There are usually just a small number of characters; this again is to focus our attention to what is happening. Also having many characters would make the story confusing and hard to follow, as you can’t read much into the characters as with most stories, as it is just a short story.
There is a conflict or problem, for example in The Black Cottage by Wilkie Collins were a young girl has a problem when two men try to break into her house. This provides an element of excitement in the short story and usually the main character solving the mystery or the main chain character learning something resolves the problem.
In the ‘Black Cottage’ by Wilkie Collins, the author places a very vulnerable character in a dangerous situation, first of all this is quite strange, as the main character is a female; this isn’t typical of Victorian Short Stories. However what is typical of the genre is the fact that there is a main character and she has a problem which she must resolve. The author uses long and complex sentences to build the tension in the story, which is hardly ever seen in more modern stories of the same genre. More modern stories are usually written in short sharp sentences; these are aimed to drive the plot along at speed.
‘I felt next to certain that neither Shifty Dick nor Jerry had got a chance of setting eyes on so small a thing as the pocket book, while they were in the kitchen: but there was a kind of vague distrust troubling me – a suspicion of the night – a dislike at being left by myself, which I never remember having experienced before.’
But this type of sentence structure may make the reader read more of the story, as it is unlikely that someone will stop reading in the middle of a sentence.
There is only a small number of characters in this short story, in total there are only about six characters and only three of them play major rolls in the story. There are other characters that are referred to throughout but do not actually play any roll in the story. This is very typical of the genre and helps the reader to stay focussed on just one thing involving very few characters, this is one of the reasons why short stories are typically very easy to follow and understand. In the main setting the three characters that play the major roll are all together and this scene is effectively the whole story.
‘Shifty Dick and his companion looked at each other when I unwisely let out the truth, but made no remark, except to ask me if I would give them a drop a cider’
In this sentence that is just a small part of the main scene all three main characters are featured. It isn’t like this is more modern stories as there are usually much more main characters and they often go there separate ways i.e. sub plots, this doesn’t happen in short stories.
Wilkie Collins’ intention in ‘The Black Cottage’ is simple enough: to create a feeling of suspense in the reader. In reading this story I believe that he has achieved this goal and examples of suspense can be seen throughout the story:
‘Nothing more was said, but I heard their footsteps retreating from the door’
The exposition of the story, which explains the setting and the opening situation, in my eyes I saw trouble in the situation and setting and this built up suspense in me which it probably will do in many other readers.
A modern 20th century example of this story can be seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ were the inhabitants of a house are menaced and terrorised by forces that lurk outside.
In The Sea Raider’s by H.G Well’s, the author has again placed a normal every day kind of person in a very dangerous and daunting situation, not typically faced in real life. In this story there is a hero which is typical of the genre who saves the day and brings peace back to the coast of Sidmouth. The problem that has to be over come isn’t an everyday situation and I would describe it as fantasy.
Again the author is using long and very complex sentences which are very detailed, more modern books usually state the object and give a small amount of detail and then go on to explain it is more detail. In the Victorian Short Stories genre this typically all happens in the same sentence:
‘And in it’s agony threw up a number of large objects, which the Prince, dimly perceiving they were strange and important, was, by a happy expedient, able to secure before they sank’.
This is a long and very complex sentence using commas to break it up and a lot of conjunction words. It may even require a second glance to fully understand it. If this was part of a more modern story then this long and complex sentence would probably be broken into smaller and simpler ones that are much easier to understand.
There is just one simple plot in this story with no sub-plots and the plot is focused around the main character for the whole of the story, only surrounding the main event. This is very typical of the genre and features many of the traits of the other stories. There are about the same amount of characters as in the last story but in The Sea Raiders there are accounts of previous events at the start which feature other characters. This is simply to set the scene and to intensify it; this keeps the reader reading the story to see how the basic plot develops.
The conflict in this story is very strange and not something that would be encountered in everyday life, as soon as the situation is realised by the main character he turns into the hero and is there to save the day and over come the problem. It is possible in this story to identify where the tension rises at the start:
‘He was near this when his attention was attracted by what at first he thought was a cluster of birds struggling over a fragment of food that caught the sun-light, and glistened pinkish-white’.
This is where we realise something is different or strange and tension starts to build this is helps by the introduction of previous events and there results.
This is different from the previous story as it is in the third person whereas in ‘The Black Cottage’ it is all in the first person, I don’t think that this affects the authors attempt to build tension at all.
I think that H.G Well’s has succeeded in writing a story that builds up tension in the reader, again example of suspense can be seen throughout the story an example being:
‘He approached his mark with all the assurance which the absolute security of this country against all forms of animal life gives it’s inhabitants’.
This story may have influenced other writers to write about science fiction, the creature that was fought off was made up by Wells but the Devon coast and specific beaches referred to are real. Wells has chosen a very mysterious setting, the deep sea to create an element of tension which I think was a good choice as very little was known about the oceans when the story was written. The story is timeless as it can still create the same kind of tension and suspense as it did when it was written even though we know a lot more about the deep seas now.
In conclusion I have tired to show that Victorian short stories have a lot in common with each other and that the Authors of theses stories are a lot different that the authors of modern day stories. I think that the Victorian Short Story genre has had many impacts on the way stories are written today and also the different authors of the short stories have inspired the modern authors of today. Although similar in many ways the short stories each have their own individual and very simple plot which tends to focus on just one hero or heroine. The short stories are enjoyable to read because of the element of tension throughout the genre.