Estudios Literarios II
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Lic. Mariana Mussetta
THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY
A Compilation
The most primitive people have used poetry, and the most civilized have cultivated it. It appeals, in its simpler
forms, to the uneducated and to children. Why? First, because is gives pleasure. Also, it has been regarded as
something central to each man’s existence, something having unique value to the fully realized life, something that
he is better off for having and spiritually impoverished without
Initially, poetry might be defined as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely than
does ordinary language. Let us remember that language has different uses. Perhaps the commonest, is to
communicate information. This we might call the practical use of language; it helps us with the ordinary
business of living. Short stories and plays and poems are written to bring us a sense and a perception of
life, to widen and sharpen our contacts with existence. Their concern is with experience. We all have an
inner need to live more deeply and fully and with greater awareness, to know the experience of others and
to know better our own experience. The poet, from his own store of felt, observed, or imagined
experiences, selects, combines, and reorganizes. He creates significant new experiences for the reader, in
which the reader can participate and that he may use to give him a greater awareness and understanding
of his world. Literature, in other words, can be used as a gear for stepping up the intensity and increasing
the range of our experience and as a glass for clarifying. This is the literary use of language, for literature is
not only an aid to living but a means of living.
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (18091892)
Poetry achieves its extra dimensions by drawing more fully and more consistently than does ordinary
language on a number of languages resources, none of which is peculiar to poetry. Among them are
connotation, imagery, metaphor, personification, synecdoche, metonymy, symbol, allegory, paradox,
paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, irony, sarcasm, satire, allusion. musical devices:
rhyme, rhythm, and pattern.
SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO READ A POEM
1. Read a poem more than once: a good poem is not like a newspaper, to be read and cast into the
wastebasket. It is to be hung on the wall of one’s mind.
2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it: one might as well try to play tennis without a ball.
One of your primary purposes at university should be to build a good vocabulary, and the study of poetry
gives you an excellent opportunity.
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3. Read so as to hear the sounds of the words in your mind. Poetry is written to be heard: its meanings
are conveyed through sound as well as through print.
4. Always pay careful attention to what the poem is saying: pay attention to sounds and to meaning.
Make an effort follow the thought continuously and to grasp the full implications and suggestions.
5. Practice reading poems aloud. Try to read it in a way that your listener will like it too.
a. Read affectionately, but not affectedly.
b. Reading too fast offers greater danger than reading too slow.
c. Read the poem so that the rhythmical pattern is felt but not exaggerated.
QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK YOURSELF TO HELP UNDERSTANDING A POEM
A. Who is the speaker and what is the occasion? Don’t assume always that the speaker is someone other
than the poet himself. Be cautious about identifying anything in a poem with the biography of the
poet.
B. What is the central purpose of the poem? It may be to tell a story, to reveal human character, to
impart a vivid impression of a scene, to express an emotion, or to convey an idea or attitude.
C. By what means is that purpose achieved? This is partially answered by describing the poem’s dramatic
framework, if it has any.
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
To understand the literary and the practical use of language, we need to examine the composition of a
word. The average word has three component parts: sound, denotation, and connotation. It begins as a
combination of tones and noises, uttered by the lips, tongue, and throat, for which the written word is a
notation. But it differs from a musical tone or a noise in that it has a meaning attached to it. The basic part
of this meaning is its DENOTATION, THAT IS, THE DICTIONARY MEANING OR MEANINGS OF THE WORD.
The CONNOTATIONS are what a word suggests beyond what it expresses: its overtones of meaning. The
word home, for instance, by denotation means only a place where one lives but by connotation it suggests
security, love, comfort, and family. Connotation is very important for it is one of the means by which he
can concentrate or enrich his meaning.
Imagery
IMAGERY may be defined as the representation through language of sense experience. Poetry appeals
directly to our sense, of course, through its music and rhythm, which we actually hear when it is read
aloud. But indirectly it appeals to our senses through imagery, the representation to the imagination of
sense experience.
Visual images are the most frequently occurring kind of imagery in poetry, but an image may also
represent a sound, a smell, a taste, a tactile experience such as wetness or cold; an internal sensation, such
as hunger or thirst, or movement or tension the in muscles or joints.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
METAPHOR, PERSONIFICATION, METONYMY
We many times say one thing and mean another, like the time your friend came in our of rainstorm and
you said to him: “Well, you’re a pretty sight! Got slightly wet, didn’t you?” And he replied: “Wet? I’m
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drowned! It’s raining cats and dogs outside!” He said what he wanted to say more vividly and forcefully by
using figurative language: we say one thing and mean another.
We can say more by figurative language than we can by literal statements. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE –
language using figures of speech – IS LANGUAGE THAT CANNOT BE TAKEN LITERALLY.
METAPHOR AND SIMILE are both comparisons between things essentially unlike. In simile the comparison
is expressed by the use of some word or phrase such as like, as, than, similar to, or resembles. In
metaphor the comparison is implied – that is, the figurative term is substituted for or identified with the
literal term.
Eg.: Tennyson, in his eagle poem, says that it “clasps the crag with crooked hands” ......
Then he says that the eagle falls “like a thunderbolt”...............
PERSONIFICATION consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or an idea.
Eg.: Browning’s reference to the “startled little waves”
Closely related to personification is APOSTROPHE, which consists in addressing someone absent or
something nonhuman as if it were alive and present and could reply to what is being said. Eg.: “My love,
my love, my love, why have you left me alone?” (James Joyce’s I hear an army)
SYNECDOCHE (the use of the part for the whole) and METONYMY (the use of something closely related for
the thing actually meant) are alike in that both substitute some significant detail or aspect of an experience
of the experience itself.
