Nineteenth Century Short Stories
“A short story should stimulate the imagination and hold its reader in suspense.” Critically consider this statement with detailed reference to “Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver” by Thomas Hardy and “The Unexpected” by Kate Chopin
This statement is ambiguous as a short story could not be filled with suspense but still be able to stimulate the imagination. Thomas Hardy’s “Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver” story is filled with more suspense than Kate Chopin’s “The Unexpected”. Kate Chopin was born on February 8th 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was an Irish immigrant and died when Kate was young. So, she grew up in an all female household. When her husband died she started writing seriously and is considered to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 19th century. Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840 in Stinsford, Dorchester, England. His father was a builder and he was interested in the countryside and the people of Wessex, which is reflected in his works as an author.
The language in Chopin’s story is filled with sensuous descriptions of the wife waiting for her future husband to return. The sense of anticipation is heightened through the use of language during the opening scenes of the story. This contrasts with Hardy’s novel which describes a man who has many women upon his beck and call. The description is less tender and romantic and this is illustrated by the less descriptive impression of the women portrayed to the reader. The imagery throughout “The Unexpected” is of raw passion between the couple until the end where there is a sense of hostility between the two. An example of this is when there is “a frenzy of passion.” This may have been written in this way as Kate Chopin lived in an all female household so would have a different way of perceiving men as oppose to if she had a male figure in her life when she was younger. This is where the story climaxes as it unknown to whether she will ever forgive him, but from then on there is a sense of bathos, which is a reference to after Dorothea has left Randall, there is very little suspense evoked in this story. Conversely it can be seen in “Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver” that the imagery throughout is more erratic, at the beginning it is written with words such as “tender” and “clasp his dearest one” but as the story progresses he becomes more violent acts by “bringing down his fist”. This represents the suspense rising and the reader is in search of more. This story is effective as it is enjoyable and the suspense during the story stimulates the reader’s imagination.
