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Theoretical preliminaries. The plot with its characters, actions and setting forms the so-called 'surface content' of a literary work

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The plot with its characters, actions and setting forms the so-called 'surface content' of a literary work. The surface content, which is represented in. concrete individuals, situations and actions, may entertain and keep the reader curious. Some read only to learn what happens next. But a skilled reader discovers what lies beyond the surface content. In a literary work he looks for the theme. He understands all the implications encoded in the story. He is sensitive to the author's attitude towards the characters, events and problems in the story. In other words, he looks for and understands what is known as “the underlying thought content” of the literary work, which conveys its message.

The theme of a story is the main area of interest treated in the story. There are stories on the theme of love, or love for one's Motherland; there are books on the theme of family relations, or on the anti-war theme.

The plots of different stories on one and the same theme may be based on an identical type of conflict, as The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield and Arrangement in Black and White by D. Parker. The theme of both the stories is human relations in society, both are based on the conflict between man and the established order with its racial hostility, injustice and exploitation. But K. Mansfield and Parker have embodied the similar theme and conflict into unique artistic forms, incomparable characters and events, and have managed to do it in a most effective way. The stories reveal different aspects of human relationship and arouse different responses on the part of the reader.

The theme performs a unifying function. It is clearly seen in The Oval Portrait by E. A. Poe. The theme of each part of the tale is the power of beauty and art to stir emotions. Despite the differences in the described events and the style, both the parts reveal the storm of emotions which beauty stirs up in man. The two episodes develop the same theme. Hence, they both express it and thus bind the two parts into an organic whole. The effect that the artistic unity produces is brilliant, vivid and enduring.

The theme of the story implies the problem which the writer raises. His view and attitude to this problem is revealed in the way he develops the theme of the story. The most important idea that the author expresses in the process of developing the theme is the message of the story. The theme is therefore organically connected with the author's message.

The message is generally expressed implicitly, i. e. indirectly, and has a complex analytical character, being created by the interaction of numerous implications which the different elements of the literary work have. It is only by analysis of those implications that one may reveal the message of a literary work.

Implication is the suggestion that is not expressed directly but understood. Implication may be conveyed by different techniques, such as parallelism, contrast, recurrence of events or situations, artistic details, symbols, arrangement of plot structure, etc.

Thus parallelism may be deeply suggestive. For example, in The Roads We Take by O'Henry there is deep implication in the parallel actions of the dream and reality (in the dream Shark Dodson murders his companion "with cold ferocity" to get the booty; in the event that presents reality Dodson, the businessman, ruins his friend "with cold ferocity" again in order to increase his profits). Parallelism here invites the reader to compare these actions. It is suggestive not only of the ugly nature of the protagonist, but also of the immoral means he uses to make money.

Events which begin and end a story sometimes parallel. This circling of the action back to its beginning implies that nothing has changed and this may be the whole point. The story of the firm Twigg and Dersingham in Priestley's Angel Pavement begins with Dersingham's talk with Smeeth about the sad affairs of the firm and the necessity to dismiss one of the clerks. At the end of the novel Dersingham has a similar talk, with Smeeth again, about the bank­ruptcy of the firm. It returns the reader to the opening scene. This circling of actions suggests and emphasizes that nothing has improved, none of the characters have managed to avoid ruin and poverty.

Implication may be conveyed by contrast on different levels: linguistic and extralinguistic. In the story Arrangement in Black and White, which is an attack on racial prejudices and hypocrisy among the middle classes in the USA, the implication is mainly conveyed by the contrast between the impression that the protagonist tries to produce and the impression she actually produces. The contrast is reinforced by the antithetical thematic planes of the vocabulary: "the coloured people", "nigger" versus "the white people"; "broad-minded" versus "narrow-minded"; "awfully fond of”, "love", "crazy about some of them" versus "wouldn't sit at the table with one for a million dollars", "keep their place". Moreover, this implication is also suggested by the antithesis in the title Arrangement in Black and White.

Recurence (or repetition) is another means of conveying implication. Among the repeated linguistic elements there may be stylistic devices, or emotionally coloured words, or even neutral words, but when repeated the latter may acquire special semantic relevance. The semantically relevant word need not be the most frequent one in the story. It is a well-known fact that functional words, such as "a", "the", "to", "be", generally recur most often, but they are not necessarily the most important words in the text. However, once a word or any element of the story is felt to be especially significant for the understanding of the whole, its recurrence acquires relevance in the context of the story.«The repeated word (or phrase), even if it is a neutral one, may acquire emotional charge and become a key-word, important for the understanding of the message of the story/There often occurs semantic repetition, when one and the same idea is repeated, though every time it is formulated differently. It should be emphasized that the recurrent elements do not contain in themselves indications of what in particular their implications are. They acquire relevance and suggest implication only in the context of the story in which they occur.

