Page 38 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes 3.1 Plot

The novel deals with events and actions and things, which are suffered and done, and this is what
that constitutes the plot. Plot is the basic framework of any piece of writing around which the
story is woven. The plot may also be defined as a systematic organization and arrangement of
incidents. A good plot is skilfully constructed and avoids gaps and inconsistencies. The events
when proceed logically and spontaneously aid the plot to be good. The novelist’s method of
narration often makes a tedious plot also interesting.
A good plot grips the attention and the interest of the reader while a loose plot wavers the interest.
A compact, symmetrical and a well worked out plot gives aesthetic pleasure.
Credibility of authenticity is another quality of a good plot. It should seem to move naturally and
be free from any touch of artificiality.
Plot may be simple or compound. A simple plot comprises one story and compound has two or
more stories in combination. A compound plot to be successful should have the unity of the
stories, that is, they should be wrought harmoniously together. If this element of judicious blend
of the story lines were missing, then it would become loose which will be technically imperfect.
Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is an example of a loose plot.
A loose plot is the story of detached incidents or episodes having little logical connection with
each other. Some unity that is there is provided by the personality of the hero who binds the
scattered elements together.
Dialogue

The conversation of these characters comprises the third element of the novel viz. dialogue. It is
often so closely connected with the characterization that it appears to be a fundamental part of it.
In the first place it should always constitute an organic or natural element in the story, that is, it
should really contribute, directly or indirectly, either to he movement of the plot or to the exposition
or the explanation of the characters in their relations with it. Irrelevant conversations, however
smart or witty, cause aberration and should therefore be avoided. They break the fundamental
law of unity. Examples of such contravention can be found in plenty in the discussions on society,
politics, art and literature, which fill many pages in the novels of many authors.
Setting
The time and place of action in the novel is called setting. It includes the entire background of the
story—the manners, customs, ways of life the natural background or the environment.
Thus there are novels of the sea and of military life; of the middle classes, the upper classes, the
lower classes; of industrial life, commercial life, artistic life, clerical life; and so on. Commonly the
local type of characters are presented amidst their local or normal surroundings but often the
novelist changes the background or transports his characters to different environment that becomes
the novel’s place of happenings and hence its setting. Setting also includes the portrayal of some
special classes, social groups and places.

3.2 Novelist’s Criticism and Philosophy

The fifth element of the novel is the writer’s criticism, interpretation or philosophy of life. Every
novel before being written lies in the conceptualized form in the novelist mind. Since novel is
concerned directly with life; with the ephemeral beings—men and women, their relationships,
their passions, feelings and reactions, their joys and sorrows, highs and lows of life, the novelist’s
comments or suggestions or his experiences invariably come into the novel which are defined as
his criticism, interpretation or philosophy of life.

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