ENGLISH LITERATURE

Literature:

 Literature is a product of someone’s imagination, originality, thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas

etc.
 Literature is the reflection of society, or reality.
 Written or oral artistic works, especially those with a high and lasting artistic value.
IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
 Literature improves your language.
 It teaches you about the life, cultures and experiences of people in other parts of the
world.
 It entertains you and provides useful occupation in your free time.
 It helps you compare you own experiences with the experiences of other people.
 It makes you a wiser and more experienced person by forcing you to judge, sympathize
with or criticize the characters you read about.
LITERATURE GENRES
 PROSE: The ordinary form of written language.
 FI CTION: Literature works about imaginary characters and events like short story.
 Non-fiction: Literature works about real characters and events.
 Poetry
 Drama
PROSE AND PROSE FICTION
 The word Prose is derived from the Latin word prosa which literally means straight
forward.
 Prose is a informal natural expression of speech, writing in sentence or paragraph form that
is not broken up into lines like poetry rather it follows the grammatical structure.
 Prose fiction the most popular and widely consumed literary genre.
 Prose fiction as a literary genre is made up of the short story, the novella and the novel.
THE DEFINATIONS OF PROSE FICTION
 Prose fiction is the most organic of writing styles, using a natural narrative storytelling that
is constantly evolving.
 There are very few rules a prose fiction writer has to follow: punctuation and grammar
specifications and the type of language used in the narrative will differ depending on both
the location and the time period in which it was written.
 Prose fiction as a literary genre is made up of the short story, the novella and the novel.
 Prose fiction tells a story and the fact that the story is not factual distinguishes it from
imagination.
WHAT IS FICTION/ NOVEL?
 Fiction is the classification for any story created by the imagination, rather than based
strictly on history or fact.
 Fiction is derived from the Latin word fictum which means ―created.
 It is commonally called Novel that can be defined as an extended work of prose fiction.
 Novel word derives from the Italian novella (little new thing), which was a short piece of
prose.
 Fiction is a term used to denote anything, mainly stories or accounts that are not real.
 Fiction is a story or setting that is derived from imagination
KINDS OF PROSE
1. Fictional Prose (Includes novels, novellas, short stories)
2. Non-fictional Prose (Includes biographies, essays, journals)
3. Heroic Prose (Includes legends, tales, fairy tales)
4. Poetry Prose ( poetry written in prose instead of using verse but maintaining poetic
qualities)

KINDS OF PROSE
  Pose fiction is an umbrella term that seems to be no rational or specified classification.
 Roughly it includes different kinds of prose: Fictional,
 Nonfictional Prose,
 Heroic Prose,
 Polyphonic Prose,
 Alliterative Prose,
 Prose Fiction,
 and Village Prose etc.

ESSENTIAL OF PROSE

 Prose fiction is an artistic work that has a personal narrative, a hero to identify with fictional
inventions, style, and suspense.
 In short anything that might be handled with the rather personal ventures of creativity and
artistic freedom.
 It may exaggerate or distort facts or the story may be completely an invention depending on the
style of the writer and or what the writer wants to achieve.
 The story in prose fiction is invented by the writer but is presented in a realistic manner.

HUNDSON ON PROSE FICTION

 Hudson uses the term prose fiction in a broader tem.

 He considers that “Novel is the fullest form of epic, drama, heroic poet, ballad… it is pocket
theater containing all the qualities in narrative form (Hudson, 1964).

FICTION:

 The term refers to narrative forms of Literature including the novel, novella, short story and tale.
 Fiction constitutes an act of creativity so that faithfulness to reality is not typically assumed.
 In other words, fiction is not expected to present only characters who are actual people or
descriptions that are factually true.

 Rather through the fictitious names and figure and settings the issues of real life are presented.
 It means the context of fiction is generally open to interpretation.
 However, some fictional works are claimed to be historically or factually accurate.
 They depict the real characters from the past who are the part of history but in cases they are
not based strictly on history or fact.
 Traditionally, fiction includes novels, short stories, fables, legends, myths, fairytales, epic and
narrative poetry

NOVEL:

 “Novel is a vague term denoting at most a prose medium, some pretence of action, a minimum
of length, and a minimum of organisation.”
 It may be roughly defined as a long story in prose, meant primarily for entertainment, and
presenting a realistic picture of life.

ELEMENTS OF NOVEL

 The elements of a novel are the same elements as that of the drama or short story or a tale,
Novel constitute following elements:
1. Novel deals with events and actions which constitute its plot.
2. These happen to people and done by the people these men and women are called
character.
3. The conversation of these characters constitutes the element of dialogue.
4. 4. These action take place at some the place and at some time. It may be some limited
region or its action may range over large number of places, cities, even countries.
5. The Style is the fifth element where a writer reveals his creative skill, scholarship and
command on technical skills of writing novel
 6. Novel exhibits certain view of life and some of the problems of life. It thus gives the author’s
criticism of life or his Philosophy of life.
 Except these six elements there may be more than one sub-elements each of these main
elements.
 For example within the main plot of a novel there may be several sub-plots.
 Similarly there may be more than one theme, running parallel through out the novel.
 Moreover, there may be multiple view points of life that reveals the author’s philosophy of life.
 Its treatment of life and its problems may be realistic or away from everyday life.
 Thus, it is realism which distinguishes it from the earlier prose romances.
 Thus the novel does not provide escape from life and its problems, but rather a better
understanding of them.
 It also reflects the very spirit of the age in which it is written.

