FOG
General. The first sentence in “Fog” serves two purposes. 1. It thrusts satirically at the commercializing of the short story. 2. It induces the reader to believe the inner narrative is a growth, not a construction. The author seems to have hesitated between leaving the supernatural story as one beautiful enough to stand alone, and building about it the humorous and even cynical external action. Or it may be that he saw best to set off the fragile inner narrative with the hard facts of a workaday world. Without the prelude to the story (which begins with “He was born a thousand miles from deep water”) and without the sentences after the asterisks on page 73, the narrative recalls “The Brushwood Boy.” And this is true, despite the rather homely dialect. If, however, the reader is duly influenced by the parts referred to, he cannot but recall Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s “Struggle for Life,” as a prototype.
Plot.
Initial Stages: Andy pins up the ship; his father blots it out; Andy is delirious; acquires name of Wessel’s Andy.
Steps toward the Dramatic Climax: Andy drifts east; seeing a model of the Lucky Star in Stiles’s place, he asks for a job; he gets it. He reveals that he has had “a ship behind his eyes,”—a schooner like the Lucky Star, and his knowledge that he belongs on board. This knowledge is attended by a fear: he does not know the cause for which he must go. He indicates that something holds him back from the sea, but refuses to disclose it. The immediate approach to the dramatic climax is made in the story told, to the fisherman from Gloucester, by old Jem Haskins. Andy learns the facts about Dan and Hope Salisbury. Later, he asks whether there is a picture of Hope in the village.
Dramatic Climax: Andy steals into Ed Salisbury’s house and finds Hope’s picture.
Steps toward the Climax of Action: Andy is happy now (he knows why he must go aboard the Lucky Star). He reveals the other vision which has been, always, back of his eyes. Hope Salisbury has the face of that vision. It is clear to him, now, that in going aboard the vessel he will meet Hope. He knows that the time is near. Immediately before the climax of action, Stiles walks down the beach. He sees a mist, blotting the blue water as it comes. Turning homeward, he sees Andy, on the edge of the beach, staring into the fog.
Climax of Action: As the surf closes over Andy, Stiles gathers himself to jump. Then he sees the Lucky Star, and Hope. Andy goes aboard....
Is the “inevitable” quality of the narrative increased by making Andy “a queer one”? See Georgie, by way of contrast, in “The Brushwood Boy.”
Where does suspense first operate? Where do you suspect, first, that Hope is meant to be Andy’s bride?