Eg.: the cuckoo’s song is unpleasant to a “married ear” ear: ....................
The cuckoo “paints the meadows with delight” do you paint with delight? ....
Many synecdoches and metonymies like many metaphors, have become so much a part of the language
that they no longer strike us as figurative; such is the case with redskins for indians.
Exercises: Look for examples of synecdoches and metonymies in Beowolf and The Canterbury Tales
SYMBOL AND ALLEGORY
A SYMBOL may be roughly defined as something that means more than what it is.
Image, metaphor, and symbol shade into each other and are sometimes difficult to distinguish. In general,
however, an image means only what it is; a metaphor means something other than what it is, and a symbol
means what it is and something more too.
The symbol is the richest and at the same time the most difficult of the poetical figures. Both its richness
and its difficulty result from its imprecision. Eg.: In The Road Not Taken, what it the choice? Meanings ray
out from a symbol, like the corona around the sun or like connotations around a richly suggestive word.
Accurate interpretation of the symbol requires delicacy, tact, and good sense. Above all, we should avoid
the disease of seeing symbols everywhere.
ALLEGORY is a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface one. The author’s
major interest is in the ulterior meaning. Think about the Bible story, when Pharaoh has a dream in which
seven fat kine are devoured by seven lean kine. The story does not become significant until Joseph
interprets its allegorical meaning: that Egypt is to enjoy seven years of fruitfulness and prosperity followed
by seven years of famine. Allegory has been defined sometimes as an extended metaphor, and sometimes
as a series of related symbols. It is unlike extended metaphor in that it involves a system of related
comparisons rather than one comparison drawn out. It differs from symbolism in that it puts less emphasis
on the images for their own sake and more on their ulterior meanings. Also, these meanings are more
fixed. In allegory usually there is a one-to-one correspondence between the details and a single set of
ulterior meanings. Allegory is less popular in modern literature than it was in medieval and Renaissance
writing, and it is much less often found in short poems than in long works such as The Faerie Queene,
Everyman, and The Pilgrim’s Progress.
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PARADOX, OVERSTATEMENT (HYPERBOLE), UNDERSTATEMENT, IRONY
A PARADOX is an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. It may be either a situation
or a statement. As a figure of speech, a paradox is a statement. When the 18th century writer Alexander
Pope wrote that a literary critic of his time would “dam with faint praise,” he was using a verbal paradox,
for how can a man damn by praising?. Here, the word “damn” is being used figuratively, that Pope means
only that a too reserved praise may damage an author with the public almost as much as adverse criticism.
In a paradoxical statement the contradiction usually stems from one of the words being used figuratively
or in more than one sense. The value of the paradox is its shock value: its seeming impossibility startles
the reader into attention and, thus, by the fact of its apparent absurdity, it underscores the truth of what
is being said.
OVERSTATEMENT, or hyperbole, is simply exaggeration but exaggeration in the service of truth. It’s not as if you
said “I’m starved!” or “I’ll die if I don’t pass this course.” When Tennyson says of his eagle that it is “Close to the sun
in lonely lands,” he says what appears to be literally true, though we know from our study of astronomy that it is
not.
UNDERSTATEMENT , or saying less than one means, may exist in what one says or merely in how one says
it. If, for instance, upon sitting down to a loaded dinner plate, you say, “This looks
like a good bite,” you
are actually stating less than the truth.
Like paradox, IRONY has meanings that extend beyond its use merely as a figure of speech. VERBAL IRONY, saying
the opposite of what one means, is often confused with sarcasm and with satire.
SARCASM and SATIRE both imply ridicule, one on the colloquial level, the other on the literary level.
Sarcasm is simply bitter or cutting speech, intended to wound the feelings (it comes from a Greek word
meaning to tear flesh). It is cruel, and means to hurt.
Satire is a more formal term, usually applied to written literature rather than to speech, and ordinarily implying a
higher motive: it is ridicule (either bitter or gentle) of human folly or vice, with the purpose of bringing about reform
or at least of keeping other people from falling into similar folly or vice.
Irony, on the other hand, is a literary device or figure that may be used in the service of sarcasm or ridicule
or may not. In DRAMATIC IRONY the discrepancy in not between what the speaker says and what he
means, but between what the speaker says and what the author means. The speaker’s words may be
perfectly straightforward, but the author, by putting these words in a particular speaker’s mouth, may be
indicating to the reader ideas or attitudes quite opposed to those the speaker is voicing.
ALLUSION is a reference to something in history or previous literature. It is like a richly connotative word
or a symbol, a means of suggesting far more than it says.
TONE in literature, may be defined as the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward his subject, his audience,
or himself. It is the emotional colouring, or the emotional meaning, of the work, and is an extremely
important part of the full meaning. In spoken language it is indicated by the inflections of the speaker’s
voice: the emotional meaning of his statement may very widely according to the tone of the voice with
which he utters it.
We may say that in poetry, tine is very important because we have not really undestood a poem unless we
have accurately senses whether the attitude it manifests is playful or solemn, mocking or reverent, calm or
excited. In poetry, we do not have the speaker’s voice to guide us; we must learn to recognize tone by
other means. Almost all the elements of poetry go into indicating its tone: connotation, imagery, and
metaphor; irony and understatement; rhythm, sentence construction, and formal pattern.
