characters. 2. When a work takes place (during the French Revolution; the Vietnam War; today, or in the future) is equally important.
C. Sometimes a story’s central conflict is between the protagonist and the setting. 1. For example: a. “Alice in Wonderland” b. “A Northerner in the South” c. “To Build a Fire” d. The naive among the sophisticated, as in O’Henry’s “The Necklace.” e. “The Shining” D. Historical Setting 1. The events of the period can be important in the story; therefore, some familiarity with a period can be useful to readers who wish to understand a story fully. (Research means you read about that time in history) E. Geographical Setting 1. Knowing whether a story is set in the United States, in Europe, or in a developing nation can help to explain anything from why language and customs are unfamiliar to us to why characters act in ways we find improbable. 2. Regional differences may also account for differences in plot development and a character’s motivation. F. Physical Setting 1. The time of day can clearly influence a story’s mood as well as its development. a. The horrifying events of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” take place in broad daylight, contrasting dramatically with the darkness of the society that permits--and even participates in--such events. G. Ask these questions to determine setting: 1. At what time period and in what geographic location does the action of the story occur? 2. How does the setting affect the characters of the story? 3. How does the setting affect the characters of the story? 4. How does it determine the relationships among the characters? 5. How does the setting affect the plot? 6. |