Recurrence may be traced in the plot of any story. Though the events in the plot generally vary among themselves, they have a similarity in, function — each of them recalls the reader to the central problem. For instance, no matter how different the events in the story The Lady's Maid may seem to be, each of them returns the reader to the main problem — the inequality between the rich and those who serve them. In this sense writers fulfil contradictory demands: the demand for variation and the demand for recurrence. If a writer fails to fulfil the former, his story will be monotonous and uninteresting. If he fails to fulfil the latter, it will seem aimless and not directed at any definite message.

Implication is often suggested by the similar features in the varying scenes and by the varying features in the similar scenes. The Pawnbroker's Wife affords a good illustration of that. No matter how different the scenes in the story might seem to be, they reveal similar aspects of Mrs. Cloote's character: her immorality, her covetous, deceitful and wicked nature.

Fiction provides many examples of recurrence with implication. Among them one often finds details. For instance, in J. Cheever's story The Pleasures of Solitude the "coldness" of the wind, the rain, the weather, the boys who came "shaking with cold" are artistic details. The neutral word "cold" acquires expressive force in the context of the story and conveys deep implication. It suggests the world that Ellen was afraid of and was eager to isolate and shelter herself from.

When an artistic detail is-repeated several times and is associated with a broader concept than the original, it develops into a symbol.

A symbol is a word (or an object the word stands for), which represents a concept broader than the literal sense of the word. It is therefore something concrete and material standing for something else that is immaterial and has a more significant sense. A symbol is a metaphoric expression of the concept it stands for. Like the metaphor, it is based on the use of a word in its transferred meaning and suggests some likeness between two different objects or concepts.

Symbols may be traditional or personal. An example of a tradi­tional symbol is a rose. The rose is a traditional symbol of beauty.

A writer establishes personal symbols by means of repetition and repeated association with a broader concept. For example, in Rain by S. Maugham the rain is a symbol of the primitive powers of nature before which man is powerless and all his efforts are useless and hopeless. The association of rain with this broad concept is established in the following passage: "...it (rain) was unmerciless and somehow terrible; you felt in it the malignancy of the primitive powers of nature. It did not pour, it flowed....it seemed to have a fury of its own. And sometimes you felt that you must scream if it did not stop, and then suddenly you felt powerless, as though your bones had suddenly become soft: and you were miserable and hopeless." Rain, therefore, symbolizes the powers of nature which proved irresistible for Mr. Davidson.

To use a symbol is to represent an idea by suggestion rather than by direct expression. The symbol is generally recognized only after the story is read. The so-called "shock of recognition" intensifies the effect.

Presupposition is also a means of conveying special implication. For example, it is a characteristic feature of modern fiction to begin a story at a point where certain things are already taken for granted. Thus the story Arrangement in Black and White opens as follows: "The woman with the pink velvet poppies... traversed the crowded room... and clutched the lean arm of her host." The definite articles are indications of previous knowledge about the identity of the referents, although the reader can work them out only by reading on. The writer does not introduce the woman and the place she comes to. Each of the definite articles carries a presupposition that the reader already shares the author's knowledge about them. By this device the author sets up the world of the story with its implications of the past right from the start, though the reader has to construct this world himself while reading on. Presupposition creates implication and at the same time arouses the reader's interest.

As stated above, the author's message does not lie on the surface. It is usually expressed implicitly and may be suggested by a variety of means — parallelism, contrast, repetition, artistic details, symbols.

The author's message is not always a solution of the problems raised in the story. At times the writer raises urgent and relevant problems, the solution of which it is as yet difficult to foresee. His intention may not be to suggest a certain solution (the problem may hardly admit solution), the writer may intend only to raise the problem and focus the reader's attention on it. In such cases the message of his literary work will not suggest any solution, it will pose the problem and reveal its relevance. Moreover, the message depends on the writer's outlook, and the reader may either share the writer's views or not. On account of all that, L. I. Timofeyev distinguishes the following types of messages: (a) messages that suggest definite solutions ("идея-ответ"), (b) messages that raise a problem ("идея-вопрос"), (с) messages in which the solution of the problem is not adequate ("идея-ошибка").

