Fiction is primarily aimed at eliciting emotions of others. When a reader becomes deeper engaged in a fictional story, they often forget how fictional the story really is and enthralled in the characters.This deeper connection in turn leads to an experience of the emotions of the characters; causing a deeper connection to the reading. According to Bruner (Bruner J 1986), a person reading fiction will react more towards a story than when you would read a non-fictional story because fiction provides a safe place for a reader to be able to experience emotions without the need for being self conscious. Fiction allows the reader to move out of real life. It’s easy to sympathize strongly with a character of a fictional story as a reader because there …show more content…
Because of this, there is a notable difference between how easy it is to relate to fictional narratives and non-fictional writing. Bruner (Bruner J 1986) argued that narratives cannot be separated from fiction because every narrative told by an individual includes an interpretation of an event and the narrator’s goals in telling the story. The structure of the literature determines how the text will influence the reader’s mind. This structure of narrative writing is seen most in fictional literature. Fiction focuses most on the goal of how much will a reader believe. Unlike non fiction, which is more noted on it’s straight forward facts. There’s a more direct focus in fiction on, “whether it establishes verisimilitude, or truthlikeness.” (Gallese V 2001) A reader will be affected by a fictional narrative only when it creates a narrative world that is real but only within its context and a reader can deem it realistic. This then creates a magnetic draw and appeal to the narrative or transportation. However, nonfictional thinking is not able to elicit those same feelings. Fictional narratives present characters, events and the setting of a story in such a way that the reader can become transported and hence change through the narrative. Because of this, fictional reading is able to elicit more empathy via transportation. This
Poor choices can cause tragic outcomes. Fate, on the other hand, is beyond someone's control. Many people believe that regardless of their actions, fate and destiny determine the outcome of their lives. However, in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the outcome of Romeo and Juliet's lives were controlled by the choices that they made. Although the deaths of Romeo and Juliet were mentioned in the prologue of the story as star-crossed lovers, the tragic ending of the couple was determined by their free will as a result of unwise decisions.
There are many different types of characters in stories, and each has been described differently leaving different impression to readers. Reading some stories gives the readers the feeling of empathy for characters. Speaking about characteristic, it is great to know how a character feels in order to understand the story. Through this essay, I would like to show how stories make the readers feel empathy to other’s concerns, feelings, and troubles.
“It lies not in our power to love, or hate, for will in us is over-rul'd by fate.” In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, it is clear that the leading theme is fate, as it is mentioned several times. Shakespeare allows the audience to see everything that happens “behind closed doors.” While some characters’ actions did affect the outcome of the play, fate is the ruling force.
The key to characters, and by proxy good writing, is an appeal to these universal struggles, these emotions which manifest themselves in many forms and conflicts. This is why we can sympathize with both a story about a down on his luck middle class American, and a fictional hobbit on a mystical quest, even if the former is probably a scenario we closer relate
Considerably, literature is a form of escapism. This came to me from a young age, where I became engrossed by the concept of story-telling. Whether it be through the natural world conveyed by romantic poets like Shelley and Wordsworth or the complex characters found in prose, like in the works of Dickens and Hardy; comprehending how plots are reflective of life intrigued me to devise my own.
Most stories if not all have a moral to learn and many times authors give their characters traits that will allow the audience to understand the concept which they are attempting to convey. Both Franz Kafka and Mary Shelley give their protagonist negative traits that will promote a feeling of antipathy amongst the readers. It is likely that if the reader is able to view and analyze how the character’s negative attitudes greatly affect the plot of the novel they will learn to change their own attitudes if self-identification is achieved thus possibly carrying out the message that the author was attempting to achieve.
Generally speaking, the two most frequently used genres in literature are fictional and non-fictional. Having said this, fictional and non-fictional literature are distinct regarding their purpose as well the literary devices they use. Literary devices are specific language methods which writers use to form text that is clear, interesting, and unforgettable. Fictional literature, for instance, is something that is made up; however, non-fictional is factual. Furthermore, non-fictional works of literature such as literary essays usually convey a message using literary devices that differ than those used in fictional literature such as short stories, which are meant to amuse its readers. Literary essays uses literary devices such as description,
One of the questions I've been asking myself for ages was why we relate to a character on screen even though we know they're fictional.
