CHAPTER I

THE CONCEPT OF PROSE FICTION

A. Definition of Prose.
The word ‘prose’ is a noun, it means written or spoken langauge that is not
in verse (Hornby, 1995: 931), In Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (2003:899), it is
stated that the word ‘prosa’ n Sas “karangan bebas (tidak terikat oleh kaidah yang
terdapat dalam puisi); seperti irama yang teratur, majas, rima, asonansi, disonansi,
dan citra”. In short, prose can be defined as a free literary writing, it is a spoken or
writen literary work in the form of fiction and non fiction of which does not
require any rhyme and rhythm as in poetry.

B. Division of Prose
Prose as a literary work is mainly divided into fiction and non fiction.
According to Cleanth Brooks, Jr., and Robert Penn Warren that fiction is a story, a
made-up story, about characters. They immediately realize that such a definition is
oversimplified because they believe that it would be necessarily complicated and
abstract. For this reason, they believe that it will be more fruitful to work toward
an understanding of fiction through an investigation of particular instances. Let us
try to see prose fiction from another point of view. In broad sense, prose fiction is
an imaginative literature; it is literature that is not intended to be, and is not
judged by the usual standard of truth and falsity. It is imaginative, in the sense that
it is a work of imagination, which is different from an essay, which is also prose
but it is not fiction.
In our discussion of elements of prose fiction in the following chapter, we
shall deal with literary truth which is different from historical or factual truth. It is
only necessary to underline here that prose fiction has its own standard of truth,
which can only be judged using all information contained in the fiction itself.
In the creative proses, a writer is stirred emotionally and intellectually by life,
or the external world. Life which stirs the writer, is anything outside and inside
himself: people, nature, man-made objects, other people’s ideas, knowledge, and
also his feeling and intellectual activities. Using his imagination, that particular
writer forms a concept (i.e., his theme or main idea), which finds its way through
into a definite form, using a certain structure. The form can be a poem, a play, or
prose fiction, and each of these forms has its own unique structure. A poem will
be in musical words written in lines or verse, and group into stanzas. A play will
be in a dialogue, a short story will require a character put in a system of action
which consists of beginning, middle, and end.
In narrower sense, prose fiction has five characteristics. First, it is fiction in
the broad literary sense, is something invented, so it is not the same as factual
truth. Second, it is non dramatic. Like drama, prose fiction may have dialogue as a
means of commuincation to convey the story and character; but unlike drama,
prose needs narration and description, while drama does not need narration and
description. Third, it is narrative as it tells a story. The narration is used to tell the
reader a story about a certain character in a certain setting (i.e. time and place),
doing or having certain experience, conflict or clash of action. Fourth, it is
descriptive.In telling the story the writer also uses description, of a character,
situation, place. The fifth or the last, it is prose. It is not written poetic style of
writing, e.g., in seperate lines, but it is frequently written by using poetic words or
phrases. It is uncommon practiced for a prose fiction writer to write in the langu-
age of poetry, but still, it is prose in form. In short, fiction is invented, it has a
dialogue, narration, and description.
Based on length, complexity of theme and development of character and
plot, prose fiction can be classified into the short story, novelette, novel, and the
romance. For example: Guy de Maupassant’s The Diamond Necklace (short
Story) Feanz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (novelette), Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
is the example of novel.

Short Story
Definition
A short story typically takes the form of a brief fictional work, usually
written in prose. The earliest precursors to the short story can be found in the oral
storytelling tradition, as well as episodes from ancient Mediterranean epics, such
as 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' and Homer's 'Iliad'. Anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, and
parables are all examples of the oral storytelling tradition that helped to shape the
short story, such as 'The Painting of the Dog and His Reflection' from 'Aesop's
Fables'. In fact, 'Aesop's Fables', first collected in the 4th century B.C., may have
been the first anthology of short stories in Western literature. Over time, genres
and writers all around the world have influenced the development of the short
story. For example, Norse legends, Irish ballads, and Gothic ghost stories have all
played a major role in directing both its structure and subject matter. Let's take a
look at some of the major characteristics of the short story. (Instructor: Joshua
Wimmer:http://study.com. Diakses pada tanggal 2 Oktober 2016).
The short syory (sometimes spelled the short-story) is the essence of
economy consisting of approximately 2,000 words, but length is not the sole
criteria for a short story. Structurelly, the short story must contain itself with few
characters, few insidents, scenes, or episodes, few settings, and it takes place in a
brief span of time and it can develop only one or two characters with approaching
fullness. It is pressed for time.
Stylistically, the short story must make every word count and a short story
writer must always be aware of inconsistencies in style, tone, and point of view. It
is different from a novelist, he is not free to use different point of view in one
shorth story. The short story must strive to achieve modest effects – usually a
single effect, it has “neither the resources nor the time to achieve anything more”
(Steinman, and Willen, 1967:120).
The short story writers agree in making every word in the story count. Allan
Poe in his review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales published in
Graham’s Magazine, May 1842 (republished in What is the Short Story, eds.
Eugene Current-Garcia and Walton R. Patrick, 1961:5) wrote: “In the whole
compositin there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or
indirect, is not to the one pre-established design.” He seems quite aware of the
economy of word in the story, so that no word having no relation to thr story can
be printed in the stroy. In other words, if by deleting a word or phrase from the
story is still maintains the desired effect, that articular word or phrase is counted
as redundant. Concerning the use of different points of view in a single short tory
there seems to be some disagreements.
Ernest Hemingway in The snows of Kalimanjaro uses a combintion of a
third and first person points of view, sometimes referring to “he” or “she”, but
once or twice uses “we”. (Adopted from The Anatomy of Prose Fiction by
Koesnosoebroto, 1988, Dikbud, Jakarta).