TYPES OF FICTION
1. Picaresque Novel
 The Picaresque novel is the tale of the adventures or misadventures of a picaro
or rogue who wanders from one country to another, and in this way the
novelist gets an opportunity of introducing a variety of characters and society
as a whole realistically.
 Some times it is satiric but the aim of the novelist is to delight and entertain,
and to reform or improve.
 To Thomas Nash is the first picaresque novelist who wrote Unfortunate
Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton, who travels through France, Germany,
Flanders and Italy.
 Fielding’s Tom Jones, the hero, is a foundling.
 The novel deals with his adventures meets with various incidents, and comes in
contact with a great variety of characters and social settings of various regions
and religion.
2. Historical Novel
 A story that take place in historically accurate time and setting. The characters
and some events are fictional.
 The historical novel designates certain events and characters from history and
weaves around them a fictitious enchantment.
 He selects some facts & figure from history and arranges them according to his
choice with an equal proportion of facts and fiction but what may be described
as the spirit and atmosphere of history.
 Thus novelist’s imaginary reconstruction from past does not allow historical
facts to come in the way of his fiction; nor does he permit his fiction to violate
the significance of historical facts.
 Sir Walter Scott is the creator of the Historical novel, blended into a unity fact
and fancy, and history and romance.
 However, It is true Scott alters the facts of history and changes the sequence of
events in the interest of his art.
3. Social Reform Novel
 This social reform novel reveal the complexity of their age and take up
reformist subject matter without feeling any reformist commitment or without
intending any reformist effect like Charles Dickens, Henry James, and Mark
Twain.
 These novelists focus on some social evil of a particular time to demonstrate
the purposefulness of their work.
 The novel of social reform is associated with the name of Charles Dickens who
consciously used the novel-form to focus public attention on the many social
evils prevalent in his age to cure them which caused great suffering to the
 poor. In this way, he rendered great service to society, and contributed much
to the well-being of the under-dog of society.
 Many of the social ills of the day come within the lash of Dickens like evils of
industrial revolution, child labour, have been highlighted through the suffering
of such children as David Copperfield, that depicts that in 18th century there
were no factory laws and Trade Unions and so the factory owners were free to
exploit tender children for their own profit.
4. Realistic History
 A story that seems real or could happen in real life. It is set in present day
and includes modern day problems and events.
 Realistic fiction A fictional attempt to give the effect of realism is
sometimes called a novel of manner or social novel.
 Realistic novel can be characterized by its complex characters with
mixed motives that are rooted in social class and operate according to
highly developed social structure.
 The characters in realistic novel interact with other characters and undergo
plausible and everyday experiences.
 A story that seems real or could happen in real life. It is set in present day
and includes modern day problems and events.
 A story that seems real or could happen in real life. It is set in present day
and includes modern day problems and events.
5. Epistolary Novel
 The word epistolary comes from Latin where ‘epistola’ means a letter.
 Epistolary fiction is a popular genre where the narrative is told via a series of
documents.
 Letters are the most common basis for epistolary novels but diary entries are
also popular.
 Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Clarissa,
 Bram Stoker’s Dracula,
 Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and
 Bridget Jones’ s Diary.
 The word epistolary comes from Latin where ‘epistola’ means a letter.
 Epistolary fiction is a popular genre where the narrative is told via a series of
documents.
 Letters are the most common basis for epistolary novels but diary entries are
also popular.
 Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Clarissa,
 Bram Stoker’s Dracula,
 Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and
 Bridget Jones’ s Diary.
6. Gothic Novel
 Gothic novel includes terror, mystery, horror, thriller, supernatural, doom,
death, decay, old haunted buildings with ghosts and so on.
 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,
 William Polidori’s The Vampyre,
 Bram Stoker’s Dracula,
 Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto
7. Autobiographical Novel
 An autobiographical novel is a novel based on the life of the author.
 Charles Dickens’ David Coppefield, Great Expectations,
 D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers,
 Virginia Wolfe’s To The Light House
8. Satirical Novel
 Satire is loosely defined as art that ridicules a specific topic in order to
provoke readers into changing their opinion of it.
  By attacking what they see as human folly, satirists usually imply their
own opinions on how the thing being attacked can be improved.
a. George Orwell’s Animal Farm,
b. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travel,
c. Mark Twin’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn,
9. Allegorical Novel
 An allegory is a story with two levels of meaning- surface meaning
and symbolic meaning.
 The symbolic meaning of an allegory can be political or religious,
historical or philosophical.
 John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress ,
 William Golding's The Lord of the Flies,
 A new development in Novel is trilogy that is a set of three works
of art that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual
works, for example: literature, film, and painting, video etc.
 Your trilogy can be connected through characters, or themes
having one storyline that guides whole series.
 Most trilogies are works of fiction involving the same characters or
setting, such as The Deptford Trilogy of novels by Robertson
Davies and Harry Potter films.

