【正文】 i on of two el em ent s, t he idea to be expr essed and t he li ngui st ic t rai ts or char act eri st ics of the author. I t is, as J .R. Lowel l said, “the establi shment of a per fect mutual under st andi ng bet ween the wor ker and his m at eri al ”. However, t her e has never been an agreement on the exact meaning of style in t he histor y of li terar y cri tici sm , and t he fur ther nar rowi ng of it s meani ng bri ngs us on t o mor e cont roversi al gr ound, wher e dif f er en。 i n Fl aubert ’s wor ds: “It i s li ke body and soul: f or m and content to me are one.” The di st incti on bet ween what a wri ter wants t o say and how i t i s pr esent ed t o t he r eader under l i es one of t he ear l y and per si st ent concept s of st yl e: st yl e as t he “dr ess of t hought , ” as Wesl ey put i t : St yl e i s t he dr ess of t hought 。l ant er n l it house gr eat ly contr ibutes t o the r eader ’s sense of unease, and so helps to bui ld t he story’s ef ect iveness. Anot her exam ple i s Lawr ence’ s “The Horse Dealer’s Daught er,” t he descri pti on at he begi nni ng of which contr ibutes much t o the at mosphere of t he st ory. 4. The importance of atm osphere in creat ing the set ing But i t is a m istake to say t hat t he at mospher e of a pi ece of f ict ion depends on t he set ing al one. (As il lustr at ed in Shakespear e’s Ham let, t he di alogue at t he ver y beginning of the pl ay hel ps power ful ly t o est ablish t he atmospher e of uncert ainty, in addit ion to t he set ting—the cold midnight cast le.) The vocabular y, t he fi gur es of speech, and the r hyt hm of t he sentence also hel p defi ne the gener al at mosphere, f or by t hese f act ors t he wri ter manages t o cont r ol t he kind of asoci ati ons t hat e t o the r eader ’s mi nd. At mosphere al so depends on character and act ion. In short , we may say t hat the at mosphere of f ict ion i s the pervasi ve, gener al feeli ng, gener ated by a number of factors ( set ti ng, character, acti on, and st yl e) that is characteri sti c of a gi ven st ory or novel. Chapt er Fi ve Point of View The issue of point of view is highl y phi losophi cal , because i t concerns the r elati on between the noveli st and the “f act s” i n t he novel, t he relati on between the noveli st and the r eader , and t he relat ion between t he novel and t he reader. The poi nt of vi ew i s the at it ude or outl ook of a nar rat or or character in a piece of l it eratur e, or i t i s the r elati onship bet ween the nar at or and the nar at ed. Metaphor ical y, a poi nt of view is a standpoint fr om whi ch the nar ator ses t he st ory and how he intends the r eader to see the st or y. When we open a novel , we open a window to l if e. What a vi si on the novel pr ovides largely depends on the point of view. Ficti onal prose and point of vi ew As we know there ar e at least l evels of di scourse to account f or the l anguage of f ict ional pr ose ( no mat er it is a novel or a shor t st or y), j ust because the nar ator level i nter venes bet ween the char acter char act er l evel and the author r eader level . From the diagr am shown bel ow you wi l l see: Addresser 1 Message Addr esse 1 (Noveli st ) ( reader ) Addreser 2 Message Addressee 2 ( Nar ator ) ( nar ratee) Addresser 3 Message Addressee 3 ( Character A) (Character B) This di agr am onl y acounts f or t he novel “in general” i n t he sense that al l thr e l evel s, and al t hr ee pai rs of part ici pants ar e needed to expl ai n how t he novel works as a f orm . But any part icular novel may neutr al ize some of the di st incti ons, mul tipl y others, or do bot h at the same t ime. The fact that there ar e six part ici pants i n t he basic di scourse str uct ure f or the novel autom at ical y means t hat her e are more vi ewpoi nts t o be taken int o acount in t he novel than i n other genr es ( . poet ry) . But t he oppor tunit ies in par ti cul ar novels f or mult iplyi ng t he num ber of vi ewpoi nt s to be consi dered, and r elated t o one anot her , ar e myr iad. It is thus har dly surpr ising t hat t he novel has bee t he genr e where wr it ers have expl ored viewpoint s ext ensi vel y. What i s a nar rat or? A nar rat or i s the one who t el s the stor y, of ten cal led t he st oryt el ler. But t he nar rator i s not necessar y t he noveli st. Even when the novel i s wr it en in the f ir st person, t he “I” i s not t he novel ist, but a per son invent ed by the novel ist . The l ogi c i s that a fi ct ional worl d, i f distur bed by a real per son, wil l col lapse. Ki nds of Poi nt of Vi ew Point of view can be divi de by the nar ator ’s r el ationship wi th the char acter, r epr esented by t he gr ammat ical per son: the f irst person narrat ive and t he thi rdperson narrat ive. I narrat ors The person who t el s the stor y may also be a character in the f icti onal wor ld of t he st ory, relat ing t he st ory af ter the event . In t his case the cri ti cs cal t he nar rat or a FIRST PERSON NARRATOR or I NARRATOR because when the nar ator ref er s t o himself or herself in the stor y the f ir st per son pr onoun I i s used. I n the f ir st nar rati ve, t he nar rator appear s in t he novel as “I” or “me ”. He may t el l a st ory in whi ch he himself i s the hero as i n The Advent ures of Hucklebery Fi nn, or he may t el l a story in whi ch he is onl y a mi nor character as in The Great Gatsby. Anyway, t he nar r at or is a part icipant in t he event s. By assum ing t he ident it y as “I”, the nar ator endears hi msel f to t he reader while he has t o sacr if ice the pr ivi lege of om nisci ence. b. Thirdperson narrators If t