Second paragraph— the plot.

Summary of a Plot. The paragraph used to summarize the incidents of a story should not attempt plot criticism, but should be a mere setting forth of the main events in the life of the leading character. There is always danger that the young student will be so interested in the details of the story that he will allow himself, in giving an account of it, to be burdened with details, and so confuse his reader or. listener. The story should, therefore, be told very briefly in this summary. The two follow¬ing models give only the main points in the plots of Silas Marner and Middlemarch.

MODELS

I. "The story is exceedingly simple. A weaver, falsely accused of theft, is driven from his home and friends in Lantern Yard. The injtiktice- of his fate causes him to revolt in his heart against. God and to become a mis¬anthrope. He emigrates to a distant village, lives in a hermit's solitude, and centers his efforts upon the hoarding of gold. Then his .money is mysteriously taken from him, and 'fox A, time his life is blank. One night in a storm, a waif, a helpless child, comes stray¬ing by chance to his door. The lonely man takes her in, cares for her and learns to love her, and this love, taking the place of his former miser's greed, redeems his lost human nature and makes him once more a man. A psychological study this, for it shows the changes which, under varying conditions, take place in the soul."

"Middlemarch, at bottom, is a criticism on social lim¬itations and conventions. It shows how the noble aims and ideals of the ardent are crushed and shattered by the sordid facts of reality. Dorothea Brooke is a mod¬ern St. Theresa. Lured by a Quixotic sense of duty she weds a marrowless recluse, hoping to make him happy and to help him in his monumental work of pedantic scholarship. It is a mistake, and the happiness of both is destroyed. Middlemarch is a laborious but powerful novel. In spite of some defects it possesses an unostentatious solidity which leaves a strong impression on the memory."

.Exercises I.	Prove that the details of each of the above summaries enforce the thought of the characterizing sentence with which they begin. Are the summa¬rizing sentences at the close satisfactory? Find in magazines or books of criticism other examples of the summary of plot. • II. Write a summary of the plot of some play or novel familiar to you, using as a model either of the paragraphs quoted in section 219.