10. Stream of consciousnes

 The term “stream of consciousness” originated in psychology
before literary in early 20th-century Modernist movement.
 Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries
to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought
process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete
ideas, unusual syntax, and rough grammar.
 Stream of consciousness is used primarily in fiction and poetry, but
the term has also been used to describe plays and films that
attempt to visually represent a character's thoughts.
 Stream of consciousness writing allows readers to “listen in” on
a character's thoughts hence, writing does not usually follow
ordinary rules of grammar and syntax or word order. in
unconventional language to replicate the complicated pathways
that thoughts take as they unfold and move through the mind.
 This is because thoughts are often not fully formed, or they change
course in the middle and become "run-on sentences," or they are
interrupted by another thought.
 So grammar and syntax can be used to replicate this process in
ways that aren't grammatically or syntactically "correct," but that
nonetheless feel accurate.
 Stream of consciousness can be written in the first person as well
as the third person.
 For instance, in Death in Venice, Thomas Mann uses irregular
syntax to depicts the main character's descent into madness in the
following passage:
  "For beauty, Phaedrus, take note! beauty alone is godlike and
visible at the same time.“
 In this technique helps writers convey more accurately the random
leaps from one to the another thought that are a part of people's
everyday thoughts. than they could by using a series of ideas
connected with clear, logical transitions.
11. Science fiction:
 A story that is typically set in the future or one planets. It is based on the
impact of actual, imagined or potential science.
 Science Novel is fiction that imagines.
 For example: What if the world ended? What if there were life on other
planets?
 The imaginary part of science fiction is based on known scientific facts.
 For example, if there is time travel in a science fiction book, it would be done
with technology.
12. Fantasy:
 A story that is imaginative, but could never really happen. The setting may be
of another world. Characters might be magical.
 Fiction is about imaginary worlds but the imaginary part of fantasy novels
usually involves magic, where the imaginary part of science fiction involves
science or technology.
13. Mystery:
 A story that usually involves suspense and the solving of a crime. Clues are
typically given throughout the story to solve the mystery at the end of the
book.
 Mystery novel is about a crime, usually a murder in which hero(ine) is usually a
detective doing detective work.
14. Adventure:A story where a protagonist and other major characters and are placed in
dangerous situations. The characters must use their wit and skills to defeat the
antagonist.
15. Folktales : A story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by world of mouth.
i. Fable:A brief story that is meant to tell a lesson or a moral. The characters are
usually animals with human characteristics.
ii. Fairy Tale:A story that has magical elements. The characters are usually fairies
giants, elves, and other magical creatures.
iii. Legend :A story usually about a national or folk hero. This story takes place in a
particular time and pace and is partly true and partly fiction. The character
traits of the here are typically exaggerated.
iv. Tall Tale:A humorous story with extreme exaggerations. The main character or
hero, usually does impossible things with ease.
v. Myth :A story that is often based on a historical event that is meant to serve as
on explanation for some phenomenon of nature or human behavior.Characters
are usually god.

GENRES OF FICTION
 Short story: A brief artistic form of prose which is centered on a major main event
with a few characters.
 Novel : A long artistic form of prose which covers both main and sub events.
Element of a Story
 Plot
 Setting
 Characters
 Point of view
 Theme
o Plot:
 Plot is what happens and how it happens in a narrative stages of object.
 The plot may be defined as a systematic organisation and arrangement of
incidents or event in a literary genre.
 Plot refers events composed in sequence.
 The plot can be made up of several seemingly unconnected threads, but as long
as they are presented in a way that communicates to the viewer that these
actions and events are connected in some way, you may safely refer to that
chain of events as the plot.

Qualities of A Good Plot

 A good plot is skilfully constructed and should have following qualities:
a. There should be no gaps and inconsistencies.
b. All parts should be arranged with due proportion of balance and
proportion.
c. The incidents shall appear to evolve spontaneously from its data from
each other
d. The commonplace things should be made interesting and significant by
the novelist’s method of narration.
e. The march of events shall be so managed as to impress us as orderly and
appear natural under the circumstances.
f. The catastrophe (denouement) should satisfied as the logical product
and summing up of all that has gone before and there should be nothing
forced, artificial or unconvincing.

• Generally a good plot comprises of five main elements:

1. Introduction or Exposition
 This is the beginning of the story, where characters and setting are established
and the issue or conflict or main problem is introduced as well.
2. Rising Action
 Rising action which occurs when a series of events build up to the conflict.
 The main characters are established by the time the rising action of a plot occurs,
and at the same time, events begin to get complicated.
 It is during this part of a story that excitement, tension, or crisis is encountered.
3. Climax
 In the climax, or the main point of the plot, there is a turning point of the story.
This is meant to be the moment of highest interest and emotion, leaving the
reader wondering what is going to happen next.
4. Falling Action
 Falling action, or the winding up of the story, occurs when events and
complications begin to resolve. The result of the actions of the main characters
are put forward.

5. Resolution
 Resolution, or the conclusion, is the end of a story, which may occur with either
a happy or a tragic ending.

The Essentials of a Good Plot

  A prose fiction or novel is primarily a tale and as such it must be strong in the
story interest to provide amusement for the leisure hour and a welcome relief
from the strain of practical affairs.
 It must have greatness of subject & universality of appeal.
 It does not mean that the subjects chosen must be from high life, for the
simplest story of the humblest people may be as appealing as the story of kings
or princes.
 It must have authenticity that means the novelist must be thoroughly familiar
with his subject, what he is not familiar with, he should leave out.
 What is necessary is that the novelist must have a sound and thorough
knowledge of life and men, and this would enable him to humanise and vitalise
his material.
 The novelist must accept limitations of his range, otherwise the novel would lack
fidelity.
 A really creative genius may derive his knowledge.

KINDS OF PLOT
 Hudson states that plot structure roughly may distinguish between two kinds of novel:
1. Loose plot
 It may be loose and incoherent in which the story is composed of
detached incidents or episodes, having little logical connection with
each other, some unity being provided by the personality of the hero,
who binds the otherwise scattered elements together.
 Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is an example of such a loose plot in which the
story of miscellaneous adventures which belaf an individual in the course
of life than the plot of regular and connected actions.
 Similarly Pickwick paper and Nocholas Nickleby is a familar example of
loose and inconsistent plot where action and characters are crossing and
re-crossing eachother.
2. Organic plot.
 The Novel with an organic plot is compact and closely knit, every
incident being a part of general design which has been carefully thought
out in advance.
 However even an organic plot might be is purely episodical as Tom Jones
and Bleak House.
 The Tom Jones and Bleak House are great examples of organic plot.
 The plot of both novels is purely treated in the episodical forms but as
separate incidents are no longer treated episodically but cohesion in
the arrangement of characters and actions occupy their proper place and
the various line laid down which were to converge in bringing about the
catastrophe.

