The role of the 3rd character in Bates’ stories.
by Ann Reva
Minor characters play a crucial role in short stories of different authors and we will try to analyze their impact after the example of two Bates’ stories – ‘The Harvest Moon’ and ‘The Beauty of the Dead’.In "Harvest Moon" the main characters are Cathy and Alexander, but there are several other people and details which help the author to give us the whole picture.There is Cathy’s father, who is a flat character, he attracts their attention to the leveret, and who also gives us some information about his daughter. There’s also Alexander’s uncle, who is also a flat character, because he takes part in the development of the story.Nature plays a very important role in this piece, it can be called a character and a background at the same time, and here’s why. The scene takes place in the full-moonlight barley harvest, where the boy and the girl explore both the countryside and their emotions. He wants to play "The Indians," but she, with a strange feeling of awakening sexuality or something like that, is not interested. Bates describes the field, illuminated by the moon, and it seems like if it wasn’t for the moon, the story wouldn’t develop at all. The same thing we can say about the leveret, which was noticed only due to the moonlight and that was brought to action only by its natural instinct of self-protection. Actually, it’s the leveret’s appearance that caused the further expansion of the plot, so it is one of the most important parts. All of these details together form another main character of the story, besides Cathy and Alexander, - the Nature, which helps to capture the magic of the night as well as the complicated emotions of two young people. The mare, on the other hand, remains as a part of the background, because it doesn’t take any part in the plot.‘The beauty of the Dead’ is another short story by H. E. Bates. The main characters of this piece are, obviously, Grimshow and his dying wife. But apart from them, there are a lot of other details. Firstly, there’s a doctor, who is a flat character, because he doesn’t develop at all, but without him the old lady could have been dead long before. Secondly, there’s Emma, her sister, who was mentioned once, but she cannot be called a character. A significant part of the story is devoted to the description of the fine furniture, china and glassware that over time had become their mutual obsession. The interior of the house, to my mind, can be called a character, because we can consider it a kind of substitution for the old couple who never had children and never had anyone or anything to care about. So, as their object of affection, we can call it a flat character, because it does not develop for the obvious reasons, but helps us to understand the life of these two people willingly separated from the outside world.Defying the doctor's instructions to bring in nursing help or even to build a fire, the husband labors in his workshop over the construction of her coffin. The coffin and the weather are the only things that actually change in the course of the story. There is a great snowfall, Grimshow works all night to complete the work, and when he finishes it and finds her dead, the snow ceases and the light of it is reflected on her stoned face, emphasizing its beauty. The snow can be considered a symbol of life, which has stopped during the scene, and of the calmness, beauty and solitude of the death. Whereas the weather and the coffin can be referred to as the symbols of life and death respectively, they are also the characters, as they develop throughout the plot and take a considerable part in the story.Comparing these two stories we can see one similar feature of great importance – the natural light. In the first story the moon light serves as the essential condition and the crucial background for the action, and the snow-light in the second story mirrors the isolation of these two people that has become eccentric and unhealthy and their attitudes about it. Considering the fact that these inanimate characters give us a great deal of information and help the author to depict the scenes fully we can say that their role in Bates’ stories is highly important.
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All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. No one really cares what you have to say.
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