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MUSICAL DEVICES
The poet, unlike the man who uses language to convey only information, chooses his words for sound as
well as for meaning, and he uses the sound as a means of reinforcing his meaning. Edgar Allan Poe, for
instance, describes poetry as “music ... combined with a pleasurable idea.
There are two broad ways by which the poet achieves his musical quality: by his choice and arrangement
of sounds and by his arrangement of accents.
An essential element in all music is repetition. We may say that all things we enjoy greatly and lastingly
have repetition and variation. We like the familiar, we like variety, but we like them combined. The
composer of music, therefore repeats certain musical tones, in certain combinations, or chords; and he
repeats them in certain patters or melodies. The poet likewise repeats certain sounds in certain
combinations and arrangements, and then gives organization and structure to his verse.
The poet may repeat any unit of sound from the smallest to the largest. He may repeat individual vowel
and consonant sounds, whole syllables, words, phrases, lines or groups of lines.
A syllable consists of a vowel sound that may be preceded or followed by consonant sounds. Any of these
sounds may be repeated. The repetition of initial consonant sounds, as in “tried and true,” “safe and
sound,” is ALLITERATION. The repetition of vosel sounds, as in “mad as a hatter,” “time out of mind” is
ASSONANCE. The repetition of final consonant sounds, as in “first and last,” “odds and ends” is
CONSONANCE.
Alliteration and assonance may be combines as in “time and tide,” “thick and thin.”
RIME is the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds. It is called masculine
when the rime sounds involves only one syllable, as in decks and sex or support and retort. It is feminine
when the rime sounds involve two or more syllables, as in fertile or spitefully and delightfully.
RHYTHM AND METER
The term RHYTHM refers to any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound. In speech it is the natural rise
and fall of language.
METER is the kind of rhythm we can tap our foot to. In language that is metrical the accents are so
arranged as to occur at apparently equal intervals of time, and it is this interval we mark off with the tap of
out foot. Metrical language is called VERSE. Non-metrical language is PROSE.
For measuring verse we use the foot, the line and (sometimes) the stanza.
The basic metrical unit, the FOOT, consists normally of one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented
syllables, though occasionally there may be no unaccented syllable, and very rarely there may be three.
The basic kinds of feet are as follows:
EXAMPLE
NAME OF FOOT
To day
iamb
Day ly
trochee
In ter vene
anapest
NAME OF METER
- __
__ -
- - __
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Yes ter day
dactyl
Day break
spondee
Day
monosyllabic foot
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__ - __ __
The secondary unit of measurement, THE LINE, is measured by naming the number of feet in it. The
following names are used:
Monometer
Dimeter
Trimeter
Tetrameter
one foor
two feet
three feet
four feet
Pentameter five feet
Hexameter
six feet
Heptameter seven feet
Octameter
eight feet
The third unit, the STANZA, consists of a group of lines whose metrical pattern is repeated throughout the
poem.
PATTERN
In addition to the internal ordering of materials, images, ideas, and sounds, the poet may also impose
some external pattern on his poem, may give it no only an inside logical order but an outside symmetry. In
doing so, he appeals to the human instinct for design, for our love of the shapely. In STANZAIC FORM, the
poet writes in a series of stanzas, that is, repeated units having the same number of lines, the same
metrical pattern, and often an identical rime scheme.
A stanza form may b described by designating four things: the rime scheme (if there is one), the position
of the refrain (if there is one), the prevailing metrical foot, and the number of feet in each line.
The SONNET is fourteen lines in length, and it almost always is iambic pentameter, but in structure and
rime scheme there may be considerable leeway. In general, models may be the Italian and the English.
The ITALIAN OR PETRARCHAN SONNET is divided usually between eight lines called the octave, using two
rimes arranged a b b a a b b a, and six lines called the sestet, using any arrangement of either two of three
rimes: c d c d c d and c d e c d e are common patterns.
The ENGLISH OR SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET (invented by Surrey and made famous by Shakespeare) is
composed of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, riming
abab cdcd efef gg
Imagery
IMAGERY may be defined as the representation through language of sense experience. Poetry appeals
directly to our sense, of course, through its music and rhythm, which we actually hear when it is read
aloud. But indirectly it appeals to our senses through imagery, the representation to the imagination of
sense experience.
Visual images are the most frequently occurring kind of imagery in poetry, but an image may also
represent a sound, a smell, a taste, a tactile experience such as wetness or cold; an internal sensation, such
as hunger or thirst, or movement or tension the in muscles or joints.
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The Elements of the Short Story
Plot is the sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed. When recounted by itself, it
bears about the same relationship to a story that a map does to a journey. Just as a map may be drawn on
a finer or grosser scale, so a plot may be recounted with lesser or greater detail. It may include what a
character says or thinks, as well as what he does. But it leaves out description and analysis and
concentrates ordinarily on major happenings.
Because plot is the easiest element in fiction to comprehend and put into words, some readers tend to
equate it with the content of the work. When asked what a story is about, they will say that it is about a
person to whom particular events happen, not that it is about a certain kind of person or that it presents a
particular insight into life. Immature readers read chiefly for plot, while mature readers read for whatever
revelations of character or life may be presented by means of plot. If readers can be satisfied only with
these stories, they are like those persons who can enjoy only highly spiced food. Physical action by itself,
after all, is meaningless. In a good story a minimum of physical action may be used to yield a maximum of
insight. Every story must have some action, but for a worthwhile story it must be significant action.
