“I never knew any one so keenly alive to a joke as the king was.”
This line isn’t really effective as it doesn’t engage the reader immediately by using dramatic or humorous words. It doesn’t lead into the story very quickly nor is it exciting. However, it does make the reader ask many questions in their heads creating some suspense. They could be asking questions such as; who is this king? Why is he so fond of jokes? Nevertheless, the line is a downfall to the actual story as it makes it seem boring or daft. There are only 3 main characters in the short story, the king, Hop Frog and Trippetta (another foreigner who was kidnapped alongside Hop Frog.) However there are 7 other ministers but they do not play a big part in the story.
This shows that characters in the story are limited. As well as the number of characters in the story the description of them is also limited.
Hop Frog is simply described as “a dwarf and a cripple” and his friend Trippetta is described as “a young girl very little less dwarfish than himself (although of exquisite proportions and a marvellous dancer.)” This shows just how limited the explanation of each character is in the short story. In the short story you will be able to find many indications to the climax which is also the twist, one being the great masquerade which will be organised by Hop Frog and Trippetta. Here Hop Frog dresses the king and his seven ministers as eight chained orang-utans. On top of the costume Hop Frog plastered a coating of flax upon a coating of tar. This is extremely flammable. This adds tension as well as suspense to the story, as the reader will be thinking what is he trying to do. This is one of the most obvious clues that Edgar Allen Poe uses in this short story. The ending of the story relates much to the clue used earlier. Hop frog burns all the ministers and as the costume was highly flammable they burned very easily.
He then runs away with Trippetta leaving the people to burn to their deaths. Compared to the starting of the story the ending is very exciting and very funny when it comes to realising what the twist actually was. The twist being that the king was taken by a fool by his own fool (Hop Frog) and killed in the process. The story also has a strong and decisive moral which is ‘don’t abuse power.’ The theme throughout the story changes and it isn’t always definite. The main theme could be how outsiders are treated within society.
Now we will be looking at ‘The Stolen Bacillus’ written by H.G. Wells. This story is about a man who steals the disease cholera to spread it among London’s population. The first line in the story is,
“This again,’ said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, ‘is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera-the cholera germ.”
This line isn’t very effective and it might put a reader off the story as he might think the story is just about germs and will get bored, it also isn’t very dramatic as a first line in a story should be. However it does create questions in the readers mind such as who is this Bacteriologist and why is he talking about the cholera germ? Nevertheless the line is actually a downfall to the story as it makes it seem boring and too much of a scientific genre.
In the story there are only 3 characters which are mainly used, they are the Bacteriologist, his wife Minnie and the Visitor (who turns out to be an anarchist.) As you can see the numbers of characters in this short story are limited, as well as that the description is also limited however the only person to get describe was the visitor,
“The lank black hair and deep grey eyes, the haggard expression and nervous manner,”
This is all that was said of the visitor and nothing more. The other two characters were not described much but Minnie kept calling the Bacteriologist mad which could be a style of description. In the story you can find some clues to the climax. Firstly when the Bacteriologist explains to the visitor how a drop of the cholera germ can kill many and secondly when the visitor runs off with the germ. The twist to the story was much unexpected and caught me out of the blue. The anarchist thinking he drank the cholera germ actually drank a germ that will turn him blue. H.G. Wells creates this twist very well all the time mentioning cholera when actually it was something else. However it does not give the story a definite ending as we do not know what happened to the visitor. Did he turn blue? This will be one of the many questions going through the readers head creating much suspense.
Now we will be looking at ‘Country living’ written by Guy De Maupassant. This story is about two similar families and how they cope with life. It also has a theme of making choices which is the main idea throughout the story. A lady of many riches offers each family to sell their son for a brief period of time. One family rejects and one accepts. The first line in the story is,
“The two cottages stood side by side at the foot of the hill not far from a small spa town.”
From the reading the first line a reader might think it is a type of fairy tale. This could engage the reader as many readers find fairy tales interesting. It also creates questions within the readers mind such as; what is so significant about these two cottages? Who are the families who inhabit these homes?
