This construction is best made piecemeal, the character
disclosing itself gradually during the story, as it does in life, and
growing under the stress of circumstances. The old idea of fixity of
character does not suit our modern notions of growth; we demand that
character be created by the story; it should not preexist, as
Schopenhauer thought it should, with its nature as determinate and its
reactions as predictable as those of a chemical substance. And although
in their broad outlines the possibilities of human nature are perhaps
fewer in number than the chemical substances, the variations of these
types in their varying environments are infinite. To create a poignant
uniqueness while preserving the type is the supreme achievement of the
writer of fiction. We want as many of the details of character, and
no more, as are necessary to this end.
By incident is meant action expressing character or action or event
determining fate. There are a thousand actions, mechanical or habitual,
performed by us all, which throw no light upon our individuality.
Almost all of these the novelist may neglect, or if he wishes to
describe them, a single example will serve to reveal whatever uniqueness
they may hide. There are an equal number of actions and events like
blind alleys leading nowhere; from these also the novelist abstracts;
it is only when he can trace some effect upon fate or character that
he is interested. The delineation of nature or the milieu is governed
by the same reference: a social or intellectual environment, no matter
how interesting in itself, without potent individualities which it
molds, or scenery, no matter how romantic, unless it is a theater of
action or a spiritual influence upon persons, has no place in a story.
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