Conceivably a plot might consist merely of a sequence of related actions. Ordinarily, however, both the
excitement craved by the beginning reader and the meaningfulness demanded by the mature reader arise
out of some sort of CONFLICT—a clash of action, ideas, desires or wills. The main character may be pitted
against some other person or group of persons (man against man); he may be in conflict with some
external force—physical nature, society, or “fate” (man against the environment); or the may be in conflict
with some element in this own nature (man against himself). The conflict may be physical, mental,
emotional, or moral,
The central character in the conflict, whether he be a sympathetic or an unsympathetic person, is
referred to as the PROTAGONIST; the forces arrayed against him, whether persons, things, conventions of
society, or traits of his own character, are the ANTAGONISTS. In some stories the conflict is single, clearcut, and easily identifiable. In others it is multiple, various, and subtle. A person may be in conflict with
other persons, with society or nature, and with himself, all at the same time, and sometimes he may be
involved in conflict without being aware of it.
SUSPENSE is the quality in a story that makes the reader ask “What’s going to happen next?” and impels
him to read on to find the answers to these questions. In the old serial movies—often appropriately called
“cliffhangers”—a strong element of suspense was created at the end of each episode by leaving the hero
hanging from the edge of a cliff of the heroine tied to the railroad tracks with the express train rapidly
approaching.
The forms of suspense range from crude to subtle and may concern not only actions but psychological
considerations and moral issues. Two common devices for achieving suspense are to introduce an element
of MYSTERY—an unusual set of circumstances for which the reader craves an explanation; or to place the
hero or heroine in a DILEMMA—A position in which he must choose between two courses of action, both
undesirable.
Suspense is usually the first quality mentioned by a young reader when asked what makes a good
story—and, indeed, unless a story makes us eager to keep on reading it, it can have little merit at all.
Nevertheless, the importance of suspense is often overrated. After all, we don't listen to a Beethoven
symphony to discover how it will turn out. A good story, like a good dinner, should furnish its pleasure as it
goes, because it is amusing or well-written or morally penetrating or because the characters are interesting
to live with.
Closely connected with the element of suspense in a short story is the element of SURPRISE. If we know
ahead of time exactly what is going to happen in a story and why, there can be no suspense; as long as we
do not know, whatever happens comes with an element of surprise. The surprise is proportional to the
unexpectedness of what happens.
As regards a surprising ending, which is what most inexperienced readers demand, we may say that the
legitimacy of them may be judged by 1) the fairness with which it is achieved; 2) by the purpose that it
serves. If the surprise is brought about as the result of an improbable coincidence or an unlikely series of
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small coincidences, or by the planting of false clues, or the withholding of information, then we may well
dismiss it as a cheap trick. If, on the other hand, the ending that comes at first as a surprise seems
perfectly logical and natural as we look back over the story, we may grant it as fairly achieved.
Many readers also demand a HAPPY ENDING; the protagonist must solve his problem, defeat the villain,
win the girl, “live happily ever after.” Two justifications may be made for the UNHAPPY ENDING. First, if
fiction is to illuminate life, it must present defeat as well as triumph. Second, the unhappy ending has a
peculiar value for the writer who wishes us to ponder life. It may make us brood over the results, go over
the story in our minds, search out its implications to get more from it. But a story may have an
INDETERMINATE ENDING, one that has no definitive conclusion. Conclusion of some sort there must of
course be: the story, if it is to be an artistic unit, cannot simply stop. But the conclusion need not be in
terms of a resolved conflict. Some stories are more effective without a resolution, for the fact that the
individual conflict may merely symptomize a larger social conflict that has no easy solution.
ARTISTIC UNITY is essential to a good plot. There must be nothing in the story that is irrelevant or that
does not contribute to the total meaning. The incidents and episodes should be placed in the most
effective order, which is not necessarily the chronological order, and, when rearranged in chronological
order, should make a logical progression.
When a writer gives his story a turn unjustified by the situation or the characters involved, he is guilty of
PLOT MANIPULATION. Chance cannot be barred from fiction, of course, any more than it cannot be
barred from life. But, if an author uses an improbable chance to effect a resolution to this story, the story
loses its sense of conviction and inevitability. Coincidence may be justifiably used to initiate a story, and
occasionally to complicate it, but not to resolve it.
CHARACTERS
Reading for character is more difficult than reading for plot, for character is much more complex,
variable, and ambiguous. Many readers demand that the character be easily identifiable and clearly
labeled as good or bad; but, while interpretive fictions does not renounce the attractive central character,
it furnishes a greater variety of central characters that are less easily labeled, and that are, sometimes,
unsympathetic.
Many times fiction offers an unparalleled opportunity to observe human nature in al its complexity and
multiplicity. For one thing, we are enabled to observe characters in situations that are always significant
and that serve to bring forth their character as the ordinary situations of life only occasionally do. For
another, we can view their inner life in a way that is impossible to us in ordinary life. An author can tell us
exactly what is going on in a character’s mind and exactly what the character feels. In real life we can only
guess at these inner thoughts and feelings from a person’s external behavior, which may be designed to
conceal what is going on inside.
An author may present his character either directly or indirectly. In DIRECT REPRESENTATION he tells us
straight out, by exposition or analysis, what a character is like, or has someone else in the story tell us what
he is like. In INDIRECT REPRESENTATION the author shows us the character in action; we infer what he is
like from what he thinks or says or does. While the method of direct representation is a clear and
economical way of presenting characters, if it not supported by indirect representation, it will not be
emotionally convincing. The reader must be shown, not only told.
