In James White's Earl Strongbow, the real time of the narrative is 1789 (date of publication); the date of the fictitious discovery of the manuscript is 1740; of the writing of the manuscript, about 1660; of the main action, the period of Henry II, the hero dying in 1177. The last three time points belong to the illusion, and there is definite artistic contrast between the last two, as in the spirited passage (close of Night Four), "such were the days of chivalry," etc. The hero of this fiction has had an unusually long experience as a ghost-about five hundred years.

57. Spatial Point of View. This is most frequently considered with reference to description of places, objects, and persons, isolated or in scenes; but it is also significant in pure narrative. It may help to determine whether a given occurrence shall be regarded mainly as of descriptive or narrative interest. A battle a mile or two distant from the spectator may naturally be considered as a picture; but if he is at the battle center (theoretically out of danger), he will be compelled to attend to the neighboring movement, with its complicated and changing incidents.

In the plot as a whole, the spatial point of view concerns the range, distance, and scale of the visual field, and its general relation to the author's mind. This field may be purely imaginary, typical, or concretely real-long-remembered, freshly observed, or actually before the author as he writes. Great range is found in the "international novel," and all forms of the novel of travel; the greatest in romance which leaves the earth itself for more remote regions. The scale of measurement is usually that of ordinary consciousness, which permits a wide variety; but in romance it may undergo transformation, as in Gulliver's Travels, many fairy stories, and some fictions with an animal or object as autobiographer.

The spatial range of Pride and Prejudice is limited to certain portions of England. The scale of measurement is partly indicated by the

remark of Elizabeth Bennet in Chapter XXXII: “An easy distance you call it? It is nearly fifty miles." In Silas Marner, the hero comes to Raveloe from "distant parts"— possibly a hundred miles away from the "unknown region called North'ard." (Among other effects, the railroad has lengthened the everyday measuring rod of the novelist.) In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe's imagination passes over much of the habitable globe; yet is singularly alert in the topography of the island-home and its immediate environment.

The spatial point of view necessarily changes frequently for the individual incidents of a novel. It is not a mere matter of setting for an event, but modifies the actual content of incident, consequently its emphasis and its value in the unity of plot. To persons of little imaginative or experiential space range, events which occur at a remote distance are as dim as those of a dream. Scott could not have given the details of Robin Hood's bow-shooting (Section 31) unless he placed himself within a hundred yards or so of the bowman. If the novelist leaves an incident without specific time or place relation, we know that he was not closely identified with it, or does not desire to emphasize it.

Most of the interior incidents of Silas Marner are located in specific rooms; but many of those in Pride and Prejudice are not, and some of them have neither specific time nor place setting. In Chapter VI, we do not know when or where [Elizabeth] "mentioned this to Miss Lucas." On the other hand, at least six times in this novel we are looking either at or out of some definite window.

Whenever characters approach one another or objects, the novelist usually takes some definite position in relation to the line of approach. In Pride and Prejudice, the author approaches Hunsford, Rosings, the Bennet home, the Gardiners' London residence, Pemberley House, with Elizabeth Bennet. In the "Conclusion" of Silas Marner, the novelist sees Eppie at a "little distance"; later sees her approach from the Rainbow group, and finally moves towards the Stone Pits with her. A fully developed and compact "scene" is generally characterized by a greater fixity of spatial position than is here found.

58. Character Point of View. In fiction in which the I-form is sustained, unity of plot is greatly aided by the single central narrator; but often such fiction introduces several other secondary narrators. In genuinely autobiographical form, the author is inevitably identified to some extent with the dramatic narrator, if for no other reason than that he is so closely and continuously associated with him. In other forms of fiction, the author often increases the unity by some degree of general identification with a single character, or by identification with different characters in the separate incidents. If a single central character represents, in general outline, the actual or ideal experience of the author as a real individual, as in Pilgrim's Progress, and, to a less extent, Robinson Crusoe, there is a high degree of unity; but when this identification is much interrupted or episodic, as in The Mill on the Floss, David Copperfield, and Anna Karénina, the unity may be injured rather than aided.