In this story there are only six main characters which we will need to look out for, however there are the kids and the kid which wants to be bought. Firstly there’s the Tuvaches who had one boy and three girls and then the Vallins who had one girl and three boys. The other characters are Madame Henri d’Hubieres and her husband. The descriptions of the characters are also very limited. The families are described as on the whole poor and Madame Henri d’Hubieres is described as a young women. What tells us that they are poor families is the diet which they have,
“They all lived on a meagre diet of soup, potatoes and fresh air.”
There are not many clues to the climax except for the fact that Madame Henri d’Hubieres offers the two families to buy their sons. One family accepts whilst the other does not. The family which does accept made up their minds in a very short amount of time. They all decided in one day, and they gave away their son on that same day. The twist in the story is that the parents thought they were doing something good for their son but it turned out to be something which he disliked. Also the ending stands out very much. It is very emotional in a positive and in a negative way. The positive part is when Jean Vallin the boy who had been sold comes back home and the negative part is when the other boy Charlot Tuvache blames his parents for keeping him and not giving him away.
“Parents like you is the reason why children get held back”
This line said by Charlot is harsh and could make the audience feel sorry for his parents. Before walking out of the house Charlot says to his parents he’ll never forgive his parents for not giving him away. There is also a contrast in the end, whilst there was an argument going on in the Tuvaches house the Vallins were celebrating with their boy who had come back. Charlot finally turns round to his parents calling them “Stupid, bog-trotting yokels” and vanishes into the night.
Finally, we will be looking at ‘An arrest’ written by Ambrose Beirce. This story is about a fugitive who runs away from jail and in the process he injures the jailer.
“Having murdered his brother-in-law, Orrin Brower of Kentucky was a fugitive from justice.”
Out of all the other stories this is probably the most engaging first line. It uses dramatic word such as murdered to engage the reader into the story. It will also make the reader want to read on and find out more about the murderer. It can also create questions in the readers mind such as; why did he kill his brother-in-law? This story also has the shortest amount of characters, that being only two. They are Orrin Brower and the jailer Burton Duff. This shows that the characters in the story are limited. As well as that the description of the characters are also limited. Orrin Brower is simply described as a fugitive from justice and his jailer Burton Duff isn’t really described until he captures Orrin Brower,
“As white as death and bearing upon his brow the livid mark of the iron bar.”
The clues to the climax can be found throughout the story. The main one is when Orrin Brower escapes into the forest and is then captured by the man he supposedly knocked out earlier.
The twist at the end is that Orrin Brower was turned in by the ghost of Burton Duff, the jailer who he had killed.
In conclusion, the reason why Nineteenth century short stories are traditional short stories is due to the five main areas which make up a short story, the first one being an interesting first line. This can be seen in all the stories which we have studied. They engage the reader and make the readers ask questions about the story and they create suspense. The second area is less than five characters. This can also be seen in all the stories. The highest amount of characters used was three and the amount of description used was also very limited, “a dwarf and a cripple” this is all that was said of Hop Frog the main character in ‘Hop Frog.’
The third area is clues to the climax. We have looked at this area in all of the stories. Many of them give clues to the twist and create much suspense throughout the story. The fourth area is a twist at the end. Nearly all the stories have a twist, some which are much unexpected such as the one in ‘The Stolen Bacillus’.
The fifth and final area is a theme or moral. Not all the stories have a moral to their ending but their theme can be seen through out the story. Such as the theme in ‘Country living’ (which is making choices.) This can bee seen in all the areas of the story, starting from when Madame Henri d’Hubieres comes with an offer to buy their son. The parents have to choose if they want to or not. This is the major choice made in the story and made a great impact to the ending of the story. The language used in the stories is very typical to short stories and the century it was written in. The writers use short sentences to quicken the pace of the story and words which have simple meanings. I will finish off by saying ‘Nineteenth century short stories’ are traditional short stories as they follow all the areas which makes a short story good and interesting.