To be convincing, characterization must also observe three other principles. First, the characters must be
CONSISTENT in their behavior. Second, they must by be clearly MOTIVATED in whatever they do,
especially when there is any change in their behavior. Third, the characters must be PLAUSIBLE or lifelike.
Whether we have observed anyone like them in our own experience or not, we must feel that they have
come from the author’s experience—that they could appear somewhere in the normal course of events.
In proportion to the fullness of their development, the characters in a story are relatively flat or round.
The FLAT CHARACTER can be characterized by one or two traits, and can be summed up in a sentence. The
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ROUND CHARACTER is complex and many-sided. Whatever we find in a story, we must remember that the
requirement of good fiction is that each character be characterized fully enough to justify his role in the
story and make it convincing.
Finally, all fictional characters maybe classified as static or developing. The STATIC CHARACTER is the
same sort of person at the end of the story as he was at the beginning. The DEVELOPING CHARACTER
undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of his character, personality or outlook. The change may
be a large or a small one, it may be for better of for worse, but is something important and basic.
To conclude, let us remember that human life began, we are told, when God breathed life into a handful
of dust and created Adam. Fictional life begins when an author breathes life into his characters and
convinces us of their reality.
THEME
The THEME of a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the unifying generalization
about life stated or implied by the story. To derive the theme of a story, we must ask what its central
purpose is: What view of life it supports or what insight into life it reveals.
The purpose of a horror story may by simply to scare the reader and give his gooseflesh. The purpose of
an adventure story may be simply to carry the reader through a series of exciting escapades. The purpose
of a murder mystery may be simply to pose a problem for the reader to try to solve. Theme exists only
1. when an author has seriously attempted to record life accurately or to reveal some truth about it or
2. when he has mechanically introduced some concept or theory of life into it that he uses as a unifying
element and that his story is meant to illustrate. Theme exists in all interpretive fiction - it is the
purpose of the story, but it exists only in some escape fiction, where it is merely an excuse.
The theme of a story, like its plot, maybe stated very briefly or at greater length. A rich story may give us
many and complex insights into life. In stating the theme in a sentence, we must pick the central insight,
the one that explains the greater number of elements in the story and relates them to each other.
Sometimes the theme is explicitly stated, but more often it is implied. Discovering and stating the theme
of a story is often a delicate task, and our ability to state theme is a test of our understanding of a story.
There is no prescribed method for discovering theme. Sometimes we can best get at it by asking in what
way the main character has changed in the course of the story and what, if anything, he has learned before
its end. Sometimes the best approach it to explore the nature of the central conflict and its outcome, but
at all times we should keep in mind the following principles:
1. Theme must be expressible in the form of a statement with a subject and a predicates. It is insufficient
to say that the theme of a story is "motherhood," or "loyalty to the country." Theme must be a
statement about a subject, like "Motherhood sometimes has more frustrations than rewards". If we
express it in the form of a phrase, it must be convertible to sentence form. Eg.: "the futility of envy"
may be rephrased into "Envy is futile."
2. The theme must be stated as a generalization about life. In stating it, we do not use the names of the
characters in the story because if we did so, we would be making a specific rather than a general
statement.
3. We must be careful not to make the generalization larger than is justified by the terms of the story.
Terms like every, all, always, should be used very cautiously. Terms like some, sometimes, may, are
often more accurate.
4. Theme is the central and unifying concept of the story. It must be based on the data of the story itself,
not on assumptions supplied from our own experience.
5. There is no one way of stating the theme of a story. The story is not a guessing game that is supposed
to yield some magic verbal formula that won´t work if a syllable is changed. It merely presents a view
of life.
6. We should avoid any statement that reduces the theme to some familiar saying that we have heard all
our lives, such as "You can´t judge a book by its cover."
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POINT OF VIEW
The primitive story teller, unbothered by considerations of form, simply spun a tale. "Once upon a
time," he began, and proceeded to narrate the story to his listeners, describing the characters when
necessary, telling what they thought and felt as well as what they did, and interjecting, comments and
ideas of his own. The modern fiction writer is artistically more self-conscious. He realizes that there are
many ways of telling a story, he decides upon a method before he begins and may even set up rules for
himself. Instead of telling the story himself, he may let one of his characters tell it for him, he may tell it by
means of letters or diaries, he may confine himself to recording the thoughts of one of his characters. With
the growth of artistic consciousness, the question of point of view, and, therefore, of how it gets told, has
assumed especial importance.
To determine the point of view of a story we ask, "Who tells the story?" and "How much is he allowed to
know?" and especially, "To what extent does the author look inside this characters and report their
thoughts and feelings?" Though many variations and combinations are possible, the basic points of view
are four, as follows:
1. OMNISCIENT
2. LIMITED OMNISCIENT a. Major Character
b. Minor Character
3. FIRST PERSON a. Major Character
b. Minor Character
4. OBJECTIVE
1. In the OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW, the story is told by the author, using the third person,
and his knowledge and prerogative are unlimited. He is free to go wherever he wishes, to peer inside
the minds and hearts of his characters at will and tell us what they are thinking or feeling. He can
interpret their behavior, and he can comment, if he wishes, on the significance of the story he is telling.