Kinds of the Plot of a Novel

 It should be noted, however, that a highly organised plot is likely to suffer

from two faults:
i. Its movement may be unnatural and may strike the readers as forced,
mechanical and artificial.
ii. Too much reliance may be placed on the use of co-incidence.
 In Tom Jones, for example, all sorts of things are perpetually happening in
the very nick of time, while people turn up again and again at the right
moment.
 KINDS OF PLOT:
1. Simple plot
 According to Hudson (1965) plot is divided into two broad categories: Simple and
compound (Complex);
 Simple plot will have one story line that usually moves in a straightforward manner
toward resolution.
 In a simple plot, there are usually not too many obstacles to overcome.
 There may be some big and fearsome problems but the need to surmount them is
unambiguous.
 Obstacles must be overcome then victory is clear.
2. Compound Plot
 Second is the compound plot that may be composed of more than one story running
together but wrought together into a single whole.
 In other words a complex plot will have several story lines that intermingle and go back
and forth in time, not moving in a straight line toward resolution.
 Often a novelist makes the different independent elements in a novel to weigh and
balance or illustrate each other.
 There are probably many obstacles to overcome and it may not be clear that solving
them is an unmitigated good.
 The ending may be ambiguous.
Simple or Complex pot
 A simple plot will have one story line that usually moves in a straightforward manner
toward resolution.
 In a simple plot, there are usually not too many obstacles to overcome. ...
 A complex plot will have several story lines that intermingle and go back and forth in
time, not moving in a straight line toward resolution (END).
 In Vanity Fair, for example, the stories of Beckey Sharp and Amelia Sedley have not been
properly amalgamated.
 While no attempt has been made to fuse the two stories together, the moral and
dramatic contrast between the two is constantly stressed.
Simple and Complex Plot According to Aristotle
 Aristotle define kinds of plot in a different way.
 (1) The simple plot is a unified construct of necessary and probable actions
accompanied introduces a character (or group of characters) and changes their fortune
by introducing an action in the form of conflict or turn of events.
 (2) The complex plot is defined as one where the change of fortune is
accompanied by a reversal of fortune, recognition, or both.
 The complex plot shares includes a reversal of the dramatic situation known as
peripeteia (Reversal) and anagnorisis (recognition) to make it more complex rouse pity
and fear.
SIMPLE PLOT
 Simple plot is comprised of a set of events that while continuous in nature lacks a sense
of causality.
 In a drama, simple plots are made up of a series of episodes; they can be coherent and
logical, but they do not serve to effect the pity and fear that is expected from a
successful tragic plot.
 Complex plot
 The reversal of fortune is referred to in Poetics as Peripeteia a pivotal or crucial action
on the part of the protagonist that changes their situation from secure to vulnerable.
  The recognition is referred to as Anagnorisis — a moment of insight or understanding
the protagonist experiences as they finally comprehend the web of fate that they are
entangled within.
 A Complex action is one in which the change is accompanied by such reversal, or by
recognition, or by both.
 According to Aristotle Complex plots unfold through an internal logic and causality; they
are not simply strings of episodes.
 A Complex plot is propter hoc, literally “because of this,” which means there is a sense
of causality in the emergence of events.
 Peripeteia
 Peripeteia, also known as the turning point, is a sudden change in a story which results
in a negative reversal of circumstances in which the tragic protagonist’s fortune changes
from good to bad.
 Peripeteia is dramatic change in plot circumstances to the point where it can be seen to
come full circle.
 This literary device is meant to surprise the audience, but is also meant to follow as a
result of a character’s previous actions or mistakes.
 In this example, the peripeteia occurs when Oedipus learns of his parents’ true identity
from the messenger and he realizes he has murdered his father and married his mother,
according to the prophecy.
 Abruptly, his good fortune is ruined and he stabs his eyes out in dismay.
 Anagnorisis
 Aristotle defined anagnorisis as "a change from ignorance to knowledge” or awareness
of some key realities on the part of characters within the story.
 In other words when the change of fortune takes place without reversal of the situation
and without recognition.
 In “Oedipus Rex,” anagnorisis occurs when a messenger comes and reveals to King
Oedipus his true birth.
 Oedipus then recognizes his queen, Jocasta, as his real mother, and the man whom he
has killed at crossroads as his real father, as well as himself as an unnatural sinner, who
has caused the disaster in the city of Thebes.
 Difference between Peripeteia & Anagnorisis
 Peripeteia is the reversal from one state of affairs to its opposite so that the hero
who thought he was in good shape suddenly finds that all is lost, or vice versa while
Anagnorisis is a change from ignorance to knowledge.

Characterization.
• Characterization is a literary device that is used step-by-step in literature to highlight and
explain the details about a character in a story.

• It is in the initial stage in which the writer introduces the character with noticeable
emergence.

• After introducing the character, the writer often talks about his behavior; then, as the
story progresses, the thought-processes of the character.

• Five methods of characterization: physical action, description, inner thoughts, reactions,

and speech.

Salient Features of Characterisation in a Novel

 • The characters must be life-like and move us as people in real life do; we should
sympathise with them as do with people in real life, and they should linger long in our
memory.

• To be successful, the novelist must have the power of graphic description.

• It is only by a vivid description that a novelist can help his readers to a vivid realisation
of the appearance and behaviour of his people.

• Their peculiarities in appearance and behaviour must be clearly indicated.

• This may be done either by (a) set, formal description, item by item or (b) by slight
occasional touches appealing to the imagination of the readers.

• The second method is preferable.

Salient Features of Characterization

in Prose Fiction

• We distinguish roughly character between two classes of novels:

• Those in which the interest of character is uppermost, attention is paid expansion of

personality while
action is used simply or mainly with reference to this.

• And those in which the interest of plot is uppermost,

and characters are used simply or mainly to carry on
the action— as the story runs its course, will frequently prove fatal to the regularity of the
plot design.

• The characters lay hold of us by virtue of their quality of life and we know and believe in
them, sympathize, love or hate them cordially, as though they belonged to the world of
flesh and blood.

