Friday, 17 August 2018

Opening lines of a story

It is with a clear purpose that an author starts a story. To get to the end. However, the author has a broad framework in time. This is the end towards which s/he will work.

Let's look at the opening lines of "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”


What can we identify in here:

It has humor - that men who have wealth need a wife.
It has sarcasm - to say that this is a universally acknowledged truth.
It uses a clause in between - "that a single man in possession of a good fortune" to lay emphasis on wealthy men.


One opening line allows us to look at deeper meaning. 

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