【正文】 or f act s. Edwar d Gibborn‘ s Decline and Fal of t he Rom an Empir e i s pr aised not onl y for i ts mul ti tudinous facts and r at ionali st ic analysis, but mor e f or i ts beauty of nar at ive styl e. In t el ing stories, the noveli st aim s at som et hing hi gher or he intends t o add somethi ng to the m ere “f act s. ” As i ndicated i n t he def ini ti on of the novel, what makes a novel i s the noveli st ?s st yle ( personal ized presentat ion of t he st ory) and interpret ati on of the st ory. Chapt er One Plot I. What is Pl ot? 1. Accor ding t o Ar istot le what are t he si x elements of t he st ructur e of tr agedy? Tragedy as a whole has just si x const ituent el ements… and they are pl ot , characters, verbal expressi on, t hought , visual adornment, and song—posit ion. For t he elements by whi ch t hey i m i t at e are t wo ( verbal expr ession and song— posit ion) , t he manner i n which t hey imi tat e is one ( vi sual ador nment) , the thi ngs t hey im itat e are t hree ( pl ot, char act ers , thought ), and there is nothi ng more beyond these. 2. What is Plot under t he pens of modern noveli st s and st oryt el ler s? And how to understand ―Plot ‖ in a st ory? (―‖ppt : ?The queen di ed, no one knew why, unt il i t was di scovered t hat i t was t hrough gri ef at t he death of t he king.‘… P. 6 It suspends t he ti mesequence, i t moves as f ar away f r om t he st ory as i ts l imi tati ons wil l al low. ) The st ory and t he char acter alone can not m ake a novel ye. To m ake a novel, a plot i s prerequisit e. A look at the example suggested by E. M. Forst er wi l help to di st inguish between the st or y and the pl ot. ―The ki ng died and t hen t he queen di ed‖ i s not a pl ot, but a st ory. If we make it ―The king died and t hen t he queen di ed of gr ief ,‘ we have a plot. Thi s causal phrase ―of gr ief ‖ indicates our int er pretat ion and t hus ar rangem ent of the happeni ngs. I n t he worl d of reali ty events t ake pl ace one aft er another in the natur al t em por al or der , but i n the wor ld of f ict ion i t is t he noveli st ‘s design t hat one par ti cul ar event occur aft er another par ti cul ar event. The ver y wor d ―plot‖ impl ies the noveli st ‘s r ebel ion against the natural l aw and his endeavor to m ake m eanings out of the happenings that may other wise be meaningless. ―The happenings‖ may or may not be real happeni ngs.( So what pl ot i s ) A pl ot i s a part icular ar angement of happeni ngs i n a novel t hat i s aimed at revealing their causal relat ionshi ps or at conveying t he noveli s t‘s ideas. A pl ot i s som et im es cal ed a story li ne. The most impor tant of t he tr adi ti onal plot is that i t should be a plete or unif ied acti on, t hat i s, something wi t h a begi nni ng, a middle, and an end. 3. The dramati c sit uat ion i n a story. 4. The thr e par ts of a plot : a begi nni ng (exposi ti on) , a mi ddl e (suspense or a ser ies of suspense … .f oreshadowing… cri sis –a moment of high t ension), and an end(a cli max, the moment of greatest t ension… the concl usi on—f al li ng act ion, resoluti on or denouement ). Pl ot a begi nni ng a m i ddl e an end exposi ti on som e other events clim ax (t he moment (suspense, a ser ies of suspense, of gr eat est tension, for eshadowi ng, cr isis) the conclusi onf al li ng act ion, resoluti on or denouement ) I. Read t he st ori es of ?Ri p Van Winkl e‘ ( Washi ngt on Ir ving) and ?Davi d Swan‘ (Nat hani el Hawt hor ne) II. Q uesti ons: ( Finish r eadi ng the t wo stor ies and poi nt out t he pl ots of the t wo st or ies, the descr ipti ve det ails, the exposi ti on, char acters) Rip Van Wi nkl e 1. Descri pti ve det ai ls: the pl ot of t he st ory? 2. What par t of the stor y seems l ike t he exposit on? 3. Wher e does the dramat ic confl ict? 4. What is t he cli max of the stor y? Davi d Swan 5. the pl ot of t he st ory? 6. How f ull y does t he aut hor dr aw t he character s in the story? ( Character tr ait s ar e t he quali ti es of a character ‘s personal it y. They are reveal ed thr ough a character ‘s acti ons and wor ds and t hrough descr ipti on) . 7. More wor ks to do: somethi ng about the wr it ers of the t wo stor ies. Chapt er Two Character I n the i ntr oducti on we have sai d that f i ct i on is an i mage of people i n acti on, moving towards an undecl ar ed end. Thus char act er i s always involved i n f icti on, even in t he story of t he simpl est act ion. Sometim es character i s at t he center of our inter est because in character we m ay see many f acets of t he people we meet in our daily li fe and even of our sel ves. Ficti onal char act er i s always char act er in acti on and the char act er get s into act ion because it i s caught in a si tuati on of confl ict and he/ she i s always provi ded wi th moti vat ion: he/ she has suff icient reasons t o act or behave as he /she does. The char act er i s doing somethi ng and t he reader whi le readi ng f icti on wants to know the ―why‖ as wel as the ―what‖ of t he af ai rs. (Somet imes a character ‘s mot ive f or an acti on is not expl ained on acceptable gr ounds, for exampl e, the vil lain in Adgar Al an Poe‘ st ory ―The Tel Tal e Hear t, ‖ and thus the r eader f els cheated. I n t his case, the wr it er of detecti ve fi cti on who makes the cri mi nal a mer e lunati c has cheated the r eader by avoiding t he problem of moti ve. ) And general ly, the acti on it self i s humanl y signif icant and i t ends usual y in a shi ft i n or cl ari fi cat ion of human val ues, as displayed in John Updike‘s ―A amp。 point of view。 and how soci al concer n i s involved in a specif ic f orm of human imagi nat ion. In addit ion, st udent s should e l evate to t he level of cul