The identification of the author with a character may be quite external, as in a coincident temporal and spatial point of view; or much more profound, in coincidence of temperament, habits, principles, and ideals. Except in autobiographical form, such identification is never complete, for no one character knows all that the author knows of the movement of the plot.

In Pride and Prejudice the author seems to be very closely identified with Elizabeth Bennet, in temperament and principle, if not in experience; but Elizabeth never knows the details of Miss Bingley's criticism of her, or the personal opinion Miss Austen gives: "If gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection, Elizabeth's change of sentiment will be neither improbable or faulty. But if otherwise . . nothing can be said in her defence." (Chapter XLVI.) This is probably the only passage in which the author actually appears with her heroine,

as a distinctly different person. In general, Elizabeth knows as much about herself as the novelist knows of her.

Many effects of dramatic irony depend on this condition, that the author (and the reader) is more omniscient than any single character. In Silas Marner, the hero never knows the whole story of Godfrey's first marriage; Godfrey knows nothing of Marner's Lantern Yard experiences.

59. Generalized Statement of Plot. - Study of an individual plot according to the foregoing analysis may be followed by a condensed statement of its typical outline, as a basis for classification, judgment, and comparison with other plots. As one moves from more concrete to more abstract statement, the oft-repeated truth that literature contains only a very few typical plot-movements becomes more apparent. Even the most abstract formula, however, should include all that is essential in the outline of the individual plot. A plot correctly analyzed into several actions cannot be adequately stated in the terms of any one action.

EXAMPLES OF GENERALIZED STATEMENT OF PLOT

Silas Marner. A statement may easily be made by combining the two main actions as given in Section 48.

More abstract statement. Converging interests of A and B through the agency of C, which brings merited happiness to A, merited but salutary unhappiness to B.

Pride and Prejudice. Very abstract statement. Emotional convergence of (A, B), (C, D). Divergence through misunderstanding, character weakness of A and B, and deceit of E. Reconvergence of couples and group through discovery of E's villainy, and character reform of A and B.

Pamela. A young, unprincipled aristocrat attempts to seduce a peasant girl in his household employment. Her long-continued virtuous resistance leads to his reform and happy marriage with her.

More abstract statement. Moral divergence of A and B through A's selfish attempt to ruin B's character. Convergence to happy situation through B's persistent virtue, which reforms A.

Doña Perfecta. Selfishness and mistaken religious zeal in A cause permanent tragic suffering in B (most beloved friend of A) and C (most beloved friend of B).

60. Unity of Plot. The unity of plot may be discussed in various ways, but it depends mainly on persistent point of view, clear and unbroken motivation, and constant convergence of all action toward the catastrophe, which implies the omission of all non-essential incidents, and proper emphasis upon those recorded.

Unified motivation and convergence are strikingly represented, if in a somewhat barren form, by such cumulative actions as "for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost," etc. All the essentials of unified plot may be illustrated by a genealogy showing the ancestry of a character A. The point of view might be that of scientific interest in heredity, or of personal interest in A; the motivation is through the law of heredity; the main convergence is between the maternal and paternal lines of descent.

All intercalation, reversion, independent episode, digression, emphasis upon situation, tend to weaken the convergence. "Scenes" are less economic than pure events in the technical unity of plot. In Silas Marner the scenes in Chapter VI and Chapter XXI, considering the space given them, may be judged somewhat centrifugal.

If a plot has been analyzed into single actions, the study of convergence may rest mainly upon these, though there may be a convergent movement in a single action. In Janet's Repentance, the interests of Janet and Mr. Tryan approach by these steps: 1. Janet is interested in her husband's attack upon Mr. Tryan, and helps prepare the mock program; 2. The chance meeting; 3. The confession; 4. The minister's change of residence and sickness; 5. The avowal of love.

In the introductions to The Monastery and The Fortunes of Nigel, Scott distinguishes the loose plot-structure of Lesage and