Exercises

I. Reproduce The Great Carbuncle according to this plan.

II. Write and give orally a reproduction of Roger Malvin's Burial, as the theme is outlined in Appendix II., section 5.

91. Theme-model V. and the Description of Pictures. The pictures facing pages 62, 78, and 106 will serve as a basis for a theme on the life of Joan of Arc, to be written in the form of three situations (suggested by the pictures), each followed by a different kind of retrospective narrative, as in Thememodel V.

Before writing, consult the encyclopedia. Let the first situation represent Joan as listening to the heavenly voices, and the first retrospective narrative give her history up to the time of the first appearance of the vision. Let the second situation represent her as the victorious leader of the army, and the retrospective narrative in the second chapter of the theme give the history of events since the time of the first situation. The third situation should represent the death of Joan, and the retrospective narrative of this part give the incidents which happened between the second and third situations.

92. Theme-model V. in Subjects from Life and History. Only a few subjects are here suggested to be treated according to Theme-model V., because the student may select any of those given in section 44, upon which he has not already written. Others of the same nature may be chosen.

Exercises

I. Write a theme upon the following subject:

Antigone was a noble Greek maiden devoted to her father and brothers. When her father blinded himself and was obliged to leave Thebes, Antigone accompanied him and remained with him till his death. One of her brothers was slain by the other in battle. The king forbade any one to bury this brother, but Antigone defied this prohibition, and was in consequence confined by the king in a vault underground, where she killed herself.

This is a mere skeleton of the story. You must invent the material you need for the different situations and the retrospective narrative.

Take as the point for your first situation, Antigone and her father leaving Thebes; for the second, the king announcing that Antigone's brother is to remain unburied; the third, Antigone dead in the vault.

II. Write on the quest of some object similar to the Great Carbuncle.

Use as points for the three situations- the starting out, the finding of the object, and a scene in the subsequent life of the finder. Keep the leading character in the situations as well as in the retrospective narrative. Use as material for the first retrospective narrative, the circumstances which led to the quest, the identity and aims of the seekers; for the second, the circumstances which led to the finding of the object; for the third, the subsequent fate of the characters.

III. Tell the story of a mystery according to the following plan:

Chapter I.

Situation-The mysterious event which forms the motive of this story has just happened.

Retrospective narrative-the history of the persons concerned to the time of the first situation.

Chapter II.

Situation-A person is apprehended who is suspected of doing the deed.

Retrospective narrative-the history of the circumstances which point to the connection of this person with the mystery.

Chapter III.

Situation-A second person is apprehended and it is proved that he, and not the first person suspected, is guilty. The action may have been that of a natural. force, as in Sardou's The Black Pearl, or of an animal, as in Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, in which case the third situation deals with the discovery of the agent of the action, whatever it may be. Retrospective narrative- the history of the circumstances which led to the discovery of the real culprit or agent of the mysterious action.

PART II.

DESCRIPTION

CHAPTER VII.

THE DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH

In the study of description which follows, we shall concern ourselves primarily with the descriptive paragraph rather than with the descriptive theme, because the basis of our work in the first year is to be the study of narration, the telling of stories - from the simplest tale, that is purely narrative, up to the complex form of the drama, in which narration is embellished by means of the four other kinds of discourse; namely, description, exposition, argument, and persuasion. We are interested in description, therefore, mainly as a subsidiary form, used as a means of adorning narration, and thus making real and interesting the persons and places involved in the action. For the enrichment of a narrative, the descriptive paragraph and not the descriptive theme is used.

93. The Relation Between Narration and Description. If we study the English novel historically we shall find that the early novelists massed their description, giving us sometimes two or three pages of it at once. These extended descriptions interrupt

the story, which is our main interest, and become very tiresome. Later writers, realizing how prone we are to skip the descriptive passages when massed in this way, have broken up this element into shorter paragraphs, or even into sentences, and have scattered it throughout the book, so that it no longer retards the action. The novel is becoming more like the play in this respect. We should be very impatient of an actor who recited two or three pages of pure description while we were anxious to learn what was to happen to the hero, and we are not less intolerant of the writer when he delays the narrative too long in order to give us complete pictures of the persons and places whose story he is telling.

Description, whether in the short story, the novel, or the play, should enrich but not impede the action. A narrative should flow on like a river, but, like the river also, it should be embellished. The surface of the river is made beautiful and various by its waves, by the sunlight which plays upon it, by the graceful steamers and smaller boats which glide so smoothly over its surface. Its banks, too, are interesting to us because of the trees which overhang the water, and the flowers which grow upon its green borders but do not interrupt its flow. In like manner the various descriptive-motives we shall study in this chapter are used to vivify and beautify a narrative.

94. Meaning of the Term Description. Description is the portrayal in words of the qualities or features of anything so as to produce a picture or conception of it in the mind of a reader or hearer.