Telaah Prosa Inggris PLOT

Plot is the sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed.
When
recounted by itself, it bears about the same relationship to a story that a map does
to a journey.
Plot includes what a character says or thinks, as well as what he does, but it leaves
out description and analysis and concentrates ordinarily on major happenings.
A conflict = a clash of actions, ideas, desires, or wills. The main character may be
pitted against some other person or group of persons (man against man); he may be
in conflict with some external force-physical nature, society, “fate” (man against
environment); or he may be in conflict with some element in his own nature (man
against himself). The conflict may be physical, mental, emotional, or moral.
Protagonist; the central character in the conflict, whether a sympathetic or an

unsympathetic person. (The technical term of protagonist is preferable to the
popular term “hero” because it is less ambiguous. The protagonist is simply the
central character, the one whose struggles we follow with interest, whether he or
she be good or bad, sympathetic or repulsive. A “hero” or “heroine” may be either
a person of heroic qualities or simply the main character, heroic, or unheroic.
Antagonists are the forces arrayed against him, whether persons, things,
conventions of society, or traits of his own character.
In some stories the conflict is single, clear-cut, and easily identifiable. In others it
is multiple, various, and subtle. A person may be in conflict with other persons,
with society or nature, and with himself, all at the same time, and sometimes he
may be involved in conflict without being aware of it.
Excellent interpretative fiction has been written utilizing all four of these major
kinds of conflict. The cheaper varieties of commercial fiction, however, emphasize
the conflict between man and man, depending on the element of physical conflict
to supply the main part of their excitement. It is hard to conceive of a western story
without a fistfight or a gunfight. Even in the crudest kinds of fiction, however,
something more will be found than mere physical combat. Good men will be
arrayed against bed men, and thus the conflict will also be between moral values.
In cheap fiction this conflict is usually clearly defined in terms of moral absolutes,
hero versus villain. Interpretative fiction, the contrasts are likely to be less marked.
Good may be opposed to good or half-truth to half-truth. There may be difficulty in
determining what is the good, and internal conflict tends therefore to be more
frequent than physical conflict. In the world in which we live, significant moral
issues are seldom sharply defined-judgments are difficult, and choices are complex
rather than simple. Interpretative writers are aware of this complexity and are more
concerned with displaying its various shadings of moral values than with
presenting glaring contrasts of good and evil, right and wrong.
Suspense is the quality in a story that makes readers ask “What’s going to happen
next?” or “How will this turn out?” and impels them to read on to find the answers
to these questions. Suspense is greatest when the readers’ curiosity is combined
with anxiety about the fate of some sympathetic character.
In old serial movies, often appropriately called ‘cliffhangers’, a strong element of

suspense was created at the end of each episode by leaving the hero hanging from
the edge of a cliff or the heroine tied to the railroad tracks with the express train
rapidly approaching.
In murder mysteries, often called “who-dun-its”, suspense is created by the

question of who committed the murder.
In love stories suspense is created by the question “Will the boy win the girl?” or
“Will the lovers be reunited, and how?”
In more sophisticated forms of fiction the suspense often involves not so much the
question what as the question why-not “What will happen next?” but “How is the
protagonist’s behavior to be explained in terms of human personality and
character?”
The forms of suspense range from crude to subtle and may concern not only
actions but psychological considerations and moral issues.
Two common devices for achieving suspense are to introduce an element of

mystery (an unusual set of circumstances for which the readers crave an
explanation), or to place the protagonist in a dilemma (a position in which he or
she must choose between two courses of action, both undesirable). But suspense
can readily created for readers by placing anybody on a seventeenth-story window
ledge or simply by bringing together two physically attractive young people.

Telaah Prosa Inggris PLOT

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Plot is the sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed.

Protagonist; the central character in the conflict, whether a sympathetic or an

In old serial movies, often appropriately called ‘cliffhangers’, a strong element of

In murder mysteries, often called “who-dun-its”, suspense is created by the

Two common devices for achieving suspense are to introduce an element of

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