He knows all. He can tell us as much or as little as he pleases. The following version of Aesop's fable
"The Ant and the Grasshopper" is told from the omniscient point of view. Notice that in it we are
told not only what both characters do and say, but also what they think and feel; also, that the author
comments at the end on the significance of his story.
Stories told from the omniscient point of view may differ widely in the amount of omniscience the
author allows himself. The omniscient is the most flexible point of view and permits the widest scope. It
is all the most subject to abuse. It offers constant danger that the author may come between the reader
and the story, or that the continual shifting of viewpoint from character to character may cause a breakdown in coherence or unity. Used skillfully it enables the author to achieve simultaneous breadth and
depth. Unskillfully used, it can destroy the illusion of reality that the story attempts to create.
2. In the LIMITED OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW, the author tells the story in the third person, but he
tells it from the viewpoint of one character in the story. The author places himself at the elbow of this
character, so to speak, and looks at the events of the story through his eyes and through his mind. He
moves both inside and out side this character but never leaves his side. He tells us what this character sees
and hears and what he thinks and feels; he possibly interprets the character's, thoughts and behavior. He
knows everything about this character—more than the character knows about himself—but he shows
no knowledge of what other characters are thinking or feeling or doing, except for what his chosen
character knows or can infer. The chosen character may be either a major or a minor character, a
participant or an observer, and this choice also will be a very important one for the story.
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The limited omniscient point of view, since it acquaints us with the world through the mind and
senses of only one person, approximates more closely than the omniscient the conditions of real life;
it also offers a ready-made unifying element, since all details of the story are the experience of one
person. At the same time it offers a limited field of observation, for the reader can go nowhere except
where the chosen character goes, and there may be difficulty in having him naturally cognizant of all
important events.
3. In the FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW, the author disappears into one of the characters, who tells the story in the first person. This character, again, may be either a major or minor
character, protagonist or observer, and it will make considerable difference whether the protagonist
tells his own story or someone else tells it in the first person. The story below is told in the first person
from the point of view of the grasshopper.
The first-person point of view shares the virtues and limitations of the limited omniscient. It offers,
sometimes, a gain in immediacy and reality, since we get the story direcly from a participant,
the author as middleman being eliminated. It offers no opportunity, however, for direct interpretation
by the author, and there is constant danger that the narrator may be made to transcend his sensitivity,
his knowledge, or his powers of language in telling the story. A good author, however, can make tremendous literary capital out of the very limitations of his narrator.
The first-person point of view offers excellent opportunities for dramatic irony and for studies in limited or
blunted human perceptivity.
4.
In the OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW, the author disappears into a kind of roving sound camera.
This camera can go anywhere but can record only what is seen and heard. It cannot comment, interpret,
or enter a characters mind. With this point of view (sometimes called also the DRAMATIC POINT OF VIEW)
the reader is placed in the position of a spectator at a movie or play. He sees what the characters do and
hears what they say but can only infer what they think or feel and what they are like. The author is not
there to explain. The purest example of a story told from the objective point of view would be one written entirely in dialogue, for as soon as the author adds words of his own, he begins to interpret through his
very choice of words. Actually, few stories using this point of view are antiseptically pure, for the
limitations it imposes on the author are severe. "Hills Like White Elephants" is an excellent example,
however. The following version of "The Grasshopper and the Ant" is also told from the objective point
of view.
The objective point of view has the most speed and the most action; also, it forces the reader to
make his own interpretations. On the other hand, it must rely heavily on external action and dialogue,
and it offers no opportunities for interpretation by the author. Each of the points of view has its advantages,
its limitations, and its peculiar uses. Ideally the choice of the author will depend on his story materials and
his purpose. He should choose the point of view that enables him to present his particular materials most
effectively in terms of his purpose. If he is writing a murder mystery, he will ordinarily avoid using the
point of view of the murderer or the brilliant detective: otherwise he would have to reveal at the beginning
the secrets e wishes to conceal till the end. On the other hand, if he is interested in exploring criminal
psychology, the murderer’s point of view might be by far the most effective. In the Sherlock Holmes stories,
A.Conan Doyle effectively uses the somewhat imperceptive Dr. Watson as his narrator, so that the reader
may be kept in the dark as long as possible and then be as amazed as Watson is by Holmes’s deductive
powers. In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, however, the author is interested not in mystifying and
surprising but in illuminating the moral and psychological operations of the human soul in the act of taking life; he therefore tells the story from the viewpoint of a sensitive and intelligent murderer.
SYMBOL AND IRONY
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Most successful stories are characterized by compression. The writer´s aim is to say as much as possible
as briefly as possible. This means that nothing is wasted and that each word and detail are chosen for
maximum effectiveness.
There are two contributory resources of the writer for gaining compression: symbol and irony. A literary
SYMBOL is something that means more than what it is. It is an object, a person, a situation, an action, or
some other item that has a literal meaning in the story but suggests or represents other meanings as well.
A very simple illustration is to be found in name-symbolism. Most names are simply labels, but in a story,
the author may choose names for his characters that serve not only to label them but also to suggest
something about them.
More important than name-symbolism is the symbolic use of objects and actions, which may reinforce
and add to the meaning, or may carry the meaning themselves.
The ability to recognize and identify symbols requires perception and tact, and we should keep in mind
that most stories operate almost wholly at the literal level.
When looking for symbolical meanings we should observe the following cautions:
1. The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically.
2. The meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire context of the story.
The symbol has its meaning in the story, not outside it.
