The diagram of a story of this character is shown in figure 12: a' representing the antithesis of a, a sort of post-exposition, so to speak. FIG. 12 Suspense, not only sustained but cumulative, adds greatly to the movement and the effectiveness of plot structure thus ordered. Every episode will increase the complication of the various threads of action, and, while still keeping the culmination in check, will steadily make it increasingly inevitable, so to speak. In prospect the issue will not be conjectured; in retrospect every detail will be recognized as having been a link in one unbroken chain of causation. The Black Poodle, by F. Anstey, is an admirable example of this type of structure, illustrating the various analogies to the dramatic method as well as the various points of divergence. For purposes of analysis we may consider the action as showing six distinct stages: (1) preliminary exposition; (2) introductory action; (3) episode of exciting force; (4) rising action of complication; (5) climax-catastrophe; and (6) conclusion. The progress of these various stages will be clear from the following tabulation of action. THE BLACK POODLE 1. PRELIMINARY EXPOSITION. a. Motive of the story. b. Setting: Wistaria Villa. c. Dramatis persona: the Weatherheads. d. Antecedent action. 2. INTRODUCTORY ACTION. a. At Shuturgarden. Introduction of Bingo. Incipient love for Lilian. Bingo's hostility. b. At Wistaria Villa. Feline amenities. 3. MOMENT OF EXCITING FORCE. Bingo's death. 4. RISING ACTION OF COMPLICATION. Complication 1. In the garden at Wistaria Villa. Bingo's burial. Visions. Complication 2. At Shuturgarden: one evening later. Weatherhead's encouragement. Lilian's incredulity. Complication 3. At Shuturgarden: Sunday evening. The declaration. Lilian's condition. Weatherhead's resolution. Complication 4. a. At Blagg's. The discovery and the purchase. b. At Wistaria Villa. The restoration. The dinner. Bingo's accomplishments. Complication 5. At Wistaria Villa. The strolling Frenchman. Compounding a felony. 5. CLIMAX. Revelation and desperation. 6. CONCLUSION. The tablet. The course of the story might be diagramatically presented as in figure 13. 2. 2 6 FIG. 18 Emphasis Although emphasis in plot structure has already of necessity been discussed to some extent in connection with coherence and climax, yet there are some considerations that belong peculiarly to emphasis per se, and should receive attention before we dismiss the organization of plot material. It is to be observed at the outset that the whole matter of emphasis in the arrangement of plot elements is in the main nothing more than securing increased vividness. Narrative of fact, except for picturesqueness and effectiveness of characterization, addresses itself primarily to the understanding and is therefore not likely to take liberties in the ordering of facts for the sake of more vigorous appeal. Of course, to some extent, emphatic phrasing contributes to clearness, and to this extent is intellectual in its purpose, but in the great number of cases emphasis is synonymous with emotional tension and its aim is sustained interest. It is in narrative that appeals to the imagina tion, then, in the novel and in the short-story, that we shall find best illustration of ordering details, of “massing," for the sake of greater emotional effect. Almost all works on rhetoric discuss the element of emphasis under the following heads: a. Position of emphatic elements; massing. b. Proportion. c. Definiteness. Each of them may be considered briefly in its relation to plot structure. (a) Massing We are taught that in the sentence and in the paragraph the position of greatest effectiveness is at the beginning and the end; that to imbed the central theme in a welter of modifiers and commentary elaboration is to destroy the forcefulness of the thought. The following sentence from Macaulay's essay on Milton illustrates the principle: We disapprove, we repeat, of the execution of Charles; not because the constitution exempts the King from responsibility, for we know that all such maxims, however excellent, have their exceptions; nor because we feel any peculiar interest in his character, for we think that his sentence describes him with perfect justice as "a tyrant, a traitor, a murderer, and a public enemy"; but because we are convinced that the measure was most injurious to the cause of freedom. The cardinal thought of this long period resides in the final clause. Transpose this clause to any other position in the sentence: the vigor of the statement is lost and the assertion becomes painfully ineffectual. The cumulative effect of judicious massing in the paragraph is seen in the following passage from the same essay. The paragraph, as they say of the track athlete, "ends strong." It is vigorous and robust. Then came those days, never to be recalled without a blush, the days of servitude without loyalty and sensuality without love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts and narrow minds, the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the slave. The King cringed to his rival that he might trample on his people, sank into a viceroy of France, and pocketed, with complacent infamy, her degrading insults, and her more degrading gold. The caresses of harlots, and the jests of buffoons, regulated the policy of the State. The Government had just ability enough to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and the Anathema Maranatha of every fawning dean. In every high place, worship was paid to Charles and James, Belial and Moloch; and England propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best and bravest children. Crime succeeded to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, till the race accursed of God and man was a second time driven forth, to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a by-word and a shaking of the head to the nations. This same principle of initial and terminal massing for the sake of increased vigor holds equally true in the larger units of narrative writing. We have already noted how disappointing and, in a sense, how anti-climactic are the narratives that, after an effective massing of plot details, weakly trail off into a sort of literary postscript. Indeed were it not for the catastrophe-culmination of the dramatic method, the medial climax would result in a most ineffectual type of plot structure. The final suspense and culmination save the day. As between the initial and the terminal position, the terminal offers the better opportunity for effective ordering. In almost any piece of narration an expository purpose is uppermost at the outset; the interest in the |