This week, we have read Arthur Conan Doyle's very short story, "How It Happened". Please write an essay about this in the following form, as you did with "The Signalman". Paragraph 1: Introduction (Be sure to include title and author here as well as whatever else you find appropriate as an “opening”.)
Paragraph 2: Discussion of the story’s setting (Where? When?)
Paragraph 3: Discussion of the story’s Characters (Who?)
Paragraph 4: Discussion of the story’s Action (What happens? - the plot)
Paragraph 5: Discussion of the story's Style (How does the writer tell the story? For "How It Happened", you will probably want to focus on the way that the author uses foreshadowing, and builds suspense, as well as the way he structures his story and what effects these stylistic choices have.)
Paragraph 6: Discussion of the story’s Ideas (“Themes” – Go ahead and interpret this as you like. There is no “right” or “wrong” answer here. Feel free to refer to the idea of "spiritualism" that we spoke about briefly in class.)
Paragraph 7: Conclusion (Try to include some personal reaction to the story here.)
Though you could, of course, spend a long time writing an essay like this, please try to approach it as though it were an exam question on which you could spend only about 40 minutes to write a full seven paragraphs.
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How It Happened
ReplyDeleteParagraph 1
‘How it Happened’ is written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was written in 1918 shortly after the Great World War One. Arthur Conan Doyle was a British physician who strongly believed in Spiritualism. He is mostly known for writing the detective stories of Sherlock Holmes.
Paragraph 2
‘How it Happened’ is set in England. It is mainly set on one of England’s most dangerous road on Claystall Hill. It’s a steep 1 and a half mile road with three sharp turns. It is 11.30 o’clock at night when the story begins.
Paragraph 3
There are only 3 characters in this story. There is the narrator who is a rich English business man who very often travels to London. Then there is Perkins his chauffeur who is a loyal man who is just doing his job. The 3rd character is the narrator’s old university friend Stanley who died in the Boer war in South Africa.
Paragraph 4
There is a lot of action in this story. In fact all of it has some sort of suspense. First of all there are driving down this steep hill with no brakes what so ever on a brand new car and second of all they have three sharp turns which they have to overcome which they do though when they are about to arrive the narrator crashes and the narrator dies and Stanley and the narrator are talking to each other when they are both dead. (?)
Paragraph 5
‘How it Happened’ is written in a very suspicious and mysterious way. He uses a lot of suspense in his writing. He likes leaving questions in the readers head like when he uses “…I thought that I understood it. It was foolish no doubt, to begin to learn a new system in the dark, but one often does foolish things,…” which already gives the reader an idea that something bad is going to happen. I think that’s how he mainly builds up the suspense by leaving questions in the readers mind and also by telling you in advanced so to say that something bad is going to happen.
Paragraph 6
The stories idea I think is that Arthur Conan Doyle is trying to teach a lesson and that there is morale behind the story but also that he is trying to prove a point that spiritualism is real. His lesson behind the story is that don’t drive a brand new car down Claystall Hill with no brakes and the point he is trying to prove is that ghost do really exist and that there is an afterlife because Stanley and the narrator were both talking to each other about the crash when they were both dead.
Paragraph 7
So basically I think this is a very ‘fake’ story as I do not believe in an afterlife. I believe that when you die that’s it you die and the living are just going to have to deal with it. I don’t believe that people go to heaven or hell and that Spiritualism is just not real. Though I really enjoy reading spiritualistic stories so in a way I am glad people believe in it or else there wouldn’t be any writers who would write about it from there believes making them more real and freakish.
How it Happened Essay:
ReplyDeleteThe short story “How it happened” was written by Arthur Conan Doyle, a famous writer that was also a physician. His most famous stories were about detective Sherlock Holmes. He was born on the 22nd May 1959, and died on the 7th July 1930, and he was British. The story was written in 1918, so it is very old.
The whole story is basically a car ride, except the beginning, when the car actually arrives to him, and the ending, after the crash. The story is set in 1918 at night (11PM). It is set in England on a hill that leads down to the main character’s house, with 3 turns in it.
There are 2 main characters in the story, who are the narrator, who is seemingly very rich with a big house, since he mentions a gate to it, and his car seems to be very expensive and new, and he has his own chauffer. The other character that is mentioned throughout the story is the chauffer of the narrator, who is called Perkins. We never learn the narrators name since the chauffer always calls him “sir” or “master”. Perkins is very loyal man towards his master, and knows how to drive this car (the main problem in the story is that the narrator tries to drive the car and ruins the breaks so they go rolling down a hill very fast towards his house).