3. To be called a symbol , an item must suggest a meaning different in kind from its literal meaning. We
ought not to use the phrase is a symbol of when we can as easily use is, or is an example of or is an
evidence of.
4. A symbol may have more than one meaning. It may suggest a cluster of meanings: It may be like a
jewel that flashes different colors when turned in the light. Yet, the area of possible meanings is always
controlled by the context.
Irony is a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of discrepancy or incongruity. It
is a contrast in which one term of the contrast in some way mocks the other term. It is not to be confused
with SARCASM, however, which is simply language designed to cause pain.
Three kinds of irony may be distinguished:
1. Verbal irony: it is the simplest and the least important kind. It is a figure of speech in which the
opposite is said from what is intended. The discrepancy is between what is said and what is meant.
I spoke of your amiability, of your patience under this severe affliction
(he has not been patient under affliction),of your touching gratitude when
when Dillon brings you little presents of fruit, of your tenderness to your sister
Fanny, whom you would not allow to stay in town to nurse you, and how you
heroically sent her back to Newport, preferring to remain alone with Mary, the
cook, and your man Watkins, to whom, by the way, you were devotedly attached.
(he did not remain alone: he sated with 2 persons!)
2. Dramatic irony: here the contrast is between what a character says and what the reader knows to be
true. The value of this kind of irony lies in the comment it implies on the speaker or his expectations.
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Elements of Fiction
The Formal Elements of Fiction
An understanding of the elements of fiction and elements of story in general can be used by readers to
increase their enjoyment and understanding of different literary pieces. The main elements which fiction
writers use to develop a story and is Theme are Plot, Setting, Character, Conflict, and Point of View. Many
classifications include Style and Tone
As regards style, we could say that it is the language used in a book, the way in which an author uses
words that give his or her work a distinctive manner of expression. It is the combined qualities that
distinguish one writer's work from another.
Writers use many devices of style to make stories interesting.
• Imagery is the most frequently used device. It is an appeal to any of the senses--taste, touch, sight,
sound, and smell. It paints pictures in our mind.
• Figurative language uses words in a nonliteral way, giving them a meaning beyond their ordinary
one.
o Personification gives human traits to animals, nonhuman beings, or inanimate objects: "The
trees bowed before the wind."
o A simile compares two different things, using the words "as," "like," or "than": "The
snowbank looked like a huge pile of marshmallow syrup."
o A metaphor is an implied comparison stating the resemblance between two things: "Her
presence was a ray of light in a dark world."
• Devices of sound can increase pleasure and clarity. Books which use many such devices should be
read aloud. Poetry is particularly rich in such devices.
o Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like their meaning: a skirt "swishes," a bat
"cracks," a hasty eater "gulps" his food.
o Alliteration is repetition of initial consonants: "the soft surge of the sea."
o Consonance is repetition of consonants sounds anywhere in the words: "The sight of the
apple and maple trees pleased the people."
o Rhyme is the repetition of a stressed sound, usually the final syllable: "His aim was to blame
the dame."
o Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds in a phrase: The owl swept out of the woods and
circled the house."
o Rhythm is the recurring flow of strong and weak beats in a phrase: "Chicka, chicka, boom,
boom! Will there be enough room?" Meter is the regular rhythmic pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables found in a line of poetry. The less regular rhythm sometimes found in
prose is often called cadence.
• Puns and other plays on words add interest and humor: "By the time the milking was finished, the
new farmhand was thoroughly cowed." Puns are said to be "the lowest form of wit," but people
usually enjoy them even as they groan.
• Hyperbole is exaggeration: "He was frightened out of his wits." Understatement is the opposite:
"He was upset when he learned he had AIDS."
• Allusion is an indirect reference to something outside the current literary work: "He was a veritable
Hercules." The reference may be to something in literature, history, modern culture, or another
area. Allusion is often difficult for children to recognize because they lack the necessary background
knowledge. The proponents of "cultural literacy" believe that all children should acquire a common
fund of knowledge in order to understand allusions.
• A symbol is something--a person, object, situation, or action--which operates on two levels, the
literal and the symbolic. For instance, an engagement ring is a real object, but it is also stands for
the abiding love of the engaged couple. Symbols add depth and meaning to a story. Symbols may
be universal (as the engagement ring) or specific to a particular story.
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•
Qualities which should be avoided in style include triteness (dull, stale, overused expressions),
condescension (talking down to children, making them feel unintelligent or immature), didacticism,
sensationalism, and sentimentality. In poetry, avoid a too regular meter which can become a sing-song
rhythm.
Tone is the author's attitude toward what he or she writes, but it may be easier to understand if you think
of it as the attitude that you (the reader) get from the author's words. It is the hardest literary element to
discuss; often we can recognize it but not put it into words. The easiest tone to recognize is humor. In
describing tone, use adjectives: humorous, mysterious, creepy, straight-forward, matter-of-fact, exciting,
boring, etc
Plot is the sequence of events which involves the characters in conflict. The following are plots often
found in modern literature. Sometimes they are also found in traditional stories.
The sequence of events is called the narrative order:
• The most common type of narrative order in children's books is chronological. In this case, the
events are told in the order they happen.
• A flashback occurs when the author narrates an event that took place before the current time of
the story. Flashbacks are uncommon in children's literature because the passage of time is difficult
for children to understand. The opposite effect, a flash forward, is even rarer.
• A time lapse occurs when the story skips a period of time that seems unusual compared to the rest
of the plot. There is no standard amount of time that might constitute a time lapse; it depends
upon the reader's sense that a longer than usual period of time has passed since the previous
episode.
