【導讀】“whathappenednext?”and“and”whatwouldhedonext?”

　　

【正文】 hus ar angement of t he happenings. I n t he wor ld of r ealit y event s t ake place one aft er anot her in t he nat ural t empor al or der , but in t he wor ld of f ict ion it is t he novelist ’s design t hat one part icular event occur af ter another par t icular event . The very wor d “plot ” im plies t he novelist ’s r ebelion against t he nat ural aw and his endeavor t o m ake m eanings out of t he happenings t hat m ay ot her wise be meaningless. “The happenings” m ay or m ay not be r eal happenings.(So what plot is ) A plot is a par t icular ar r angement of happenings in a novel t hat is aim ed at r evealing t heir causal r elationships or at conveying t he novelist ’s ideas. A plot is som et imes caled a st ory line. The m ost im por tant of t he t radit ional plot is t hat it should be a plet e or unif ied action, t hat is, something wit h a beginning, a m iddle, and an end. 3. The dr amatic sit uation in a st or y. 4. The t hree par ts of a plot : a beginning ( exposit ion) , a middle ( suspense or a ser ies of suspense …. f oreshadowing… cr isis –a m oment of high t ension), and an end(a clim ax, t he mom ent of greatest ension…t he conclusion—f aling act ion, r esolut ion or denouement ). Plot a beginning a m iddle an end exposit ion som e ot her event s clim ax ( t he m om ent ( suspense, a series of suspense, of gr eat est t ension, f or eshadowing, cr isis) t he conclusion f aling act ion, r esolution or denouement) I I. Read t he st ories of ‘ Rip Van Winkle’ (Washingt on I r ving) and ‘ David Swan’ ( Nathaniel Hawt hor ne) I I . Quest ions: ( Finish r eading t he t wo stor ies and point out he plot s of t he t wo st or ies, t he descr ipt ive details, t he exposit ion, char act ers) Rip Van Winkle 1. Descr iptive det ails : t he plot of t he stor y? 2. What par t of t he stor y seems like t he exposit ion? 3. Where does t he dr amatic conf lict ? 4. What is t he clim ax of t he st ory? David Swan 5. t he plot of t he stor y? 6. How f uly does t he aut hor dr aw t he char act er s in t he stor y? ( Character t rait s are t he qualit ies of a character ’s personalit y. They are r evealed t hr ough a char act er ’s actions and wor ds and t hr ough descript ion) . 7. M ore wor ks t o do: something about t he wr it er s of t he t wo stor ies. Chapter Two Char act er I n t he int roduction we have said t hat f iction is an im age of people in act ion, moving t owards an undeclar ed end. Thus character is always involved in f ict ion, even in t he st or y of t he simplest action. Sometim es char act er is at t he center of our int er est because in char act er we m ay see m any facets of t he people we m eet in our daily lif e and even of our selves . Fictional char act er is always char acter in act ion and t he char act er get s int o act ion because it is caught in a sit uat ion of conf lict and he/she is always pr ovided wit h m ot ivation: he/she has suf ficient r easons t o act or behave as he /she does. The char act er is doing som ething and t he r eader while r eading f ict ion want s t o know t he “why” as well as t he “what” of t he af fair s. ( Som et im es a char act er ’s m otive f or an act ion is not explained on accept able gr ounds, f or example, t he vilain in Adgar Alan Poe’ st or y “The Tell Tale Heart ,” and t hus t he r eader f eels cheated. I n t his case, t he wr it er of detective f ict ion who m akes t he cr im inal a m er e lunat ic has cheated t he r eader by avoiding t he pr oblem of mot ive.) And generaly, t he act ion it self is humanly signif icant and it ends usualy in a shif t in or clar if icat ion of hum an values, as displayed in J ohn Updike’s “A amp。 P, ” and t he m otivat ion of a char acter in a st or y—one of t he answer s t o t he quest ion “why”—is of f undam ent al im port ance. I. What is Char acter ? Closely r elat ed wit h t he stor y is t he char act er. Henr y J ames said, “What is character but the det er minat ion of incident ? What is incident but t he ilust r at ion of character ?” ( The Art of Fiction”) When we read a novel, we read about our f ellow beings, and that is one of the m otives in reading at al. The “fellow beings” in t he novel is t er m ed char act er s. By “fellow beings” is meant not only “human beings” but also “other beings,” such as animals. Geor ge Or well uses anim als t o r epresent hum an beings in his novel Anim al Far m . Lewis Car r ol cr eat es m any lovely anim als in his Alice’ s Adventures in Wonderland t hat appeal t o bot h childr en and adult s. Or well does not int end t o convince t he r eader t hat animals can speak hum an language or t hat he is a translator between anim als and hum ans. No sensible reader, after reading Orwell’ s Animal Far m , would go t o t he pigst y t o look f or a t alking boar. This pr oves t he agr eed on fict ionalit y of character s in novels. So br oadly, a character is an invent ed personalit y t o r esemble but never t o equal a r eal per son in lif e. I t is not dif f icult t o see t hat character s in novels r esemble people in r eal if e in m any ways. They have nam es used in t he same way our s are used, t hey have hat red and love, and t hey have desir es and f ears. Above al, t hey act he way we act or t he way we can under st and (like or dislike) . But we m ust bear in m ind t hat t he char acters ar e not r eal per sons, but m er ely invent ions, however ingenious. Compare the physical if e and spiritual if e of the characters and ours. We have to answer the nature’ s cal s ever al t im es a day, but char act er s seldom do t his, even in t he m ost r ealist ic or nat uralist ic novels. We have t o live our lif e hour by hour and day by day, but character s never do t his. They c