THE WAITING YEARS
Classification. This short-story illustrates grouping for sake of climactic effect. Events of forty years are illuminated by the happenings of a day. The narrative has both an outer and an inner action.
Plot. The plot of the combined inner and outer story is quite simple. The initial impulse consists of Mark Faraday’s interest in Miss Allison Clyde. The dramatic climax, if such it may be called, lies in the finding of the love-letters which his Uncle William had written and never sent to Allison. The climax of action is his handing the package of letters to Allison.
The inner plot is found in the letters. The initial impulse of William’s love for Allison operates until the dramatic climax. This dramatic climax is William’s knowledge that he must die and his feeling that he must never speak again to Allison of his passion. Up to the climax of action (his death) his letters have the note of renunciation; before the dramatic climax they looked to union with the girl he adored.
The two parts are linked in William’s giving the package to Allison. Would you have been satisfied to see him read them without passing them on to her? Are you satisfied to construct your own dénouement—Allison’s emotion, etc.?
Characterization. Since development or deterioration of character is difficult to indicate within the compass of the short-story, this specimen shows a distinct advantage in massing the incidents near the climax. For Allison may be shown finished, perfect,—the lovely “personage,” to quote the oracle, Mrs. Herrick,—whom Mark finds. At the same time, her development is made logical by the emphasis on her youthful beauty of mind and heart as her lover saw it. Study, in the usual way, the many methods by which Mrs. Roof has made vivid her portrait. Mark’s point of view regarding her is particularly good; also, the foil, Stella, serves adequately to set her off. Observe, too, the relation she bears to her setting, her fitness for it.
Since Mark is the one through whom the reader learns the facts of the action, his mind is open to the reader’s vision. Is there too much of the artist about him, not enough of the man? Would you have him different? Is he the nephew of his uncle, from a consideration of sentiment?
What effect is produced by the names, in connection with their owners?—Mark, Stella, Allison, William?
Details. What is the intensifying worth of the sundial? Of the buzzing bee? A second line of interest may be said to lie in the music theme, which intensifies the line of the love interest and Mark’s interest in Miss Allison.
Do you feel jarred or pleased by the shift to Allison’s angle (in her letter, page 204)?
Does Mark too easily come across the daguerreotype, or does the casual manner of his finding it fit into the smooth and leisurely progress of the story?
Why is the picture of Allison “standing by the tall mantle in the candle-light” one that lingers? Why does one remember the picture of Beatrix (in “Henry Esmond”) coming down the stairs in white, with cherry colored ribbons, holding the candle in her hand?
Do the letters of William strike you as having been composed by a man or a woman? Why?