Recap
- Story is chronological; plot is the order of presentation. Differences between them are structural choices.
- A sequence has function: it shapes what the reader knows and feels at each moment.
- Contrasts within a text (of scene, tone, setting, event or outcome) often express contradictions and make the text more complex.
Techniques and effects
| Technique | Definition | Effect to name |
|---|---|---|
| Flashback | A shift to an earlier time | Explains a present reaction; reveals hidden history |
| Foreshadowing | A hint of a later event | Anticipation; unease; irony |
| In medias res | Opening in the middle of action | Immediate engagement; questions raised |
| Stream of consciousness | A continuous flow of a character’s thoughts | Intimacy; blurred past and present |
| Contrast between scenes | Opposed tones, events or settings | Nuance, ambiguity, contradiction |
A four-step method for any sequence
- Identify the order the text uses (and compare it with chronology if you can).
- Name the technique, with the detail that shows it (a time marker, a hint, an abrupt opening).
- Say what information is revealed or withheld, and when.
- Explain the effect on the reader or on the interpretation of other parts of the work: anticipation, suspense, tension or irony.
Examples (public domain)
- Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847): opens in 1801 with Lockwood, then Nelly Dean tells the earlier history. The delayed explanation makes the reader work out the past with an outsider.
- Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818): letters, within them Victor’s tale, within that the creature’s account. Nested order puts the creature’s voice at the centre.
- Macbeth (Shakespeare, about 1606): “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” opens the play and foreshadows its reversals.
Assumptions
- Check the whole work for patterns. One flashback or hint is a data point; a pattern is an argument.
- Say how a technique works on this passage. “Flashbacks add background” is true of nearly any story and earns little.
- A contrast must be placed, with its sequence. The same two scenes reversed would mean something different.
Mistakes to avoid
- Confusing story with plot.
- Naming a technique without its effect.
- Writing “builds suspense” without saying what is withheld.
- Treating foreshadowing as a spoiler instead of a source of expectation.
- Leaving a contrast as “opposites” without stating the nuance it creates.
Quick self-check
1. A novel begins with a woman burying a letter, then moves to her girlhood. Name the technique and one effect.
2. An early scene mentions that the river is “unusually quiet this spring”; later the village floods. Name the technique and the feeling it builds.
3. Chapter 5 is a wedding feast; Chapter 6 is a funeral. What question should you ask about the contrast?
4. True or false: a story told in strict chronological order has no structure to analyse.
Answers.
- In medias res (opening in the middle of the action) followed by a flashback; effect: curiosity about why she buries the letter and what the girlhood explains.
- Foreshadowing; it creates unease or anticipation, and gives the earlier detail new meaning after the flood.
- What does the juxtaposition suggest: irony, the fragility of happiness, a threat beneath the feast, a link between the two events?
- False. Pacing, the order of revelation within scenes, contrasts and parallels still shape meaning.
Return to the Topic 6.3 study guide for worked examples, then try the practice questions.