To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time Group

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slazzy
slazzy
Student
College - Freshman

What is the difference between short story and novel? Thank you!

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Posted by slazzy on Thursday May 24, 2007 at 1:29 AM and tagged with hamlet, to the virgins, to make much of time.

Answers:


  1. mrerick Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    While this might seem obvious, the basic answer is length. The link below will explain more detailed, but because a short story is shorter than a novel, there are many things that end up different. The protagonist in a short story often doesn't experience any major change. They are quickly personified in the beginning and often remain static for the duration of the story. In a novel, our characters often experience some great (or small) change in thought, belief, etc. In a short story, all action usually builds to one event. In a novel, there can be multiple plot lines intertwined with multiple conflicts. In a short story, the number of smaller events that lead up to a conflict or toward resolution are often limited. With the extra length in a novel, that "build-up" and "let-down" period can include many, many events.

    Hope that helped.

    Sources:
    http://www.writetothebone.org/writingfiction/shortstories...

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    Posted by mrerick on Thursday May 24, 2007 at 7:07 AM


  2. sullymonster Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Consider also that an author has chosen to the short story format over the novel format. Authors make these decisions for very specific reasons. Edgar Allen Poe, often considered the father of the short story, stated in the Philosophy of Composition that the most powerful expression of emotion must be experienced in one sitting. To interrupt the reading is to take away from the impact of the emotion and or message. With that in mind, the short story author, like the poet, is typically much more concerned with the human emotional experience as opposed to the human social and/or philosophical experience.

    In order to accomplish this goal, short story authors will often leave off one part or over-emphasize one part of the plot structure. A typical plot involves exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Some stories, like the classic The Lady or the Tiger will completely ignore resolution in order to empasize exposition, and therefore characters. The story isn't about what happens, its about what the characters experience. Sonny's Blues is another great example of this emphasis on exposition. Other stories will skip exposition all together, giving no background to the characters, which allows the readers to focus on conflict. Hemingway's Hills are like White Elephants is a great example of this.

    Therefore, a reader of short stories, as opposed to novels, should consider where the author chooses to focus the little space he has.

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    Posted by sullymonster on Thursday May 24, 2007 at 7:47 AM

  3. walefilip
    walefilip

    Obviously, the lenght, is the difference between a novel and a shortstory. Shortstory,is a form of fictional prose that ranges from 500-2,000 words and 50-100 pages that contain major events of a literary work. On the other hand, Novel is also a form of prose that has a range of 2,000-10,000 words. Unlike shortstory that deals with major events, it deals with the elaborate sense of a literary work containing both major and minor events that could be found in any literary work.

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    Posted by walefilip on Monday April 6, 2009 at 2:59 AM

  4. tabieric
    tabieric Teacher
    Middle School

    A short story is a fictional prose narrative shorter and more focussed than a novel ,usually deal with a single charecter.

    A novel is a fictional prose narrative of considerable length,usually having  a plot that unfolds by actions,dilogue and thoughts of the varied charecters.

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    Posted by tabieric on Thursday August 20, 2009 at 1:08 AM