Custom «The Woman in White and Missing Sarah» Essay Paper Sample

In the passage, one narratological concept which has been used is ellipsis. Ellipsis is used in a narrative to indicate missing information (for the purpose of creating suspense) or to indicate pause whereby the author uses punctuation marks such as hyphen, dot, period (full spot), comma and semi-colon. In the passage, use of ellipsis is evident at the beginning of the passage; in the sentence, "December 16^th. - A whole fortnight has passed..." The author uses a hyphen to indicate that there is some missing information. The effect of ellipsis used in this passage is to create suspense to the readers. The hyphen clearly indicates that between the given date; December 16^th and the fortnight that had passed since then, there is a series of events which happened. Therefore, the reader is left in suspense since the information is not given. Mostly, use of ellipsis to create suspense in a narrative or other piece of literature arouses the curiosity of the reader and hence the reader is urged to continue reading in order to find out if the missing information is given later in the narrative.

Another narratological concept present in this passage is analepsis. Analepsis is use of flashback in a narrative whereby the author explains an earlier point in the story. This is evident in the passage where the author, in the second sentence says, "I have been long enough away from my journal, to come back to it, with a healthier and better mind, I hope, so far as Sir Pervical is concerned." In this sentence, the author takes the reader(s) back to an event which concerned Sir Pervical. It seems like the author had taken a break from filling his journal due the events which concerned him and Sir Pervical. Since the events mentioned do not occur at the time when the author is writing this passage, then, by referring to the events, the author is making use of analepsis. More evidence about use of analepsis is provided in the next sentence (sentence three) where the author says, "There is not much to record of the past two weeks." Here, the author states that there is less to record of the past two weeks whereby, the past two weeks (fortnight) had been referred to earlier in the passage. It is then clear that the author is flashbacking about the events which occurred in the last two weeks before this specific passage was written.

Pause is yet another narratological concept which has been used by the author in this passage. Through out the passage, the author has made use of various punctuation marks such as commas and semi-colons to indicate pause in the sentences. For example, in sentence five; "Poor dear Laura hardly leaves me for a moment, all day; and, last night, when neither of us could sleep, she came and crept into my bed to talk me there," the author has used both commas and semi-colon to indicate pause in the sentence. This has been repeated in all other sentences in the passage.

Passage Two: Extracted from "Missing Sarah" by Maggie deVries

In this passage, the author has made use of anachrony as one of the narratological concepts used in narratives. Anachrony can be said to be present in a narrative or other literary work where the author presents a discrepancy between chronological order of events in the narrative and the order in which they relate in a plot. For instance, the author starts the passage by addressing women who sell sex on the streets (prostitutes). Suddenly, the author deviates from addressing these women and brings in a different topic into the passage which is an account of her journey from Holland and her encounters on that day. This is a clear indication of anachrony since the first three sentences do not relate to the rest of the sentences in the passage.

Another narratological concept used in this passage is focalization. Focalization can be said to be the perspective through which a narrative is presented. There seems to be a combination of internal and external focalization. In the passage, internal focalization is seen at the beginning of the passage where the author is seen/can be seen addressing specific character in the narrative. It seems like the author is addressing a person/character who she was earlier having a conversation with about issues concerning women prostitutes. Use of external focalization follows immediately, where the author diverts from the topic and start giving an account of the events which happened on the day she travelled from Holland. Here, the author can be seen to be addressing the audience. When the focal point of the narrative is directed to the audience, it is said that the author is utilizing external focalization.

In addition, the author also makes use of homodiegetic concept in her passage. Homodiegesis can be said to be present in a narrative if the narrator of the narrative takes an active role as a character in the narrative. In this passage, use of first person narration is clear evidence that the narrator is taking an active role in the narrative. Also, in the passage; sentences four and five, the author makes use of the word 'we.' This shows that the narrator (who is the author) is one of the characters taking part in the narrative. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is use of homodiegesis in the passage.