Setting includes the place and the time period in which the story takes place. Setting may or may not have
an important influence on the story:
• An integral setting is essential to the plot; it influences action, character or theme.
• A backdrop setting is relatively unimportant to the plot; it is like the featureless curtain or flat
painted scenery of a theater.
• Readers may interpret the importance of the setting differently; one may say that the setting is
integral because the story must happen in a big city; another may say the same thing is backdrop
because it may happen in any big city. (The former statement is probably more accurate, but either
is acceptable if the meaning is clear.)
Setting can clarify conflict, illuminate character, affect the mood, and act as a symbol. The setting itself can
be an antagonist in a person-against-nature conflict.
Characters are the people that are in the story. A character is a person presented in a dramatic or
narrative work, and characterization is the process by which a writer makes that character seem real to the
reader. A character can be revealed through his/her actions, speech, and appearance. It also can be
revealed by the comments of other characters and of the author. Types of characters that may appear a
work of fiction.
The protagonist is the central character (person, animal, or personified object) in the plot's conflict.
The antagonist is the force in conflict with the protagonist. It may be society, nature, or fate, as
well as another person. It can also be the protagonist's own self, if he or she has an internal conflict.
A stereotype is a character who possesses expected traits of a group rather than being an
individual. Using stereotypes is usually considered an indication of poor quality, especially in cases
such as members of minority groups, people with disabilities, or women. However, stereotypes can
be useful in furthering the story quickly and are acceptable in minor roles if they do not provide
hurtful portraits of the groups in question.
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Character development shows the multitude of traits and behaviors that give the literary character the
complexity of a human being. The amount of character development affects the quality of the story:
Conflict is the struggle between the protagonist and an opposing force. There are several types of conflict:
Elements which may be found in plots include:
• Suspense is a state of tension, a sense of uncertainty, an emotional pull which keeps the reader
reading. All plots need some suspense to sustain interest.
• Foreshadowing is the planting of hints about what will happen later in the story. It prepares
children for the outcome and reassures them when the suspense is very high. Good foreshadowing
is subtle and often contributes to high quality in a story.
• Coincidence, the concurrence of events which happen by chance, is a fact in real life. However, real
life is not a plot that moves from problem to climax to resolution. In fiction, coincidence seems
contrived; it weakens the plot. Coincidence in a plot is acceptable if it is carefully but subtly
foreshadowed.
• Inevitability is the sense that the outcome is necessary and inescapable. It had to happen, given
these characters and this situation; it is not contrived. It is a sign of high quality in writing.
• Sensationalism is unrelieved suspense; it often includes violence and may produce fear in the
reader. Readers often like it, as the popularity of horror books and films attest, but it is usually
considered a sign of poor quality. Even the Disney Studio, known for wholesome entertainment, is
guilty of sensationalism. Sixty years ago, many children were frightened by the witch in Snow
White. More recently The Lion King was criticized for excessive violence. In films, suspense is often
heightened by cutting quickly between scenes and by the adroit use of background music to create
a mood.
• Sentimentality is the opposite of sensationalism; it is the overuse of sentiment (a natural concern
for another person) that produces a tear-jerker. It is dwelling too much on the "cute" and the
"precious." Like sensationalism, it is a sign of poor quality but is often popular. Movies such as Love
Story and Terms of Endearment are examples of sentimentality. Many popular children's books are
overly sentimental. Black Beauty, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Giving Tree, I'll Love You Forever, and
the works of Joan Walsh Anglund have all been criticized for this.
Theme is the underlying meaning of the story, a universal truth, a significant statement the story is making
about society, human nature, or the human condition.
A book's theme must be described in universal terms, not in terms of the plot. The plot is the way the
universal theme is carried out in that particular book. Themes can be applied to the reader's own life or to
other literature.
Themes must be clearly stated; one word is not usually enough. To say that a book's theme is "friendship"
is not clear. It may mean, "Friends are a person's most valuable possession." It may also mean, "Friends can
never be trusted if their own interests are opposed to yours." An understanding of theme is dependent
upon one's previous experience of life and literature. At the same time, theme in literature can enlarge
one's understanding of life. Not every good book has a significant theme; some books' value lies in the
pleasure they give, rather than the message they bring. Books of humor, for instance, may or may not have
a significant theme.
Point of view Every story is told by a narrator, who is created by the author, and usually different from
the author's voice. The narrator controls the story by talking from a particular point of view. Depending
upon who the narrator is, and how much he or she knows, points of view have traditionally been classed as
first person, second person and third person.
• First person - uses "I" - A character is telling the story.
• Second person - uses "you" - The author speaks directly to the reader. Second person is seldom
used; it is found most often in nonfiction today.
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Third person - uses "he," "she," or "it" - The author is telling about the characters. There are three
third person points of view:
o Limited omniscient - We are told the thoughts and feelings of only one character
(sometimes, but very seldom, of two or three characters).
o Omniscient - We are told everything about the story, including the thoughts and feelings of
all the characters, and even information in the author's mind which no character knows.
o Dramatic or objective - We are told only what happens and what is said; we do not know
any thoughts or feelings of the characters. It is called "dramatic" because it includes the
words and actions, just what you would see and hear if it were in a play or film.
Sources:
Di Yanni, Robert. Literature. McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2000.
Perrine, Laurence. Literature, Structure, Sound and Sense. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970.
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