The Short-story | Page 4

Documents in the Case.
Again it may be told in the first person as in Stevenson's Pavilion on
the Links, or in the third person as in Kipling's The Bridge Builders.
Yet again it may be a conundrum as Stockton's famous The Lady or the
Tiger!
But besides the forms due to the manner of presentation there are other
forms due to the emphasis placed on one of the three elements of a
narrative---action, character, and setting. Consequently using this
principle of classification we have three forms which may be
exemplified by Kipling's William the Conqueror, wherein action is
emphasized; his Tomb of His Ancestors, wherein character is
emphasized; and his An Error in the Fourth Dimension, wherein setting
is emphasized.
Using yet another principle of classification--material--we obtain:
stories of dramatic interest, that is, of some striking happening that
would hold the audience of a play in a highly excited state, as
Stevenson's Sire de Malétroit's Door; of love, as Bunner's Love in Old
Cloathes; of romantic adventure, as Kipling's Man Who Would Be King;
of terror, as Poe's Pit and the Pendulum; of the supernatural, as
Crawford's The Upper Berth; of humor, as humor, as Mary Raymond
Shipman Andrews' A Good Samaritan; of animals, as Kipling's
Rikki-tikki-tavi; of psychological analysis, as James' Madonna of the
Future; and so on.
III
THE SHORT-STORY AS NARRATION
All the previous discussion must not obscure the fact that the
short-story is a form of narration and subject to all that pertains thereto.
Now what is narration and what does it imply?

Narration is that form of discourse which presents a series of events in
the order of time. Events or action presuppose actors, or characters as
they are generally called, and a place where the action may take place;
likewise time and circumstances within which the actors act. These
three, which may be conveniently spoken of as actors, action, and
environment, are three of the elements of narration. But there is a
fourth. To make an interesting story there must be something for the
chief character, technically called the protagonist, to overcome, such as
an adversary, a situation, or an idea, which thing is called the obstacle.
Furthermore, there must be something in the story near the beginning
which brings the protagonist into conflict with the obstacle. Often this
conflict, technically the collision, is brought about by another character.
But it may be some happening. Whatever it is, it is called the
complicating force. Then again, toward the end of the story, there is
something else which either helps the protagonist to overcome the
obstacle, or the obstacle to overcome the protagonist. This is called the
resolving force.
As these two forces work in different parts of the story, the action is
conveniently divided into parts to which names have been attached.
First comes the introduction or proposition, wherein the time, place,
circumstances, and protagonist are presented; then the entanglement,
wherein the protagonist is brought into collision with the obstacle by
the complicating force, and the interest begins to deepen. Next we have
the climax, in which the struggle, and consequently the interest, are at
their height; and this in turn is followed by the resolution, where the
resolving force works and the knot begins to be untied. Finally there is
the dénouement or conclusion.
The career of each character may be conveniently spoken of as a line of
interest. When the lines of interest become entangled we have the plot.
The following diagram illustrates to the eye the development of a story.
Of course it must be distinctly understood that no story is the result of a
mere substitution in a formula. Sometimes the various steps in the
working-out of a story overlap in such a manner that its development
according to a prescribed plan is not apparent.

[Illustration]
Small c is sometimes called the crisis, being the point at which the
action is most intense and begins to turn toward the end.
IV
LIST OF REPRESENTATIVE SHORT-STORIES
1. ALDRICH: Marjorie Daw.
2. Quite So.
3. ANDREWS: Amici.
4. The Glory of the Commonplace.
5. A Good Samaritan.
6. BUNNER: "As One Having Authority."
7. Love in Old Cloathes.
8. BUNNER AND MATTHEWS: Documents in the Case.
9. CABLE: Posson Jone.
10. CHILD: The Man in the Shadow.
11. CLEMENS: Jumping Frog.
12. COBB: To the Editor of the Sun.
13. COLCORD: The Game of Life and Death.
14. DAVIS, R. H.: The Bar Sinister.
15. Gallegher.
16. The Lion and the Unicorn.

17. DOYLE: The Red-Headed League.
18. A Scandal in Bohemia.
19. The Striped Chest.
20. Through the Veil.
21. GARLAND: The Return of a Private.
22. GEROULD: On the Staircase.
23. HALE: The Man without a Country.
24. HARDY: The Three Strangers.
25. HARRIS: The Wonderful Tar Baby.
26. HARTE: Luck of