A. Characteristics of Short Story

Length: Short stories typically range from 1,600 to 20,000 words.
Although authors and critics have debated the length of the short story throughout
literary history, most agree on a minimum of 1,600 and a maximum of 20,000
words. In his own contribution to the debate, Edgar Allen Poe suggested that a
short story should take 30 minutes to two hours to read it.
 Subject: Short stories usually focus on a single subject or theme. Subjects
or themes may range from something as mundane as a daily errand or as thrilling
as a ghost tale. A single, easily contained plot is one of the hallmarks of the short
story
and helps shape its other characteristics.
In general, short stories tend to begin and end abruptly, with little to no prior
information and no major lapses in time. As they involve just one plot line and are
limited in word length, there is little room or need for the extended developments
we frequently find in novels.
Limited number of characters: Due to the limitations of the genre, short
stories typically focus on just one or a couple characters. As short stories usually
cover such brief periods of time, even a single character may never be fully
developed. However, historical examples, like some of Geoffrey Chaucer's
'Canterbury Tales,' may find interesting ways of involving many different people,
as we'll discuss next. In addition, Esenwein (1909, reprented in Current-Gurcia
and Patrick, 1961:ff) writes that:
1. The short story is not a condensed novel. Today we can read complete
novelettes published in magazines, and these novelettes are different from
novels only in their length, but if the novelettes are compressed more to half of
their present size, they would still be condensed novels, and not long short
stories. Thier real different is is kind, not in length. The following are the
requirements for a short story:
a) The short story produces a singleness of effect danied to the novel; it needs
simplicity and totality of effect.
b) It must differ from the novel in scope and in structure.
2. The short story is not an episode
Episode is a part of a novel which fits in with the rest of the novel, into which
it
 was parenthetically inserted to illustrate some phase of chacter or of conduct,
but it does not exhibit the plot, the sense of coming to a point, of ending up.
3 The short story is not a scenario, or sinopsis.
4. The short story is not a biography.

5. The short story is not a mere sketch.

6. The short story is not a tale.
According to Esenwein that the true short story is marked by seven
characteristics as follows:
1. A single predominating incident.
2. A single preminent character.
3. Imagination.
4. Plot.
5. Compression.
6. Organization.
7. Unity and impression.
The following are some examples of short stories:
Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' may very well be the first collection of
short stories in English literature. Composed in Middle-English verse or prose and
written in the early 14th century, Chaucer's collection revolves around a
storytelling contest among pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' a ghoulish account of a headless horseman
and an ambitious, superstitious schoolmaster, was published by Washington Irving
in 1820. Adapted from a German folktale, the story owes much of its style and
form to the Gothic horror tradition found in the German novellen, or little novels,
of the 18th century.
The Overcoat
The Russian form of the short story, or povest, helped revolutionize the genre
worldwide. Written by Nikolai Gogol in 1842, 'The Overcoat' concerns a poor
clerk, whose successful efforts to buy a new winter coat eventually lead to the loss
of a costly possession and his death. In its celebration of remarkably ordinary
people, places, and things, as well as its contribution to literary realism, 'The
Overcoat' stands out in the history of the short story. In fact, Gogol's work was so
influential that his fellow Russian author, Ivan Turgenev, once claimed that: 'We
have all come out from under his overcoat'.
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County
'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County,' based on an ancient
Greek myth about a frog-jumping contest, was published by Mark Twain in 1867.
As the author's first critical success, it also serves an example of a tall tale, or an
outlandishly improbable short story. Tall tales, along with their counterpart the
'western', were wildly popular on the American frontier from the mid-19th to late-
19th century.

The Necklace
Guy de Maupassant, who was well known for his twist endings, crafted 'The
Necklace', which tracks the troubles of a materialistic young woman who must
replace a priceless piece of jewelry. Inspired by the literary realism of Gogol, Guy
de Maupassant published this short story in 1884.

The Gift of the Magi

'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry, a classic short story about a devoted
husband and wife, was published just in time for Christmas in 1905. Like Guy de
Maupassant, this American author was known for his surprise endings. In 'The
Gift of the Magi', the husband sells his watch so he can buy his wife a comb, and
his wife cuts and sells her long hair so she can buy him a watch chain - gifts
neither of them can use at the end of the story. Today, one of the greatest honors a
short story writer can receive is the O. Henry Award.

Summary
A short story is a brief work of fiction, usually written in prose and running
1,600 to 20,000 words in length. The literary roots of the short story can be found
in oral storytelling traditions, such as anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, and
parables.
The German 'novellen' and the Russian 'povest' are also forms of the short
story. Key characteristics of the short story include its length, limited number of
characters, subject matter, and tendency to begin 'in medias res', which is
Latin for 'the middle of things.'
Famous American short stories include 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' by
Washington Irving, 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County' by
Mark Twain, and 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry.
O. Henry' was inspired by French author Guy de Maupassant, who wrote
'The Necklace'. Many short story writers also find inspiration from Nikolai
Gogol's 'The Necklace.'

B. The Novelette And the Novel

We have already discussed that the difference between a short story and a
novel is in kind, noort not in length. A short novel is called a novella or novelette,
and never becomes a long short story. It is in this light that we discussed the
novelette and the novel under the same heading, because the principles applied to
the novel will work also for the novelette.
The length of a novella or novelette is between 18,000 to 40,000 words. As
the novelette is longer than a short story, it can accomodate further development
of character (s), and can have insidents, scenes, or episodes, more settings, and
can take place in a longer s pan of time. It is these characteristics which
distinguish a novelette from a short story, not merely their difference in length. A
short story may be long but still, it has to follow the principles laid down about
being a good one, i.e., its singleness of effect, its single predominant insident, and
a single chief character.
The full length novel may consist of over 100,000 words, contains a number
of characters – some of them are fully developed, have more insidents, scenes, or
episodes, have a number of settings, and may take place in a long span of time. It
may have more than one theme, may have both minor and major crises (conflicts),
and climaxes.
The length of a novel perhaps required for multiple structure. It gives space
to several protagonists and more characters , both round and flat. Thre may be
plots and counterplots and subplots, stories outside the main story, often arranded
for contrast or ironic comment. Besides, it has more space for social and historical
complexity, more psychological backgrounds of characters, motive, and choice. In
short, the length of a novel is one aspect that makes it different from the short
story.
Another great difference between the short story and the novel lies in the
fact that the novel must be a love story, while the short story does not deal with
love at all. However, this perhaps, no longer true as we can read varios themes in
the novel. In conclusion that the short story and the novel are not only different in
lenght, but also in kind, the number of characters and incidents, etc.
Prose is spoken or written language that is different from verse or poetry. In a
broad sense, prose fiction is an imaginative literature; it is literature that is not
intended to be judged by the usual standards of truth. It is imaginative, in the
sense that it is a work of imagination, which is different from an essay, which is
also prose, but it is not fiction. Prose is mainly divided into fiction and non-
fiction. Fiction consists of Romance, Novel, novelette, and short story. As a
literary work novel comes later than poem and drama. Novel derives from the
Greek word, means ‘new’. As a literary work, novel is an invented story in prose,
long enough to fill a complete book. The first English novels are: 1. Robinson
Crusoe by Daniel Defoe published in 1719 (8th century). 2. Mall Flanders by
Daniel Defoe (1722). 3. Pamela by Samuel Richardson (1740-1741). 4. Henry
Fielding by Joseph Andrew (1742). 5. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1748),
6. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749), and 7. Tristrane Shandy by Laurence
Sterne (1760).
According to the history of the English literature, there are two different
opinions on the first English novel. Some people say that Pamela written by
Samuel Richardson in 1740 is considered the first English novel. This novel
comprises 4 volumes and it was successively published between 1740 and 1741.
This work tells about a maid who gets temptation from her master, while other
says that the first English novel is Robinson Crusoe written by Daniel Defoe
which was published in 1719 (Peck and Coyle,1984:102). This novel tells about a
man (a sailor) who is grounded alone on a desert island at the Pacific Ocean. The
only way that the readers can use to decide which one of these novels is older to
see the year of publication. Based on the year of, it is apparent that the first
English novel is Robinson Crusoe as it was first published in 1719 while Pamela
in 1740-1741.