• And the first thing that we require of any novelist in his handling of character is that,
whether he keeps close to common experience or boldly experiments with the fantastic
and the abnormal, his men and women shall move through his pages like living beings.

• They also remain in our memory for ever.

Psychology of the characters

• Author adds the mystery, fancy and illusion of reality.

• But it is well to remember that the processes of creation are mysterious to possess such
creative power as they are to other people.

• Scott says “I don't control my characters,"

he once protested; I am in their hands, and they
take me where they please.”

• He had endowed them with independent volition, and by so doing had to a large extent
placed them beyond the range of his calculations.

• They spoke and acted on their own impulse and so unexpected and surprising were
occasionally the results that when, as he tells us, one or another of them had said or done
something altogether unlooked for, he would be driven to ask in bewilderment.

Methods of Characterization:
 • There are two type methods to portray the characters, first is Direct or Analytical Method
and Indirect or Dramatic Method.

• As regards the psychological side of characterisation, the novelist may use either or both
of the methods direct or analytical, and indirect or dramatic.

• Or novelist rely on one single method, It is up to the writer to decide when each
characterization method is appropriate.

• There are times when direct characterization is useful.

• Whereas indirect characterization is more likely to engage a reader’s imagination and

paint more vivid images.

• However it is noticed a writer generally use both methods and stretch of the novel allows
the author to experiment both methods according to the need of the situation or action.

Direct /Analytical Method.

• In Direct or Analytical Method the novelist portrays his characters from the outside,
dissects their passions, motives, thoughts and feelings, explains, comments, and often
pronounces authoritative judgment upon them.

– The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The
brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on
the tropic sea were on his cheek … Everything about him was old except his eyes
and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.

• Direct Method describes character’s behavior, appearance, way of speaking, interests,

mannerisms and make the characters seem real.

• The direct characterization excels in brevity, lower word count, and moving the story
forward.

• For example, a writer may want to reveal a minor facet of a character’s personality
without distracting from the action in a scene.

• Direct characterization, or explicit characterization, is a method of describing the

character in a straightforward manner: through their physical description (i.e. blue eyes),
their line of work (i.e. lawyer), and their passions and outside pursuits (i.e. voracious
reader).

• Direct characterization is one of the most useful and common literary devices, however,
when done incorrectly (or not at all), the result is a flat character.

Direct Method of Characterization

• Here’s an example of direct characterization from Virginia Woolf’s To the

Lighthouse (1927) that shows what characters think of one another.

• For example: an artist staying with the Ramsay family, Lily Briscoe, thinks about a man
Mr. Bankes who has called Mr Ramsay a hypocrite:

– Looking up, there he was – Mr. Ramsay – advancing towards them, swinging,
careless, oblivious, remote. A bit of a hypocrite? she repeated. Oh no – the most
sincere of men, the truest (here he was), the best; but, looking down, she thought,
he is absorbed in himself, he is tyrannical, he is unjust…’ (p. 52).

• This is direct method of characterization where Woolf describes Mr. Ramsay’s traits
directly – his self-absorption and so forth.
Usefulness of Direct /Analytical Method

• Introducing characters. Entering the world of a new novel can be like charting
unfamiliar territory; direct characterization provides readers with concrete imagery as
they get to know the characters you’ve created.

• Revealing a character’s motivations. It is useful to clearly articulate details of

characterization so that the reader can connect with your characters and root them on as
they reach for their goals (or sympathize with them if they face tragedy).

• Providing the reader with memorable character traits. When creating important
characters that the reader is going to meet more than once, be sure that they’re
memorable in some way. Try to give each one a quality that can be used later to help
readers recall who they are. This could be a title like “chief of police” or a physical
attribute like “ginger-haired.”

Features of Direct Method of Characterization:

1. Don’t overdo it,

• Direct characterization give readers information about characters quickly in a sentence;

for example, this direct description from Dickens’ Hard Times (1854):

– ‘So, Mr Bounderby threw on his hat – he always threw it on, as expressing a man
who had been far too busily employed in making himself, to acquire any fashion
of wearing his hat.’

• Direct characterization provides the concise and relevant information about characters’
personalities, at the cost of showing, could make them feel like bland collections of
abstract nouns without specificity.

• Hence, overdo may be avoided.

• 2. Focus on character details

• When introducing characters for the first time, use essential details to remember them e.g.
‘She was a kind woman.’

• 3. Introduce relevant characters

• Depict the appearances, physical description, their primary goals, motivations and
character’s personality.

4. Focus on the unique and specific

• Direct method focuses on specifics features of character, for example, read

Indirect or Dramatic Method

• In Indirect or Dramatic Method of characterization is indicating a character is revealing

their personality through descriptions of their actions, speech, appearance, and
interactions with other characters.

• The writer stands apart, allows his characters to reveal themselves through speech and
action, and reinforces their self-delineation by the comments and judgments of other
characters in the story

• In the dramatic he stands apart and allows his characters to reveal themselves through
speech and action, and reinforces their self-delineation by the comments and judgments
of other characters in the story.
 • In indirect characterization characters’ traits without explicitly describing themselves
without any commentary through dialogues, action and comments by others.

Indirect characterization

• An example of indirect characterization

• Here, John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath doesn’t say that hitchhiker Joad is a blue-
collar worker.

• Instead, the indirect characterization uses the props a worker in the context would show
Joad’s character.

– Joad took a quick drink from the flask. He dragged the last smoke from his
raveling cigarette and then, with callused thumb and forefinger, crushed out the
glowing end. He rubbed the butt to a pulp and put it out the window, letting the
breeze suck it from his fingers.

• 1. Use dialogue for indirect characterization

• Great dialogue useful tool for creating subtle figure, tells readers a lot about characters.

• 2. Use characters’ actions to describe their personalities indirectly

• It would also pre-determine how we read him.