Blood here and blood there! Shots are being fired from every direction and screams begin to emerge from deep within the forest. They become louder and louder and seem to come closer with every step taken. Then there is an eerie silence and as everything seems to calm down, a grenade goes off in the distance. Does this seem real? Could this be real? The way war is portrayed in movies is not always the honest truth. Most of the times the way war is depicted very action packed and heroic. Although this is true in some cases, there are sides of war that some do not see. There are days in war where nothing extremely dangerous happens. There are also sides of soldiers, emotionally, that one does not see. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, war and the soldiers are portrayed in way that is rarely seen. The same can be said for a poem by Wilfred Owen titled Dulce et Decorum Est. O'Brien and Owen both portray the reality of war, however O'Brien goes deeper into the truth behind the reality or war.
A narrative is specified to amuse, to attract, and grasp a reader’s attention. The types of narratives are fictitious, real or unification or both. However, they may consist of folk tale stories, mysteries, science fiction; romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads, slice of life, and personal experience (“Narrative,” 2008). Therefore, narrative text has five shared elements. These are setting, characters, plot, theme, and vocabulary (“Narrative and Informational Text,” 2008). Narrative literature is originally written to communicate a story. Therefore, narrative literature that is written in an excellent way will have conflicts and can discuss shared aspects of human occurrence.
In regards to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare chose fate to be a strong underlying theme which constructs the basis of the story line. Fate has the ability to control the characters’ lives and one minor change in the way it had acted would have changed the entire outcome. Through Romeo and Juliet’s spontaneous encounter, fate was largely responsible for love at first sight alongside controlling the misfortunate events that occur as a result of their love. Apart from love and misfortune, Shakespeare suggests that Romeo and Juliet were destined to die the way they did, despite the fact that it was their choice to end their lives. The outcome of the play was a direct result of fate, which to a notable extent was responsible for the many events which were destined to occur.
Fate is the controlling force of the events that lead up to, and cause, the deaths of Rome and Juliet. It is no coincidence that Romeo meets the Capulet servant and is invited to the party. Fate brought him to the house of the Capel?s where he was destined to meet his future wife, Juliet. At the risk of being killed, the two lovers married their supposed loathéd enemy and consummated the marriage without even the slightest hint of detection from anyone who did not know of the wedding. Unfortunately, their sweet success would be short lived and their lives would be a downward spiral staring with Romeo?s banishment and ending with their deaths. Taking into consideration that Romeo and Juliet are predetermined to meet, love and die together, fate is clearly the dominant force of the play.
In Romeo and Juliet, a play by Shakespeare, the characters are subject to fate and destiny and hence, have no control, whatsoever, over their lives. Shakespeare repeatedly refers to fate, the idea of a predetermined future or a hidden power beyond anyone’s control through various techniques. There is a sense of inexorable doom throughout the whole play which is made evident through the characters’ repetitive acknowledgement of destiny, as well as the constant foreshadowing and coincidences that take place. Romeo and Juliet have their entire lives played out according to fate and destiny which is obvious through the many references to their predestined future.
When Tybalt is slain, Romeo cries out, “O, I am Fortune’s fool!” implying that the death of Tybalt was not the fault of Romeo, but by the fault of fate. Shakespeare continues to play upon the idea of Fortune throughout the play. When Friar Lawrence discovers that the letter has not been delivered to Romeo hey says, “Unhappy Fortune!” revealing that fate has its hand upon everything (5.2.17). It seems that whenever a character is in peril they turn to fate for answers, leading others to believe that they are not at fault. Shakespeare’s constant outbursts from that of characters and constant foreshadowing from them, reveals that actions are justified by fate. This in turn supports Shakespeare’s thoughts about fate in that it controls our
"Books and movies are like apple and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different.” said Stephen King (goodreads.com). It is indeed true, books and movies have several common things and yet have differences. They both give us the same story, but are viewed completely different. Reading books and watching movies are similar as they both tell a story and give details and information about the story. Reading books or watching movies gives the reader and the viewer the same feeling and emotions about the story. People can feel gloomy or pleased with the story after reading a book or watching a movie. Both books and movies have the same general concepts, which are the themes and main characters of