C. Characteristics of Prose Fiction

In a narrower sense, prose fiction has five characteristics. First, in the broad
literary sense, it is invented. For exmple: Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crosoe,
Charlotte Bronter’s Jane Eyre, E. M. Foster’s A Passage to India, Samuel
Richardson’s Pamela; Indonesian literary works, such as Hamka’s Atheis,
Tenggelamnya Kapal Vaderwiek, Marah Rusli’s Sitti Nurbaya, Abdul Muis’s
Salah Asuhan, Habibie’s Habibie Ainun, etc. Fiction is something invented, so it is
not the same as factual truth. Second, it is non dramatic. Like drama, prose fiction
may have dialogue as a means of communication to convey the story and
character; but unlike drama, it also has narration and description. In drama there is
no need for narration. Third, it is narrative, it tells a story. The narration is used to
tell the reader a story about a certain character in a certain setting (time and
place), doing or having experience, conflict or clash of action. Fourth, it is
descriptive. In telling the story, the writer uses description of character, situation
and place. The last or the fifth, it is prose in the sense that it is not written in
poetic style of writing, e.g., in a separate line, but it is frequently written using
poetic words or phrases. It is not practiced for a prose fiction writer to write in the
language of poetry, but still in a prose form. Thus, a prose fiction is prose,
invented, has a dialogue, narration and description.

D. The Elements of Fiction

By looking at the elements of prose fiction, there is no intention to
investigate prose fiction merely on the basis of its elements, each seperated from
each other. It is believed that a literary work, like prose fiction can only be
enjoyed and under- stood as a totality. In a work of literature, each element is
used or chosen by the writer only in relation with the other elements; there is
always an interdependence of each element in the story. These elements must
work together to make a good story.
It is with the attention to understand and enjoy the story better that a study
of of the element of prose fiction is done. The following are some elements of
fiction:
1. Plot
2. Character & Characterization
 3. Setting
4. Point of View
5. Symbolism
6. Theme
7. Suspense and foreshadowing
8. Style, Tone, and Irony
Adat dan Kawin Paksa sebagai tema dalam Roman Sitti Nurbaya
1. PLOT
The word Plot is in fact a technical term to say about a serious of tied-
together evenyts in a story. Different literary theorists propose different definitions
or explanations of plot. Some say that it is a selection of events arranged in time
and and has causality. Perrine (1959:61), for example, defines plot as ‘the
sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed.’ Connoly (1955:6)
calls it ‘the arrangement of the details and inscidents in a story.’ Aristotle’s
concept of plot has become classic. He says that plot has a beginning, a middle,
and an end. In the Boulton’s word (1984:45), it makes some kind of patterns; not
only in events, but also in their sequence; a plot contains motives, consequences,
and relationships.
Such definitions still leave us to a question: ‘Is plot the story itself? If it is so,
how can a story be without plot?’ To a reader who does not understand the nature
of the contemporaray prose fiction, plot as an aspect of fiction may seem
equivalent to the whole of the story. According to Hills (1987:8(0), “story’ in the
old sense that “Tell me a story”or means plot. But that the whole should have a
name thus interchangeable with the part is, just an accident of terminology, for we
speak of “the story of a novel” or “the story of a play” and mean nothing more
than “the plot of a novel” or “the play’s action”. Edgar Allan Poe, the American
master story- writer in his review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice - Told tried the
change the name from “story” to “tale”, but that did not solve the problem, and
would not really have removed the confusion anyway. The term”short story” is
some help, of course.
 Let us talk about other definitions or explanations of plot. Hall for example
(1983:27) describes plot as what happans in a story, the story’s orga- nized
development, usually a chain linking cause and effect. But Kennedy (1983:8ff)
does not attempt to define plot, instead he directly discusses the structure and
requirementz of a good plot, following Aristotle’s.
Bain, Beaty, and Hunter (1982:7), try to convince the reader that in the
arrangement of the action lies the skeleton of the typical short story plot or plot
structure. For them, plot simply means the arrangement of the action.
Dietrich and Sundell (1983) in their book The Aspect of Fiction write that a
story has parts that are related to one another by a central action and usually a
theme. For them, plot may be defined partially as the arrangement of events in a
story. A more complete definition would include some statement about how events
are arranged, about what sort of connection between events there must be. Is a
chronological connection between events enough to make a plot? E.M. Foster, the
English who wrote A Passage to India and Aspect of the Novel once wrote that a
story in which “ The king died and then the queen died was plotless precisely
because the chronological connection was not enough. Necessary to plot, he
argued, was a causal connection between the events, as in “The king died and then
the queen died of grief”(Foster, 1985). Even more demending in the instance by
others that a plot contains a thematic connection between the events.
Plot is an author’s selection and arrangement of incidents in a story to shape
the action and give the story a particular focus. Discussions of plot include not
just what happens, but also how and why things happen the way they do. The plot
is essentially divided into three parts. This first part is rising action, in which
complication creates some sort of conflict for the protagonist. The second is the
middle (climax), and the last is ending. Plot is the chain of tied-together events in
the story or the structure, the arrangement of tied-together chronological events in
the story, and the emphasis of plot is on causality (cause and effect). The
following statements can clarify your understanding on the difference between
plot and story:
The following is the diagram of conventional plot structure.
(Terakhir pada halaman 29 dari “The Anatomy of Prose Fiction”).