The author's message is closely connected with the author's attitude. A literary work "is not simply a fictitious record of conduct, but also a study and judgement of conduct...". Even if the writer attempts to conceal his attitude by shifting the responsibility of storytelling on to a character in the story and assumes an impartial or detached tone, he cannot prevent his characters from suggesting a definite attitude in the reader's mind.

The message more often than not acquires definite shape in the process of deep thought about what the writer discovered when observing reality. It reflects his attitude to the discovered aspect of people's nature and relations, his understanding of the influence of social phenomena and conventions upon the individual. A. N. Vasilyeva writes: "Идея художественного произведения — это квинт-эссенция открытой художником в жизни истины, активно утверждаемая им средствами искусства... ". Hence the message generally has an evaluative character.

The message of a story is inferred from the synthetic images crea­ted by the author and does not exist separately from them." The synthetic images embody the message. The protagonist, in particular, is often considered to be the message itself. Therefore, it is mainly through the characters that the message is revealed. Besides that, the message "cannot be revealed without taking into account the theme of the story, as well as the author's attitude. When analysing the message contained in the work one must also take into consideration the title of the story.

The title is the first element to catch our eye, but its meaning and function may be determined only retrospectively. The title acquires its precise meaning when related to the whole story. Then it may acquire a totally different meaning, contrary to what its components generally mean. The title of S. Maugham's story Mr. Know-All illustrates that. A “know-all” has a derogatory connotation, but when related to the main character of the story, it acquires a positive meaning, as Mr. Know-All turns out to be not only a knowledgeable man, but also a good psychologist and a real gentleman.

The story may clarify the meaning of one of the components of the title. In The Quiet American by G. Greene "quiet" acquires an ironical shade, as the "quiet" Pyle turns out to be vicious and brings a great deal of evil and harm.

The title may acquire a symbolic meaning. Thug the components in the title “The Moon and Sixpence” symbolize different set of values.

The title may have the following functions:

1. It may serve as a means of conveying the author's message. There are titles which actually formulate the author's message (e. g. Say No to Death by D. Cusak).

2. It may serve as a means of cohesion – it may unite the components of a story to form a whole. In The Apple Tree by J. Galsworthy, for example, the "apple tree" links all the scenes. When Ashurst first met Megan and she brought him to the village, the apple tree is "in leaf, and all but in flower — its crimson buds just bursting." When he first kissed Megan, "the pink clusters of the apple blossom and "the unearthly beauty of the apple blossom" form the setting of the scene. The story ends with the words "The Apple tree, the singing and the gold!" The final phrase repeats the epigraph. By framing the story, this phrase unites it into an indivisible whole. The repetition of "the apple tree" and its constant associations attach to it a symbolic meaning — that of love, spring and beauty.

3. The title may serve as a means of focussing the reader's attention on the most relevant characters or details (e. g. The lady's Maid by K. Mansfield, Hamlet by W. Shakespeare).

4. The title may characterize the protagonist (e. g. The Man of Property by J. Galsworthy).

5. Any title orients the reader towards the story. It may then serve as a means of foreshadowing (e. g. Mistaken Identity by M. Twain). It may also disorientate the reader, when it contrasts with the story and acquires an ironic ring (e. g. The Pleasures of Solitude by J. Cheever).

Therefore, the title is another aid for the reader, which he should not neglect when probing into the underlying content.

On revealing the author’s message, the reader generally analyses his own rational and emotional response to the story, draws his own conclusions. These conclusions may not necessarily coincide with the author's message. That is why M. B. Khrapchenko and L. I. Timofeyev distinguish between the so-called objective message and the author's message.

The objective message is the final conclusion that the reader draws from the analysis of his own response to the story and from the author's message, contained in the story. The objective message may be broader than the author's message, because it is based on more profound historical experience. Every new generation judges the literary works created a century or more ago in a new way, as the new generation possesses more information about the outcome of many historical processes than the writers of those works could foresee.

The effectiveness of the writer's presentation of the message depends on how credible and exciting the plot is, how lifelike and convincing the characters are, how expressive the language is, how well the literary techniques are used.

 

 

TEXT 13.


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Читайте в этой же книге: THE TIGHT HAND | SHIRLEY JACKSON | THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES | THE LADIE’S MAID | Means of Characterization | NEW YORK TO DETROIT | THE OVAL PORTRAIT | Narrative Method | THE NIGHT THE BED FELL | ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND WHITE |
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