• Half the joy of reading is discovering the characters.

• There’s more excitement and intrigue in learning about characters by degrees.

• 3. Use indirect characterization to show consequences

• One way of thinking of direct characterization vs indirect characterization is to think of

cause and effect.

• For example, the direct characterization of Mother’s Younger Brother in Ragtime (he is
‘lonely’) leads to the longer arc of his actions (stalking a famous chorus girl).

• 4. Use emotive language to characterize viewpoint characters indirectly

• Everything from character dialogue and actions to the words you choose to describe
settings can deepen characterization.

• For example, two different characters could describe the same setting completely
differently.

• The way each describes this setting would reveal key differences about them.

Choice of Method of Characterization

• I say the conditions of the novel commonly permit the use of these two methods; they do
not always do so, because in fiction in which the autobiographical or documentary plan is
strictly adhered to the presentation of character is confined within the limits of dramatic
objectivity.

• Speaking generally the narrative and dialogue, practically involves a combination both
methods.

• In the examination of a novelist's technique, therefore, his habitual way of using these
two methods.

• Thus Thackeray, though he makes admirable use of the indirect method, supports its
results by an enormous amount of personal interpretation and criticism.
• While direct analysis is seriously overdone by George Eliot in psychological novelists in
general.

• In Jane Austen's works, the dramatic element pre-dominates; her men and women for the
most part portray themselves through dialogue, while she her self continually throws
cross-lights upon them in the conversation of the different people

o Setting: Time and place where the action occurs and state of mind at the time.
Setting is the place where characters story accurse.
o Characters: the people and animals in the story.
Types of characters
Protagonist: the main character
Antagonist: a character in conflict with main character.
Round characters: a character that needs attention to be described.
Flat characters: A characters really described in a brief summary.
Dynamic character: a character that change in the story.
State character: a character who remains the same.
 QUALITIES OF A GOOD CHARACTER
Consistency: The personality should not change unless there is reason for it. (Sometime’s he
may be an in consistent on as well)
Plausibility: the lifetimes of the character. The reader should accept the character as a human
being, people from everyday life.
Motivation: the cause for the character to act. Necessary for the characters and also for the
readers.
Point of view: the relationship if the narrator to the story.
(a). Subjective / First person: a character in the story
(b). Objective/ 3rd person: as a witness of story.
THEME: A central message, concern or insight into life expressed the rough the story.

Types of theme
Stated theme: Clearly stated in the story.
Implied theme: Must infer from the story.

Novel
A long artistic form of prose which covers both main and sub events.
Non-fiction
Literature works about real characters and events.

Characters of Non-fiction
 The people, events, places and ideas presented in notification are real.
 Non-fiction are narrated by a real person.
 It presents facts, describes, true experiences or discuss ideas.
 Non-fiction is written for a specific audience or group of readers.

Strategy of reading Non-fiction

1. Recognize the author’s purpose why the writer is writing

2. Identify the author’s main points.
3. Identify support for the author’s points.
4. Recognize patterns of organization
5. Vary your reading rate depending different types of non-fiction materials and your
purpose.

Types of Non-fiction

1. Biography: A history of someone’s life or part of someone’s life. This is a true story about a real
person
2. Auto-biography: a biography written by a person about his/her own life and history.
3. Eassy: A short composition, usually written from the author’s point of view. Essay can be
persuasive, comparative, literary, criticism, political manifest, arguments, observations,
recollections or refections.
4. How to: An instructional form of writing that demonstrates how to do a task, activity procedure
ets.
5. Text book: A manual of instruction or standard book in any branch of study. Text book usually
written according to educational demands.
6. Encyclopedia: A comprehensive written work that is used as a refrence. It contains articles on
versions topics and brachers of knowledge.
7. Magazine: A periodical that contains articles, pictures, advertisements, stories, etc. that is
published on a regular schedule.
8. Research report: An informational, objective piece of writing based on multiple accurate
references.
9. Newspaper: A publication containing, views, information, current events, and advertising.
There are feature articles on topics, such as political, events, crime, business, art, entertainment,
society, and spots. Many newspaper also include come editorial columns other sections include
advertising, comics and coupons.
10. Memoir : A type of an auto-biography, it is a writers’s own account of one or two important
events and it told in the first person. It is descriptive and highly person.
11. Atlas: the collection of map of earth, or parts of earth. The atlas presents geographic features,
political boundries and geographical, social, religious and economic statistics.
12. Brochure: A pamphlet or leaflet advertisement. Brochure may advertise location, events,
hotels, products, services, etc. they are usually brief in language and have an eye-catching
desing.
13. Editorial: An article that is usually in a newspaper or magazine, or on television, or the radio.
This article expresses that author’s personal opinion and view on a particular topic.
14. Advertisement: A public promotion of a product or service. It is a form of communication used
to help sell these products or services, it usually describes how the products or services can
benefit the customers.

Purpose of Non-fiction

 To entertain
 To inform
 To explain
 To persuade

Poetry

 Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning sound, and

rhythmic language. Choices so as too evokes an emotional response.

Drama

Drama is a story written to be performed by actors. Although a drama is meant to be performed,

one can do also read the script or written version, and imagine the action.

TYPES OF DRAMA

1. COMEDY OR HUMOR: A drama which makes the reader or audience laugh either because of
character or action.
2. FORCE : A drama in which characters become in unlikely situations (something does not happen
in the way it should)
3. TRAGEDY: A drama about death or suffering of the characters with sad end.
4. HORROR: A drama in which strange and frightening things happen, for example dead people
coming to life and people being murdered.
5. MELODRAMA: A drama ub which characters show stronger emotions than real people usually
do ( a character became more angry or upset than is really necessary)
6. FANTASY: A drama based on imagination and something unlikely to happen.
7. MUSICAL: A drama containing dance and music.