Please be in my imagination
CLIMAX Titik kulminasi
Complication Resolusion
Complication
Points of attack
INTRODUCTION CONCLUSION

Please be in my imagination = I love you

PLOT STRUCTURE (Next week, 13 th April 2017)
A narrative structure has always been divided into three roughly parts: the
beginning, the middle, and the end. Initiation, complication, and resolution are the
terms that most clearly indicate the role traditionally as cribed to the three parts.
The beginning, or initiation, acquaints the reader with the situation in general;
usually it will introduce the characters, describe their background and so on, will
describe the place and time lof the events, and will suggest the basic lines of the
conflict. The middle, ofr complication, is supposed to describe all the troubles in
the conflict: it is here that the incidents of the action are dramatized into scene,
each scene in theory rising above the one that vame before in dramatic intensity
until after a number of crisis a climax is rached – variously referred to as “ The
end turning point” or “denouement” or “key moment” or whatever -- . This point
marking the end of the middle and the beginning of the end. The end, or
resolution, is supposed to make clear all the consequences of the action: perhaps it
will tell about what finally happend to all the characters in the story, perhaps it
will point out the moral of the story, and it will knit up any of the loose ends of the
plotting. The short story writing nowadays conforms to the initiation –
complication – resolution formulation. It may be useful to a reader to divide a
story up into its beginning, middle, and end so as to study it and its author’s
methods, and it may even be useful to a writer to divide his plot line this way too,
so as to sort out materials of his narrative. But this is all somewhat different from
specifying that a short story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
A short story, in theory, and putting exception aside, should probably be as
much of oneness as possible; and probably it is something of a fault in a short
story if there is an obvious separation between its beginning, its middle, and its
end. It is probably good to begin and end a story as near the middle as possible.

Beginning
It is certainly true that every story must have a beginning, in the sense of a
first sentence with a capital letter, but the beginning of a modern literary story is
not likely to do all the things that the book on writing say abeginning ought to do.
From The diamond Necklace by Guy de Maupassant we can read:
The girl was one of those pretty and charming young cretures who
sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She has no
dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by
any rich and distinguished man; so left herself be married to a little clerk of the
Ministry of Public Instruction.
The two sentences at the beginning of the story prrovide an initiation, an
introduction into the situation and character, and reading this we already suspect
that something unpleasant to the main character will happen. The reader can feel
that the girl, not yet introduced by name, is mistakenly misplace by fate, into gthe
wrong society, the wrong circle of unwealthy people. Being such unfortunate, she
married a minor civil servant at the Ministry of Education. This adds to the unfor-
tunate condition of the character.
According to Robert C. Mereith in his book The Professuonal Story Writer
and His Art that there are requirements or aims for the beginning of the story:
1. The beginning must be placed in time as close to the ending as ;possible.
Like the beginning in medias res of the epic, the formula story commences
either with a full – nblown complication or with minor problem that swiftly leads
to a major complication, so that the reader may grasp immediately that something
exciting is at issue. This method exploits the dramatic interest of the story in order
to wrap up the reader’s curiosity and to present simply and and cogently to him
the nature of the dilemma.
2. If the complication itself is not immediately presented, a minor problem
leading the complication must be given.
The structure of the short story is very much like a funnel. At the opening of
the funnel, there is reatively large space for the volume of liqid to move about in.
But very quickly, the walls of the funnel narrow, and the liquid, if it is not to spill
over, must rush through the constriction. So with the beginning of the short story,
very rapidly the reader’s interest be brought to flow in a narrow and tightly
directed channel, so that it will have an aim and focus.
3. The scene must be set.
The story writer may have airy fancies at the back of his mind, but he will
cheat the reader by not placing him in some time – conditioned, concrete reality.
The reader must know where he is when the story commences.

4. The principal characters must be introduced with the indication of the

approximate ages, and the point of view must be established.
The psychology of a reader is a curious thing. Once he has begun reading a
story, he invariably tend to attach the geatest imporance to those characters who
first appear, for he will think that the story is about them. It will bewilder the
everage to delay the introduction of major characters until well after the story has
begun, because he will already have made the foregoing assumption. And it is
obvious that the point of view mut be established immediately.
5. The tone of the prose must let the reader know what type of story he is reading
This requirement of the beginning simply makes specific in one more way
what has already been stated: The reader must know where he stands. A romance,
a mystery, a western, a story of intrigue, and all other types of stories have their
own moods, and peculiar atmosphere.
6. The beginning must imply what ending is desired.
 Here again, whether comic, romantic, or any type must suggest to the reader
at the very beginning whwt he wants the ending to be. The lotted short story has a
very tight structure, and a large part of the sense of inevitability that one feels in
reading certain short stories comes from the recognition that all the concrete
details of the story point to a definite choice of direction. It is, in fact, by means of
the unstated assumption that the reader is led to make that the author stimulates
curiosity and bestows eventual satisfaction. This is the technique that adds to
illusion.
7. The reader must be trapped into reading the story through the use of a
narrative hook.
The short story should begin with some actions which through swift charac-
terization, movement, dialogue, will hook the reader into reading the reminder of
the story. The most elementary form of hook consists of anything that will cause a
person’s attention to fix itself.

Middle
“Complication” and “development” are two terms related to the role of the
middle of the story. As we have already mentioned before, terms used in the
theory of prose fiction are mostly inherited from the theory of drama, so is the
term “com- pliction,” and this term is used here to refer to the plot, not to the
theme. In a short story, unlike in a novel the term has little relevance, because the
plot of the short story is seldom complicated, and it certainly should not!
According to Aristotle, ‘ complication’ is all from the beginning of the story
gto the point just before the change of the hero’s fortune. From this alone we are
convincedterm is better applied to drama, as it relly intended to be We can find
evidence from a diagram proposed by a German novelist conc erning the pattern
of of risi ng and falling action in a play.
For the middle, Meredith (1963:32ff) proposes four requirements:
1. The middle must be given the background of the circumstances that produced

the complication.
 If vthe reader considers even momentarily what has been said, this
prescription will make immediate sense. One of the most obvious questions to
occur after the presentation of the minor or major complicaion is what produced
the situation in the first place. We normally demand satisfaction in terms of the
historical or causative elements of an event. That is whenever the circumtance
occurs that requires somekind of solution, we normally question how this
happened. A causal connection, as weentioned before, is required.
The most important principle in presenting background material is to let
trickle through into tye present action, keeping the reader’s eye mainly on the
development of present events within the story, and citing the past only as events
In the past clrify, illuminate, and put into relief what is of present significance. A
story that is told mainly in the past perfect tense can hardly be said to have
movement.