In the begging of the story, the scene is described. It is night time (about 11PM) and the narrator is waiting for his new car to be delivered. His chauffer drives to him and they decide to drive home. The narrator insists on trying to drive this new car, even though it is different than his old car, and he doesn’t know how to drive it, and his chauffer does know how to drive it. They go fine for a while, but then the gears got stuck so he tries the break, but that breaks so they are going freely, really fast down this hill that is very dangerous. They have 3 sharp turns to get to his house, and the narrator thinks that if they make these turns, they could manage to get home safely. They manage the first two turns fine, and then they just about manage the third turn. They crash into one of the pillars of his entrance gate. The narrator is conscious of flying through the air and then he wakes up after believing he fell unconscious. His old college friend is standing next to him, and he sees his car all torn up at his gate. He hears his chauffer asking where his master is, and no one seems to hear the narrator shout. Eventually his friend tells him that he is dead, because his friend had died in a war.
The writer tells the story in a way that he doesn’t reveal anything until the end of the story, which really helps get the reader into the story, for example when the narrator crashes, we think he is unconscious at first, and we are really surprised when we figure out that he actually died.
The story’s theme is not scary for sure. It’s actually more of an action story that is trying to get you suspended, so it has a lot of cliff-hangers. Even though this is a ghost story, it surely was not written to scare its audience. This story was no really written for a certain age group, so people of any age can read it and still understand it clearly, and not be affected too greatly.
In all, I thought this story was very good, and I enjoyed reading every bit of it. I never got bored, because the author has a really good way of putting suspense in the story, so it’s a story that you do not want to put down after you start reading. I thought the ending was really good, but I would have really liked it if it was a few pages longer, because I was disappointed that it finished so quickly.
How it Happened
ReplyDelete“How it happened” By Arthur Conan Doyle is about a man taking his car out, when he comes to London, at around 11:00 at night. He was told by his chauffeur that the gears are different and he should drive. He decides to drive and when they at the most dangerous hill, Crystal Hill, in all of England, something bad happens.
It is set in London, England around 1918, when it was written. In the beginning they are talking near the train station. Most of it takes place in the car as it is rolling down the hill. It is strange how the whole story, all though it is quite sort, can take place in this car, while it is rolling down and hill and death could be at the end of it. The beginning though they are talking near the train station.
There are two main characters in this story. The narrator, who is driving the car and Perkins the chauffeur. The narrator seems to be a rich man, with at least two cars which would have been a lot for this time. He seems to be very loyal, as when they are rolling, he tells Perkins to jump and neither of them ends up jumping. Perkins is also a very loyal he doesn’t jump when the narrator tells him to. He also always refers to the narrator as Sir, which seems to be a sign of loyalty. There is also Stanley, the narrator’s college friend. The narrator says that he seems sympathetic, so that could be a quality in him, but it does not say much about him.
It starts out at 11:30 when he arrives in London. He wants to drive his new car but Perkins tells him that the gears are different and that he shouldn’t drive. The narrator learns the gears, but it was a mistake doing this in the dark. When they reach “Crystal Hill” The car slips into neutral and both brakes fail. They are left going down this hill with 3 sharp bends in it, and then facing the stop at the bottom. They make the first turn alright and the second turn almost landing in a ditch. Before the third turn they consider what to do when they reach the bottom. The narrator says that they should go up a hill and they would slow down. Perkins thinks that the car would flip and it was a bad idea. They make the third turn but when they end up at the gate of the house, the wheel hits the edge of the gate and the narrator remembers flying through the air, and then waking up. He sees Perkins with something crushing his legs and he sees his old college friend, Stanley. He realizes that Stanley died in the Boer war. He says, “’Stanley, you are dead.’” And Stanley replies, “So are you.”
This is a very short story, only two and a half pages. It keeps it simple and the way he builds up suspense when they are rolling down the hill. He keeps the actual theme of the story till the end, unless you are reading the version that starts with, “She was a writing medium, and this is what she wrote:--“
The main idea of this story is ghosts. It is narrated by a ghost, although you do not know this until the end. It has Stanley as well who is a ghost, unless you are reading the version that starts with, “She was a writing medium, and this is what she wrote:--“. It seems as if he doesn’t want to reveal the ghostly part of the story till the end.
I enjoyed this story, and I think it was very well written and there was always some suspense. Although it wouldn’t be too hard, as it is a very short story.
"HOW IT HAPPENED" Essay!!
ReplyDeleteby: Sara Welander 9B
“How it Happened” is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1830). It is a ghost story and also a thriller story.
The story has two settings. One of them is at the country station in London. While the second one is set on that awful hill 5 miles off London, in the countryside. I don't know an exact year when the story was written, but it was probably somewhere around the late 1800s, where the story as well takes place in. The setting is described as very dark since it's midnight and it is in the countryside with big, steep hills.
The main characters of the story is the narrator and Perkins, his chauffeur. The narrator we suspect is a very wealthy man. We can get this because, for one, he has his own chauffeur. And secondly, because he has this brand new car and since it is in the 1800s the car industry is just beginning so not that many people have cars yet. Perkins, the narrators chauffeur, is a very patient and calm man, who cares for the best of his master. He would even spare his life over him.
