III. Study of the Book as a Whole
Setting and Situation.—What means does the author take in Chapters I and III to acquaint us with the time of the story? How definitely can you fix it? (See p. 47, l. 22.)
What sort of place was Lantern Yard? Describe the people who worshiped there. What was their social life? Why was their church called a chapel?
Compare this place, where Silas first lived, with Raveloe in respect to location, people, religious beliefs, wealth, social life, etc.
Although Raveloe is not on the map, in what part of England is it supposed to be?
Do the descriptions, for example, of the company at the Rainbow or of the party at the Red House, seem like caricatures or like pictures from real life? Give reasons.
Has the author been true to the life of a certain place and time? (See Introduction, p. 34.) Is the setting closely interwoven with the story, or could the scene have been changed without loss of interest to New England, or to some other place, fifty or a hundred years later? Give reasons.
Plot.—Make a list of the most important scenes (seven or eight in all), note the train of incidents that leads to each, and the suggestions in each that prepare us for the further development of the story. Show that there are two distinct stories separately introduced, but finally woven together.
Note in what places these distinct stories touch each other and how they are knitted together. In the arrangement of the scenes is there any attempt at contrast? (See Introduction, p. 40.) Are any of them merely episodes that might be omitted without loss to the story? Most of the scenes mark a climax. Is there any one scene so interesting and important by reason of the characters brought together and the facts unfolded that we may call it the climax of the story?
Is there unity in the plot?