2. The middle must present a series of efforts (usually three) in which the
protagonist attempts to solve the complication only to meet with failure.
We shall see in the outlining a complication, this tep required by the formula
story is always omitted. The writer will have to create these attempts when he
fuses his own outline to the steps of the formula plot. It is worth to underline here
that this step is essential one in the formula story since each successive attempt of
the protagonist to slove his complication, if the writer hendles it with skill and
originality, will more and more move the reader into an impasse. When the reader
gives up and imagines that no means exists by which the protagonist can extricate
hbimself from his difficulty, then the sucessful solution, which the reader will
come to see as truly “right”, will suprise and delight him. He will feel convinced
that it is the only way the story could hace ended.

KINDS OF PLOT
1. PLOTS OF FORTUNE COMPRISES:
a) The action plot. This is considered the most common, and the sole interest

in what happens next. This resembles the idea of plot which Foster called
plot in apposition to character.
b) The pathetic plot. There is a sympathetic protagonist who undergoes

misfortune through no particular fault of his own, and hence this type is
primarily a plot of suffering. Such as plot seems a favourite of those modern
or postmodern works concerned with the antiheroic, such as Tess of the
d’Urbevilles, The Three Sisters, Death of a aslesman, A Streetcar Named
Desire, From Hete to Eternity, A Fafrewell to Arms, where a brooding sense
of human frailty and futility pervades the whole, leaving one with a feeling
of pity, sorrow, and loss in the face of the inscrutable steamroller of
circumstances crushing the mewling kitten of human hopes.
c) The Tragic Plot.
If a sympathetic protagonist has also strength of will in adition to a certain
degree of sophistication or ability to change his thought, his responsibilty
for what he does or causes to happen may be correspondingly greater, and
hence our satisfaction in his downfall is thereby made clearer. When such a
man suffers misfortune, part or all of which he is responsible for through
some serious mistake or error in judgement on his part, and subsequently
discovers his error too late, we have the tragic plot. Examples of famous
plays having tragic plot are Oedipus the king, Antigone, Othello, Hamlet,
King lear, and Julis Caesar.
d) The Punitive Plot. Here we a protaginist whose character is essentially

unsympathetic in that his goals and his purposes are repugnant, yet who may
perhaps be admirable for his strength of will and intelletual sophistication,
suffering well- deserved misfortune. This typical of the satanic or
machiavellian hero- Villain close to the hearts of the Elizabethan and
Jacobean writers, as in Doctor Faustus and The duchess of Malfi.
 e) The Sentimental Plot. Coming now to those plots in which the change in

fortune is for the better, we have a very common type involving a

sympathetic protagonist who survives the threat of misfortune and comes
out all right at the end., although this too, is a plot of suffering. The final
effect is joyous relief at the right of virtue receiving its just reward. Example
of this kind of plot can be found in Tom Jones, where sentiment is crossed
by laughter.
f) The Admiration plot. A change in fortune for the better which is caused by

a sympathetic protagonist’s nobility of chacter results in a somewhat

different effect. Here he gains primarily in horror and reputation. Our long
range hopes are fulfilled, as in the sentimental plot, but with the difference
that our final response is respect and admiration for a man outdoingt himself
and the expection of others concerning what a man is normally capable of.
An example of this is Tom Sawyer.

2. PLOTS OF CHARACTER CONSISTS OF:

a) The Maturing Plot. The most common with plots which turn upon a change
In character involves a sympathetic protagonist whose goals are either mis-
Takenly conceived or not yet formed, and whose will is rudderless and
vacillating. This insufficiency is frequently the result of inexperience and
neivete, as in John Steinbeck’s “Flight” or even of absolute wrongheadness.
Is this latter is the cause, some means must be devised for changing his
thought, his character must be given strenght and direction, and this may be
accomplished through some drastic, or even a fatal misfortune, as when the
protagonist in Lord Jim gladly accepts death as a way finally proving his
regained strenght and purpose. This kind of plot can be found in Great
Expectation, The Way of All Flesh, A Portrait of The Artist, The Portrait of
a Lady, Sons and Lovers, Huckleberry Finn, and The Ammbassadors.
b) The Reform Plot. Similar to the maturing plot is another form of
characterchange for the better, in which the protagonist’s thought is
sufficient
from the beginning. He is doing wrong and knows it, but his weakness of
will causes him to fall away from cwhat he himself knows to be the just and
proper
path. Faced with the problem either of revealing to others his weakness or of
conceiling it under the mask of virtue and respectability, he chooses the latter
course at the outset. After being led to admire him at the beginning, we feel
impatience and irritation when we begin seeing it through his mask, then
and indignation and outrage when he continues to deceive others, and
finally a sense of confirmed and justified satisfaction when he makes the
proper choice. In the maturing plot, there is some pity for the protagonist,
since the acts and suffers under a mistaken view of things, but it exactly this
element which is lacking in the reform plot. Examples are The Scarlet
Letter, The Metamorphosis, and Lord Jim.
c) The Testing Plot. A sympathetic , strong, and purposeful character is

pressured in one way or another to compromise or surrender his noble ends

and ways: he has choice between loosing his nerve and taking the bribe, or
holding fast and suffering the consequences. We feel he should give up and
save his neck, yet if he does he will pay the price of losing his own self –
respect and our respect for him as well. The examples are For Whom the
Bell Tolls, Across the River, The Old man and the Sea, all by Hemingway,
and The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad.
d) The Deneration Plot. A Character change for the worse occurs when we

start with a protagonist who was at one time sympathetic and full of
ambition, and subject him to some crucial loss which results in his utter
disillusionment. He then has to choose between picking up the threads of his
life and starting over again, or giving up his goals and ambitions altogether,
 or it may be as in The Immoralis, he may end midway between these two
alternatives, not knowing what to do next. Chekov seems to have been
obsessed with the problem with how a person can live after all his ideals,
hopes, and goals have been shattered, but the most frequently had his
protagonists choose the latter course, as in Ivanov and The Seagull.
PLOT OF THOUGHT
a) The Education Plot.
The most common type involves a change in thought for the better in terms
of the protagonist’s conceptions, beliefs, and attitudes. It resembles the
maturingplot in that his thought at the outset is somehow inadequate and is then
improved but it doesn’t continue 0n to demonstrate or comfirm the effects of his
benefcialchange on his behaviour. This inadequacy may be either sophisticated or
naive. The examples of the former are All the King’s Men and The Confiden tial
Agent, the latter are The Death of Ivan Illich by Leo Tolstoy.

b) The Revelation Plot

This type hings upon the protagonist’s ignorance of the essential facts of his
situation. It is not a question of his attitudes and beliefs but of his knowledge, and
he must discover the truth before he can come to a decision. An example is found
in “The Green Fly”, a story by Hangarian writer, Kalman Mikszath. Here a
stubbon old peasant refuses to have his grangeneous arm amputated, prefaring
fatalistically to die quitely instead, until he learns that his young wife is flirting
with the hired man and would be just as glad to see the old man die. Once he
learns this, the peasant orders the doctor to proceed with the knife.

c) The Affective Plot.