Active Reading Strategy

A strategy to mentally direct, perform, and read a drama

1. Visualize: Picture the elements, the playwright describes.

2. Listen: As you read, imagine how each character says his or her lines, if possible read aloud.
3. Question: Note: the question you have as you read.
4. Connect: Draw a parallels between the play and your own life
5. Predict: Use direction and clues in the dialogue to guess what is going to happen next.
 6. Interpret: think about character, assess why the characters act as they do and what their action
mean.
7. Respond: React to the play consider you spontaneous thought and feelings.

Historic Aspects in the Study of Literary Criticism

It is in the Chapter IV of his book, An Introduction to the Study of Literature,

WH Hudson deals with the historic aspects of studying literary criticism.
Hudson believes that just like the study of literature, one need to focus on
the historic aspects in the study of literary criticism as well. Hudson suggests
certain ways that may offer a systematic study of literary criticism. Hudson
provides following answers in response to two queries – how to study literary
criticism historically? How historical study of criticism helps to understand
the history of literacy production? His views on “Comparative Method” forms
the answer to first query and “Historical Study of Criticism” may prove an
answer to the second query.

Comparative Method:

Hudson believes that by recourse to comparison and contrast only one can
have more definite knowledge of individual critic. To strengthen our
knowledge of the critic, he suggests that we should place the critic’s works
beside that of other critics’ works who have dealt with the same subject – the
same author, texts, period, genre, and theme. Instead of satisfying with
casual reading of the critical texts or merely agreeing-disagreeing to the
judgement pronounced on the writer or his texts, we should examine the
points that lie behind the critical judgements. One should make a note of
personal attitude, different approaches-methods adopted by the critics, the
aspects of the texts that are neglected or emphasised, and other aspects
such as manner, standards, temper and taste. Such comparative method,
according to Hudson, will help us to understand the qualities of each critic’s
works and the sources like character, education, and aims that shaped these
qualities. However Hudson warns that using this method the readers would
be struck by the extraordinary diversity of critical opinions. The readers
would realise that the different critics have failed to come to any agreement
even in the essential matters. For Hudson, this failure of critics to come to
any conclusion has caused a hatred or odium towards literary criticism.
Hudson says that while going the critical texts, the readers would find certain
differences that are personal opinions of the critics though they belong to the
same tradition of the literary criticism. This problem is caused by the
dependence of literature upon the spirit of the age and is quite common in
the comparative method. Hudson says that “No less than all other kinds of
literature criticism, while never ceasing to be the vehicle of personality, it is
also in part the expression of the spirit of the epoch out which it comes” (p.
290).

Historical Study of Criticism:

Hudson suggests that the historical study of criticism is important since it

contains the record of the changes in the perception of literature, aims and
principles of literary criticism, its matter and methods, and the standards of
judgement. Hudson, through ample examples of different critics and their
works, says that history of criticism helps to understand better the changing
literary values of the author. Through the example of Bunyan, Hudson says
that the eighteenth century who had narrow conceptions of regarded Bunyan
as a writer for ‘illiterate’ and ‘vulgur’ only. Hudson cites Young’s satire in
which Young links Bunyan’s prose with Durfey’s verse. Hume satirises
Bunyan saying that certain class of readers might enjoy the Aeneid “if it
were degraded into the style of The Pilgrim’s Progress” (p. 291). Cooke’s
Pocket Library (1971) affronts Bunyan’s work stating that “it cannot come
under the Denomination of a Classic Production” (p.291). Even Burke and
Cowper also condemn Bunyan for his style and particularly for his The
Pilgrims Progress.

But in the thirties of the nineteenth century, we find different kind of

appreciation for Bunyan. Hudson finds Macaulay eulogising Southey’s edition
of The Pilgrims Progress as “an eminently beautiful and splendid edition of a
book”, a “wonderful” book, or a book which “obtains admiration from the
most fastidious critics” (p. 291). Hudson says that the critics like Mr. Gosse,
Mr. Stopford Brooke, Professor Saintsbury applauses Bunyan for his splendid
use of style which delights even a common reader. It means that through the
history of criticism one may able to identify the changes in the literary
tastes. The history of criticism helps to know that literary changes are time
bound and they change in each epoch. The Addisonian and the Popean
notions which dominated the eighteen century criticism were later changed
in the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century. It means that the
opinion about the representative authors change age-to-age. It is through
the history of the criticism one comes across these changing notion. In this
way, the history of criticism helps into two ways: (i) it records the changing
opinions about the representative authors, and (ii) it provides a clue to the
fact that one should not take any opinion about any writer as final since the
literary value changes time-to-time.

Hudson thinks that the history of criticism is a supplement to the history of

literary production. Thus, as a reader, we should go through the history of
criticism in the eighteen century and in the nineteenth century to understand
in a better way what cause romanticism and naturalism. The history of
criticism also helps in understanding of the growth and development of
different genres and their writers as well. The history of criticism during the
eighteenth century may help to understand the influences that shaped the
literary talent of Pope both as a poet and a critic. It helps to understand why
Pope is didactic and satiric in works. Thus, the history of literary criticism
becomes a supplement to understand literature in a better way. Thus,
Hudson opines that the history of criticism is a record of changing ideas
concerning every aspect and quality of literature. It provides an indispensible
commentary upon the history of literary production. He says, “It is, in fact, to
the history of criticism that we must often turn if we would discover the
rationale of the changes which we have to follow in studying the history of
literature” (p.296). No one can understand the history of literature in a better
way in the absence of the history of criticism. History of literature records
the dates of arrival of the important texts and author, but how these texts
and writers were received by the readers it can be only comprehended in the
presence of the history of the criticism only. The history of criticism helps the
reader to evaluate texts and authors in the light of the scholarly corpus of
views and opinions compiled age-to-age. The history of criticism helps to the
literary productions by informing about the past tastes of the readers so that
the writers may make necessary changes in their style and themes. Thus,
the history of literary criticism is the supplement to the literary production.

