Openings and Endings

Any consideration of a prose text must pay attention to the effects achieved by the opening and ending of the text. An author’s introduction evokes the scene, introduces key themes and characters and sets the narrative style.

The introduction of a novel is often used to present the main characters. The introduction of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ appears simple and straightforward as Austen presents the main character, Emma, to the reader:

Austen’s outline of Emma is clear and precise. The novel’s high society setting with its civilised manners and preoccupations is also hinted at and Emma is presented to the reader as the heroine of the novel. However, in her introduction Austen makes use of an ironic perspective so important to the book’s narrative; Emma ‘seemed to unite some of the best blessings’; the introduction tells the reader to be wary; all is not as tranquil or as perfect as this simple introduction implies.

Other authors choose to unsettle or shock the reader with an introduction that creates dramatic impact and suspense. Annie Proulx’s novel ‘Postcards’ begins in medias res (in the middle of the action) with what seems to be a shocking murder and what may be a rape:

The opening is startling and puzzling because the events are so appalling and yet we have no idea of the identity of the characters involved. The characters are not neatly delineated, but are left anonymous; referred to only by the relevant pronouns. Proulx brilliantly creates both incredible intimacy as the focus of the introduction forces us to witness the immediate aftermath of a terrible crime and complete bewilderment as we are not permitted to know the circumstances that led up to the act.

Other writers employ more subtle ways of engaging the reader’s attention in the introduction whilst also setting up key themes and concerns. In ‘1984’ by George Orwell, the introduction to the novel begins with the sentence:

It is easy to miss the incongruity of the word ‘thirteen’, yet the fact that the clocks were striking thirteen points the reader towards the abnormality of this future world that Orwell envisions. We are invited to be alert for other inconsistencies and oddities. The contrast between the normal familiar weather and the unsettling ‘thirteen’ also allows Orwell to introduce the reader to a world in which darker, more sinister, more disturbing events take place below the veneer of everyday normality.

The endings of novels are also important to the overall interpretation of the text. Endings can provide resolution as the action and events of the story are completed, or endings can be more open and ambiguous where the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions about characters and events.

The ending of ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte is neat and closed. Bronte draws all the strands of her story together and nothing is left ambiguous or inconclusive; an efficiency that is encapsulated in the phrase “Reader, I married him” that begins the final chapter. In contrast, modern novels tend towards more open endings that avoid providing the reader with easy certainties. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood is a good example. The ending of the narrative is inconclusive: the fate of Atwood’s protagonist is left uncertain; we do not know if she is going to her death or to freedom and a sense of threat and fear hangs over the final events:

The Historical Notes that actually conclude Atwood’s novel offer some explanation about the events of the story; however, the final line of the novel is “Are there any questions?” again suggesting ambiguity and doubt. The reader will still, the narrative implies, have questions, the novel has not given us a neat resolution.

‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ by John Fowles has a dual ending. The first imitates the typically closed ending of a Victorian novel. The second ending is a twentieth century ending; both the form and content are more modernist in their focus; the characters are left free and the final events are open and uncertain. By making the decision to include two, equally weighted conclusions the author seems to suggest that the novel doesn’t really end at all, a vagueness which can leave the reader feeling unsettled and uncomfortable.

Ways of structuring the novel

The structure of a novel refers to organisational features such as the plot and chapter divisions. It is important to consider the overall organisation of the novel that you are studying in order to reflect on the pattern of events and the way the author has sequenced them in order to create particular effects for the reader. Sometimes events are structured to generate tension and suspense or to reach a climax. Dividing the novel into chapters also structures the text; chapters can end on a moment of excitement creating a cliff hanger ending. Many nineteenth century novels were serialised in weekly magazines and so had to keep the reader’s attention week by week; as result the ending of each weekly episode often concluded on a dramatic event. The novels of Dickens provide a good example of writing that appeared in weekly instalments.

Most narratives tend to employ a linear structure in which the events move chronologically; there is a recognisable beginning, middle and end; sequenced in a coherent time frame. However, some narratives avoid chronological structures and favour a more fragmented or unconventional narrative structure. Modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner and James Joyce experimented with stream of consciousness styles and structures. The novels of the modernist period reflect experience and sensation in ways that try to embrace the ephemeral nature of life. The modernists felt that received understandings of plot, character and time were false and limiting. In ‘The Sound and the Fury’ William Faulkner structures his novel around a number of first person accounts instead of employing traditional authorial narration. James Joyce in ‘Ulysses’ transformed the form and structure of the novel with his use of stream of consciousness that meant his novel was structured around the sensations, thoughts and feelings of his characters, and his writing avoided objective description or traditional dialogue. Virginia Woolf’s novel ‘Orlando’ resists a linear structure. Orlando lives through four centuries and has many colourful and varied experiences; his/her gender is also incredibly fluid and is not linked to identity in an expected way. In Woolf’s novel ‘Mrs Dalloway’, the structure of the traditional novel with its logical progression of events; rounded, fully realised characters and clearly identifiable setting begins to be abandoned in favour of an impressionistic, symbolic rendering of experience that dissolves boundaries between the individual mind and the world.

The epistolary novel structures a plot around letters written by characters. This has the advantage of offering the reader a variety of first person accounts and points of view. The genre flourished in the eighteenth century and the novelist Samuel Richardson in his novel ‘Pamela’ demonstrates great control of this form. More modern examples of the epistolary novel include ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker and parts of ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley.

A framed narrative can be used to structure the plot of a novel. In a framed narrative the main story is combined with another story. ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Heart of Darkness’ are all novels that use a framing device to structure the narrative. Frame stories can add depth and variety and they allow for the possibility of multiple voices as more than one character tells the story.

Writers can manipulate time when structuring their narratives. The plots of many novels subvert chronological time in favour of an individual narrative time. Margaret Atwood in her novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale makes significant use of memory and flashbacks in order to structure Offred’s narrative and events are often re-told from different perspectives. The events in Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’ take place on one day but the narrative time spans decades and contains the experiences of many characters’ lives.

Other devices used to structure a novel include the use of repeated symbols or motifs. A motif is an image, word or action that reoccurs and develops throughout a text. In ‘Cold Mountain’ by Charles Frazier there are frequent references to food and eating; many episodes in the novel are structured around a meal or food. This food motif illuminates the book’s themes of communion and humanity; food provides sustenance for the body and food shared and eaten in company offers succour for the hungry soul. The motor car in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a repeated motif that becomes increasingly invested with fear and danger. The plot of ‘The Great Gatsby’ is structured around car accidents and journeys and the car motif acquires a powerful significance.