Thre is a change in attitude and belief here, but of the general and
philosophical sort which characterizes the education plot. The problem is to see
some other person in a different and truer light than before, which involves a
change in feeling. This change depending upon whether the discovery is pleasant
or unpleasant will leave the protagonist happy and hopeful or sad and resign.
Example of the first is Pride and Prejudicehe and second is Heart of the
Darkness.

d) The Disillusionment Plot.

Here a c protagonist starts out in the full bloom of faith in a certain set o f
ideas and, after being subjected to some kind of loss, threat, or trial, loses faith
entirely.
Friedman concludes that we should not isolate techniques for the sake of
analysis only, and it is our definition of the whole which makes relevant of our
interpretation of these techniques. These are not categories for their own sake, but
a variety of possible ways of seeing the whole. We must examine the pertinence of
efficiency the parts and devices of a given plot by asking to what those things are
relevant to and effective for.
Let us examine other requirements of a good plot. A story involves action
towards an end, which the reader does not foresee, but also from the start
inevitale. When the reader reaches the end of the story, he will realize that there is
no other chice but having that particlar end. The story has been so structured that
every single word from the opening line to the concluding sentence is tied
artistically to a skeleton called plot. The presence of causal connections in plot
implies a belief in a rational universe, a universe in which things happen
meaningfully. In a conventional murder story, the murder sets of chain of
consequences that ends in capture and punishment for the criminal, possible
themes being “Crime does not pay” and “Good punishes the wicked.” Whatever
the theme, it is the presence of causation that makes meaningful statement
possible. The story that abandons causation, then, is one that reflects daoubts
about the rationality of the universe, portaying it as a place i n which murder can
take place as a senseless, random act and those who would deal with it as limited
to inconlusive groping in the dark.
A plot must have a beginning, middle, and an end. In a beginning, the
problems and the characters are exposed, or introduced, followed by a rsing action
and moves towards a climax, or a major crisis, then moves down in a falling
action, and conludes in an end, which can be a denouement (French word for
“unknotting” – the conventional plothas been compared to the tying and untying
of knot), a catastrope, a resolution, a happy or sad ending. A novel may have a
series and rising and falling actions which in the course of the story move into a
single major crisis and fall into a conluding end.
We must make these clear. Traditional plot is especially appropriate when
The writer sees a life as a matter of sharp conflict and a clear resolution.
Traditional plot finds unity in naction by seeing all the little actions of life as part
of one larger, more meaningful unifying action. At the core of conventional plot is
conflict, the most significant kind of action. Conflict may external or internal. A
confli ct may variously be physical, moral, psychological, intellectual, or spiritual
contest between antogonist forces- internal conflict between aspects of the person
ality, or external conflict between a person and an external force (another person,
society, environment, nature, the universe, God). In Perrine words (1959:62), it is
a clash of axctions, ideas, or wills. The maion character may pitted against some
other person or group of persons. This is called conflict of man – against-man. He
may also be confronted against some external forces – physical nature, society, or
‘fate.’ This is called a conflict of man – against – environment. He may also have
a conflict of man – against himself – the internal conflict, when he is confronted
against some elements in his own nature. Another writer mentions a conflict of
man – against – nature, i.e., a conflict of characater against the forces outside
himself as Nature, God, or Fate, and it is called the conflict of man – against –
environment as a conflict of man – against – circumstances. An external conflict
may be a projection of internal conflict. Whatever, a major fanction of conflict is
to clarify the issue or problem. At moments of gret conflict, characters reveal
themselve more clearly, plot moves through its most significant action, and theme
arises most evidently from kits context.
When we analyze plot, we should into consideration the ordering of events.
The order of narration, that is, the telling of the story, can be a key to the writer’s
purpose. If the story is narrated in Chronological order, the writer may be relating
events exactly as they happen in time purely for the primitive appeal to suspense,
for the sake of making the reader wonder what will happne next. This is a
common practice in detective or mystery stoty writing. If, however, a writer
whishes to place less emphasis on mere actions and more on the values of actions,
he has to insert the ususal order of beginning and ending. By revealing the
outcome at the beginning, inverted order forces the reader to shift interest from
what happena to Why and How it happened.Another devices that helps the writer
in placing actions in significant order is flashback. Using flasgbck the writer
introduces past events at pricisely the memont they are most relevant to the
present. Working in a similar way, the device of foreshadowing adds meaning to
present events or details by making them indicators of the future.
When we discuss plot, we should notice whether gthe plot has grown
naturally out of character and the initial incident or whether the events and
character appear to have had a premediated structure imposed upon them. In
conventional stories the structure can be divided into certain clearly defined
phases as we have mentioned above.The story usually begins in a state
equilibrium, a relatively quiet moment in which the writer uses exposition to fill
us in the chacaters’ background and their situations. This is the introduction
section of the story, in which we get to know the characters, problems, and
situation. This initial stability if not left out, is then distributed by some event that
incides conflict, which in drama somtimes called moment of incitement.
Following the inciting event, the conflict is intensified through a phase in rising
action and complication until a crisis, a particular sressful event, brings on the
climax, a point at which the fortune of the protagonist changes for the better on
the worse or at which the protagonist undergoes a change of heart or mind. In
drama, a climax answers the dramatic question posed byb the conflict. After the
climax, there are often smaller questions left to be answered, problems to be
solved. Here the intensity of the conflict diminishes through a brief stage of
falling action. Generally, a falling action moves swifter than its rising action, and
as has been mentioned above, may be called resolution (an act of solving) or its
conclusion, or its denoument or eiphany (a sudden spiritual illumination). An
ending can be called catastrophe, whent he destrcution of the main characters take
place. Having catastropic ending, Hamlet, a play written by William Shakespeare,
is sometimes called a strategy of blood.

2. CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION

The word character has been defined by different experts. First, Kennedy for
example (1983:45) defines it as an imagine person who inhabits a story. But
according to him that this definition is over simplified, for in a story, the
protagonist can be the wind, as in Storm, a novel written by George Steward, or
Rabbit as in Watership Down by Richard Adams. Usually in the main characters
of a story, we recognize human personalities that become familiar to us.
Second, Abrams (1971:20) defines character as a literary genre: a short, and
witty, sketch in prose of a distinctive type of person. The genre was inaguarted by
Theophrastus, a Geek author of the second century B.C., who wrote a lively book
called characters. Abrams further quotes a definition of characters: the person in a
dramatic or narrative work, endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that
are expressed in what they say, i.e., the dialogue, and what they do, i.e, the action.
The grounds in a character’s temperament and moral nature for his speech and
actions constitute his motivation.
According to Bowen (1946:250), that the term “creation of character (or
characters)” is misleading. For her, characters pre – exist. They are found and
recognized by the story writer, but not created. They reveal themselves slowly to
the story writer’s perception. The novelist’s of his characters take place in the
course of the actual writing of the novel. To an extent, the novelist is in the same
position as his readers, but his perception should be always just in advance.
As Kennedy has pointed out above, stories may happen not only to people
but also to elements of nature such as the wind, the waves, grass or stone, or even
animals. The stoty will exist only because these things will be treated as if they
were human rather than as what we know they are in nature, with the exception of
stories with animals as characters. We can have fable, in which the animals are
taken as human being, and in animal stories in which the animals are told as
animals. George Orwell in Animal Farm uses animals to act limke human beings,
while we also recognize other stories like horse stories, which are stories about
horses or dogs.
We read fiction at least because we are interested in what happens to
people.. We do not ask that they necessarily be like ourselves, but we do ask that
people in the story be believable, and that these characters be consistent. Let us
discuss these further.
To be believable or convincing, characterization must observe at least three
principles. First, the characters mut be consistent in their behaviour: they must not
behave one way on one occasion and a different way on another unless there is a
clearly sufficient reason for the change. In other words, a character may remain
essentially “stable”, or unchangeed in his outlook and disposition from the
beginning the end of of a work, or he undergo a radical change, either through a
gradual development or as the result of an extreme crisis. Whatever he remains
stable or changes, we required consistency in a character – he should not suddenly
break off and act in a way not plausibly grounded in his temperament as we
already have come to know it.
Second, the characters must clearly be motivated in whatever they do,
especially when there is any change in their behavior: we must be able to
understand the reasons for what they do, if not immediately, at least by the end of
the story. We are interested to know that characters act from known motives.
Third, the characters must be plausible, lifelike, credible, relistic, probable.
If the writer can meet the second principle, the third will automatically be
realized. The credibility of of a character can be avieved by meeting the second
principle, i.e., his clear motivation of taking any action. A character who is
introduced as an always skepticle person cannot suddenly be allowed to make a
prompt firm decision unless we are informed about all the possible reasons for
him to do so. His motives for taking action deviating from his known nature be
explained.
The characters must be neither paragons of virtue nor monsters of evil nor
an impossible of contradictory traits. Whether we have observed anyone like them
in our experience or not, we must feel that they have come from the author’s
experience – that they could appear somewhere in the normal course of events.
We are interested to read about lifelike people, people of flesh of blood, not a
superhuman who are good in doing tricks and magic. We are interested to read
real people, people with fear and courage, with emotion and sentiment, rational
people, people with hope for life, people with strenght and weaknesses. Real and
realistic people. (Terakhir pada halaman 66 dari The Anatomy of Prose
Fiction).

Types of Character

The characters in a narrative works comprise some types such as flat and
round characters. According to E.M. Foster (1985), the English novelist, in
his Aspects of the Novel that the flat character is built around “a single idea or
quality” and it is presented in outline and without much individualizing detail,
and so can be fairly adequately decribed in a single phase or sentence. A flat
character is charac terized by one or two traits.

A round character is complex in temperament and motivation and bt with

subtle particularity; thus he is as difficult to describe with any adequacy as a
person inn real life, and, like most people, he is capable of surprising us. He may
require as essay for full analysis. Almosdt all dramas and narrative, properly
enough, have some characters who serve as mere functionaries and are not
characterized at all, as well as other characters wnbo are quite flat. The degree to
which a character needs to be three – dimentional depends on his function in the
plot, and in many types of plot, such as in the detective novel or adventure story
or force comedy, even the protagonist usually possesses only two dimentions.
From the above explanation we know that the basis for Foster’s distinction of
characters is the proportion to the fullness of their development.
On the basis of importance, we can distinguish two types of character, main
or major character, and minor character. Major character is the most importamnt
character in a story. Basically, a story is about this character, but he cannot stand
on his own; he needs other characters to make the story more convincing and
lifelike (needless to say the we need other elements of a story such as setting).
Minor characters are characters of less important than those of the main.
The chief character in fiction or in a play is called protagonist ( literally,
from the Greek, a competitor at games). In many stories, an important opponent
pitted against, and he is called the protagonist who provide opposition.
In traditional fiction the protagonist is also the hero or heroine, an admirable
character who embodies widely accepted strenghts and virtues, who is morally
good. The antagonist in such fiction represents contrasting weaknesses and vices,
and if the antagonist is unsavory enough the word villain or villainess is used.
In classical Geek, “mythos” signified any story or plot, whether true or
false. In its central modern significance, a myth is one story in a mythology – as
system of hereditary stories which were once believed to be true by a particular
cultural group, and which served to explain (in terms of the intention and actions
of super- natural beings) why the world is as it is and things happen as they do,
and to establish the rational for social customs and observances and the sanctions
for the rules by which men conduct theirlives. Most myths involves rituals –
prescribed forms of sacred ceremonials – but social anthropologists disagree as to
whether rituals generated myths or myths generated rituals.
Characters may appear briefly as mere hints. These are minor figures who
are there in the story to show us what is going on. Minor characters, appearing
once only, may be ornaments. They are bonuses thrown in for our enjoyment.
Characters may also be secretaries whose function is little more than to
communicate some- thing, e.g., Marlowe in Lord Jim, a novel by Joseph Conrad.
Characters can be organizers, not of much interest themselves, but causing
things to happen; figures of authority in historical novels often function thus. In
many historical novels, some historical figures, i.e., real people who lived in the
past like Napoleon or Hitler, are used as organizers. The novels are normally not
about these historical figures, but about other people livng in close proximity and
in time with these figures.
Some characters may be there chiefly as ears or confidant, whos exist only
as someone to whom, letters are written or stories or secrets are told. Abrams
(1971:32) describe confident ( the feminine from is confidante) as a character in
Drama or novel who plays only a minor role in the action, but serves the
protagonist as a trusted friend to whom he can confess his intimate thoughts. The
confidant thus provides the playwright with a plausible device for communicating
to the audience the mind and intention of his principle character without the use of
stage devices as the soliloquy or the aside. Haratio in Hamlet is confidant, and a
famous confidant in prose fiction is Dr. Watson in A Conan Doyle’s stories about
Sherlock Holmes.
When talking about round and flat characters (terms originally invented by
EM. Foster, as you have read a bove), Buroway tries to explain them more clearly.
A flat character, for Buroway, is one who has only one charateristic, exists only to
exhibit that characteristic, and is incapable of varying from that characteristic. A
round character is many facted and is capable of change. Eric Bentley suggests in
the life of the drama that if a messenger’s function in a play is to deliver his
message, it would be very tedious to stop and learn about his psychology.
However, on stage even a flat character has a face and a costume, and in fiction
detail can give
Even a flat character a few angels and contour. Charles Dickens is very skillful in
bringing flat characters alive in detail: (Koesnosoebroto, 1988:70).
 1. Setting (time and place) or when and where the events were happened in the
story.
2. Theme (The central idea of the story). Theme is what the story about.
3. Character & Characterization
The character is the person who takes role in the story.
a. Main character/protagonist
b. Antagonist
c. Round character
d. Minor character
Lesson Transcript
Instructor: Joshua Wimmer
Joshua holds a master's degree in Latin and has taught a variety of Classical
literature and language courses.
We've all read short stories, such as 'A Country Doctor' by Franz Kafka or Edgar
Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart'. In this lesson, you'll learn more about the
characteristics of the short story and explore some noteworthy examples by
American and European writers.