To conclude, one may say that the historic aspects are important in the
study of criticism. These historic aspects concerning criticism provide
knowledge of a literary tradition which is as old as the human-race itself. No
study of criticism is complete without the knowledge of historic aspects.

Two Functions of Criticism

OR
How does a critic evaluate literary text?

WH Hudson explains the functions of criticism in Chapter VI entitled as “The

Study of Criticism and the Valuation of Literature” of his famous book, An
Introduction to the Study of Literature. He notes that criticism means
judgement hence the duty of a critic is to pass judgement on the work of a
given author by examining its merit and defects. It means that to pass the
judgement a critic has to interpret the work of the given author first. This
inference brings us to a conclusion that the criticism has to perform two
functions – that of interpretation and of judgement. Up to the twentieth
century both these functions were clubbed together since it was believed
that any judgement is the result of the interpretation. But now a line of
demarcation is drawn between these functions who believe that the critic’s
chief duty is exposition in the light of taste and value.

Critic as an Interpreter:

In answer to a query, what a critic has to do as an interpreter? Hudson states

that the task of a critic is both large and difficult. He adds that “His purpose
will be to penetrate to the heart of the book before him; to disengage its
essential qualities of power and beauty; to distinguish between what is
temporary and what is permanent in it; to analyse and formulate its
meaning; to elucidate by direct examination the artistic and moral
principles” (p.268). A critic has to make implicit explicit. He has to exhibit the
interrelationship between different parts of a work and discuss what role
they perform to make the text an artistic work. By explaining, enfolding and
illuminating the content, spirit and art, he has to show us what the book
really is. Citing Walter Peter, Hudson says that “To feel the virtue of the poet
or the painter, to disengage it, to set it forth – these are the three stages of
the critic’s duty” (p.268). To do this job, a critic may apply different
strategies: (i) he may confine strictly to the work, (ii) he may compare the
work with the other works by the same author, (iii) he may compare and
contrast the work with different other works, and (iv) he may use the
principles formulated by others to interpret the text.

Inductive and Judicial Criticism:

Hudson suggests inductive method of criticism as propounded by Prof.
Moulton. The chief objective of the inductive criticism is to “bring the
treatment of literature into the circle of the inductive sciences”. Mr. Moulton
opines that this method of criticism should not be regarded as a branch of
literature but as a branch of sciences. Inductive criticism follows the
scientific inquiry and impartiality. Just like a scientist, an inductive critic
explores the field of literature with scientific temperament and methods.
Thus, the inductive criticism evaluates a literary text systematically using
certain principles. On other hand judicial criticism is an older method of
evaluating the literary text. It tends to evaluate the literary text without
being scientific in nature.

Hudson tries to show us how these inductive and judicial criticisms are
different from each other. According to him, they vary in three aspects:
 (i) The judicial criticism is concerned with the question of merit among
the literary works, whereas in the inductive criticism this question of
merit has no role to play. The inductive critic does not know
anything about the difference in degree he only knows difference in
kind, while in the judicial criticism difference in degree and kind is
taken in account. For example the inductive critic knows
Shakespeare and Ben Jonson are different from each other, but it is
the judicial critic who will tell us how these playwrights are different
from each other and who has the higher merit than. Inductive critic
has no room for preference because there is no common ground to
compare the writers or their works.
(ii) The judicial critic adheres the laws of criticism as the laws of
morality or the laws of the state, while for the inductive critic no
such rule exists. In the judicial criticism, the rules are imposed by
the external authority and the judicial critic simple pronounces
judgement in the light of imposed rules. While for the inductive
critic, the rules of the criticism are just like the rule of nature. For
him, these rules are generalised statements without any sense of
morality or emotions. For the inductive critic the rules of criticism
are not imposed by the external authority. He believes that
Shakespeare has not written his drama following the rules
formulated by the others. Hence, instead of focusing on such rules,
one should evaluate Shakespeare focusing on his work only.
(iii) Judicial criticism holds a hypothesis that there are certain “fixed
standards” by which literature has to be evaluated. These fixed
standards vary age-to-age and critic to critic. Perhaps this is the
reason why criticism in general has fallen into disrepute. On other
hand, judicial criticism denies any possibility of such fixed rules. It
views literature just like other natural phenomenon. It vies literature
as a product of evolution. It believes that the history of literature is
the history of unceasing transformations and hence to search for
permanent criteria is an inevitable failure.

The problem that arises here is that inductive criticism is too much scientific
to apply on the work of pure emotion and on other hand there is no fixed
standard in the judicial criticism that brings us to a concrete conclusion.
Hudson suggests that in such problem one should focus on the principle of
the relativity of literature and the historical method of interpretation. Hudson
gives an example of Edmond Scherer who had commented upon the
contrasting views of Voltaire and Macaulay on Milton’s Paradise Lost. Voltaire
belonged to the eighteenth century, while Macaulay to the nineteenth.
Scherer says that their views are personal idiosyncrasies. Hence, instead of
dealing with such views, one should use, what he calls, “the modern
historical methods”. According to Scherer, this method understands the work
of art instead of classifying it; it tries to explain the text instead of judging it.
Its aim is to evaluate the text on the basis of the genius of its author and
how this genius is acquired by the author amidst the different circumstances
of his life.

Thus, a critic has to employ both inductive and judicial criticism for the
better understanding of literature. He has to be very much careful in both
these approaches.

What is criticism
 In its strict sense the word criticism means judgment
 A literary critic is primarily an expert who works of a given author,
examines its merits and defects, and pronounces a verdict upon it.
 If creative literature may be defined as an interpretation of life,
criticism may be defined as an interpretation of that interpretation.
