Plot
Her sister, Caroline, and their mother have gone to France, and eventually Alicia's suspicions are confirmed that Caroline has become engaged to a man named Charles. Charles keeps postponing the wedding. Alicia's mother dies. Due to the death of their mother and the coldness and procrastination of Charles to her, Caroline is dying. Also, Alicia tries to leave them alone to catalyse the romantic process and to avoid charming Charles. Charles catches a glimpse of Alicia, and they soon fall in love with each other. Needless to say, Alicia feels very guilty because of her incestuous feelings toward the fiancée of her sister. Alicia and Charles make a deal that Charles should marry the dying Caroline, but not tell her it wasn't a legitimate marriage. If Caroline dies, Alicia and Charles can be married. If Caroline lives and does not want to marry Charles (after they tell her it wasn't a legitimate wedding), Alicia is free to marry Charles. The third option comes to pass, so Alicia must sacrifice her love for Charles and yield to her sister marrying Charles. Caroline and Charles marry. Shortly following the wedding, Charles leaves and does not return. Four months later, Alicia informs us that Charles died. Five years later, Alicia adds a final note that Caroline married a man named Higham, who was the one who pretended to marry Caroline and Charles. Alicia ends the short story by concluding that everyone involved in deceiving her sister have now repented (Higham by love, she says). "ay she be deceived no more."
Read more about this topic: Alicia's Diary
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Those blessed structures, plot and rhyme—
why are they no help to me now
I want to make
something imagined, not recalled?”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)