Definition

A short story typically takes the form of a brief fictional work, usually written in
prose. The earliest precursors to the short story can be found in the oral
storytelling tradition, as well as episodes from ancient Mediterranean epics, such
as 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' and Homer's 'Iliad'.

Anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, and parables are all examples of the oral
storytelling tradition that helped to shape the short story, such as 'The Painting of
the Dog and His Reflection' from 'Aesop's Fables'. In fact, 'Aesop's Fables', first
collected in the 4th century B.C., may have been the first anthology of short
stories in Western literature.

Over time, genres and writers all around the world have influenced the
development of the short story. For example, Norse legends, Irish ballads, and
Gothic ghost stories have all played a major role in directing both its structure and
subject matter. Let's take a look at some of the major characteristics of the short
story.

Characteristics

Length: Short stories typically range from 1,600 to 20,000 words.

Although authors and critics have debated the length of the short story throughout
literary history, most agree on a minimum of 1,600 and a maximum of 20,000
words. In his own contribution to the debate, Edgar Allen Poe suggested that a
short story should take 30 minutes to two hours to read.

Subject: Short stories usually focus on a single subject or theme.

Subjects or themes may range from something as mundane as a daily errand or as
thrilling as a ghost tale. A single, easily contained plot is one of the hallmarks of
the short story and helps shape its other characteristics.

'In medias res': Short stories usually take place in a single setting and begin 'in
medias res', which means 'into the middle of things' in Latin.

In general, short stories tend to begin and end abruptly, with little to no prior
information and no major lapses in time. As they involve just one plot line and are
limited in word length, there is little room or need for the extended developments
we frequently find in novels.

Limited number of characters: Due to the limitations of the genre, short stories
typically focus on just one or a couple characters.

As short stories usually cover such brief periods of time, even a single character
may never be fully developed. However, historical examples, like some of
Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales,' may find interesting ways of involving
many different people, as we'll discuss next.

Examples

'Canterbury Tales'

Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' may very well be the first collection of
short stories in English literature. Composed in Middle-English verse or prose and
written in the early 14th century, Chaucer's collection revolves around a
storytelling contest among pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' a ghoulish account of a headless horseman and

an ambitious, superstitious schoolmaster, was published by Washington Irving in
1820. Adapted from a German folktale, the story owes much of its style and form
to the Gothic horror tradition found in the German novellen, or little novels, of the
18th century.

'The Overcoat'

The Russian form of the short story, or povest, helped revolutionize the genre
worldwide. Written by Nikolai Gogol in 1842, 'The Overcoat' concerns a poor
clerk, whose successful efforts to buy a new winter coat eventually lead to the loss
of a costly possession and his death. In its celebration of remarkably ordinary
people, places, and things, as well as its contribution to literary realism, 'The
Overcoat' stands out in the history of the short story. In fact, Gogol's work was so
influential that his fellow Russian author, Ivan Turgenev, once claimed that: 'We
have all come out from under his overcoat'.

'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County'

'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County,' based on an ancient Greek

myth about a frog-jumping contest, was published by Mark Twain in 1867. As the
author's first critical success, it also serves an example of a tall tale, or an
outlandishly improbable short story. Tall tales, along with their counterpart the
'western', were wildly popular on the American frontier from the mid-19th to late-
19th century.

'The Necklace'

Guy de Maupassant, who was well known for his twist endings, crafted 'The
Necklace', which tracks the troubles of a materialistic young woman who must
replace a priceless piece of jewelry. Inspired by the literary realism of Gogol, Guy
de Maupassant published this short story in 1884.

The Gift of the Magi

'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry, a classic short story about a devoted husband
and wife, was published just in time for Christmas in 1905. Like Guy de
Maupassant, this American author was known for his surprise endings. In 'The
Gift of the Magi', the husband sells his watch so he can buy his wife a comb, and
his wife cuts and sells her long hair so she can buy him a watch chain - gifts
neither of them can use at the end of the story.

Today, one of the greatest honors a short story writer can receive is the O. Henry
Award.

Lesson Summary

A short story is a brief work of fiction, usually written in prose and running 1,600
to 20,000 words in length.

The literary roots of the short story can be found in oral storytelling traditions,
such as anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, and parables.
The German 'novellen' and the Russian 'povest' are also forms of the short story.

Key characteristics of the short story include its length, limited number of
characters, subject matter, and tendency to begin 'in medias res', which is
Latin for 'the middle of things.'

Famous American short stories include 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' by

Washington Irving, 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County' by
Mark Twain, and 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry.

O. Henry' was inspired by French author Guy de Maupassant, who wrote 'The
Necklace'. Many short story writers also find inspiration from Nikolai Gogol's
'The Necklace.'

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The following are interesting examples of a short story: Guy de Maupassant’s The
Diamond Neclace which has shocking surprise. Franz Kafka’s The
Metamorphosis is a good example of a novelette. Lord Jim is an example of a
novel which set in Indonesia, written by Joseph Conrad.