Initial Incident: César Dupont persuades Louis Bac to meet Berthe. (Note, even in the single incident, the struggle—one of wills—and the argument which wins the younger man.)
Steps to the Dramatic Climax: 1. Louis meets Berthe and “feels nothing.” 2. “—a daring idea sprang ... darted into Louis’s relaxed brain.” 3. Louis goes to the Dupont mansion, steals to the girl’s room, sees her asleep. “He gazed resentfully at that diminished beauty.... Why not give her a fright?” He seizes a pillow and presses it against her face. “She made a sudden downward movement, gurgling. With a quick, cat-like leap he was on her chest.”
Dramatic Climax: His soul and passions are liberated. “The body lay limp and flabby at last.”
Steps to the Climax of Action: 1. Louis takes pains to divert suspicion from himself. 2. In the next three months he writes his book. (Note that this is the climax of action in the artist’s struggle, that the murder is the turning point after which he succeeds artistically. But the climax of action for the man is yet to come.) 3. At the end of the three months, he hears that another has been hanged as the murderer. 4. He confesses to M. Dupont. 5. Dupont refuses to believe the story. 6. Louis writes his confession.
The Climax of Action: He walks to the Catholic cemetery and shuts himself into the family vault.
Dénouement: Left to the reader. By a clue on page 16 one would gather that Bac drank poison or cut his wrists.
Study the development of this plot, as to scenes, summaries, condensations, accelerations, gaps, and omissions with reference to the artistic effect. For example, the initial incident is presented dramatically, the characters act it before the reader. The steps to the dramatic climax are presented partly in retrospect, from Louis’s point of view; those nearest the climax are given dramatically.
Study the plot, also, with respect to the struggle. What details are “for” Louis’s artistic success? How are they related to those “against” his physical being?
Is the plot, in connection with the development of Louis’s character, probable? What logic has the author employed to make it seem so? Mrs. Atherton’s own testimony is valuable by way of reflecting the artist’s temperament. As she herself says, although she has never been impelled to murder and has had always a consuming interest in life, yet until the war, she never permitted anything to interfere with her work.
Characterization. What value is there in Louis Bac’s being French? Mrs. Atherton plays up Louis by making him the spot-light figure and by presenting the story from his angle. The invasion of his mind results, incidentally, in the reader’s seeing the setting, situation, and characters as he sees them.