The plot of this short story is about this wealthy man who really wants to drive in his new car, even though it is his first time and hasn't gotten used to the gears yet. But when he and his chauffeur reaches one of the most steepest hills in England, everything goes wrong. This hill leads them to the awful crash from all of the sharp turns of the hill and 'how it happened'.
The story's language style is in 1st person, but told as past tense and like the narrator is telling the reader in person. He mentions around the 3rd paragraph “it was foolish, no doubt”, seemingly to warn the reader that something terrible was about to happen in the story he was telling. Something that he regretted for all his life. When the narrator describes them doing the sharp turns down the hill, he has this language style of one who doesn't really worry of what's to happen and thinks he knows everything will be al-right. Also when he describes the car's movement he tells it to the reader in a simple, non-technical kind of way, presenting the vehicle almost not as a machine but an actual living thing.
The theme of this story is a thriller, I suppose. It is not exactly a ghost story, but probably a little since in the end the man actually sees one before him. Another theme of the story is too never drive in a brand new car with different gears in the dark around steep hills in the countryside. This is because it can get very dangerous and could cost your life, as which happened to the narrator of this story.
My personal opinion of this short story is that it was extremely exciting and I was very keen to know what was going to happen in the end, even though I probably knew what was going to happen. I really liked the language style in this story because it really showed the narrators character in it e.g. when he warns the reader “it was foolish, no doubt” it made the reader more curious to read more, wanting to know what was going to happen in the end. It also gave a clear, understandable explanation, compared to “the signalman”, which I admit, was a bit confusing. I thought It was a very interesting short story and enjoyed reading it very much. I hope we read further stories like this one :)
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ReplyDelete“How It Happened” is written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1918. Arthur Coal Doyle believed in spiritualism, because many siblings from his family died in the WW1, and that is probably why he wrote this short ghost story.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of this story is in England, 1918. First it is the train station, then after it is a brand new car, and then it is the hill to his house inside the car.
There are three main characters in this story. The narrator, who is a rich middle-aged man, his chauffeur called Perkins, and ghost named Stanley who was his old friend who died in the Boer War.
The narrator tells us a story that happened to him in past. He first was at the train station, and then we waked from the platform to his new car, which was only one day long.
He wanted to try his new car, his chauffeur asked him not do drive it because it has a new type of gears, “My old car had the gears as they used always to be in notches on a bar. In this car you passed the gear level through a gate to get on the higher ones…” this sentence explains it.
So then he explains that there were three curves he had to pass in order to get to the house. The gears broke, and he thought that if he would manage to pass these three curves his car would eventually slow down and stop, but his car smashed into a gate near the house and chauffeur’s leg got squashed, and the narrator died, and saw his friend who was a ghost.
The style of this story is quite relaxed, because you would expect the narrator to be panicking, which he didn’t, he was calm and telling the story in a normal way, as if there would be nothing happening at the end. But even though it is calm and peaceful, the ending is really good, it builds up and then the narrator gives the main action at the end which is even though expected, but still interesting.
The main ideas in this story are driving and death. Death because at the end the narrator dies and it is quite impressive, and driving because he is driving and explains everything throughout the story.
In whole I enjoyed this story. I think it is good because the author kept it short, and it is interesting to read. But to be honest I really disagree with spiritualism, yes some people may believe in it, but it shouldn’t be the main thing in your life, because you live in the reality, in this world, not the ghost world.
How It Happened Essay
ReplyDeleteThe short story ‘How it happened’ was written in the 1918’s by Arthur Conan Doyle, who is a British, writer and also a physician. He strongly believed in spiritualism after the death of his wife Louisa, which means that he believed in life after death.
The story ‘How it happened’ was set in England, on a dangerous road driving five miles to go home, about twelve o’clock at mid night.
In this story there are only three characters, there is the narrator, Mr. Perkins and Stanley. The Mr. Perkins referred to as the narrators chauffeur. Stanley is the old friend of the narrator who died of the enteric Bloemfontein in the Boer War. And the narrator who is just referred to as ‘I’ he most probably has a name but we don’t know it.
The plot of the story started off with the narrator and the chauffeur Mr. Perkins going home by their car. They were driving on a very dangerous road, and on the way the brakes broke and the car wouldn’t want to stop when pressing on the foot-brake. So while driving they tried everything they could, but nothing worked… so after trying everything they had decided that they have to jump. Not one of them wanted to jump, in the end they had to jump and when they both jumped, the narrator suddenly saw his old friend – Stanley, who died of the enteric Bloemfontein in the Boer War. After the narrator realized it was his old friend – Stanley. The story finished by the narrator telling ‘Stanley, you are dead’, and Stanley replying ‘so are you’.
The style of the story has true cold atmosphere which really gives the ghost story away, which explains a lot of details in certain paragraphs of the story ‘how it happened’.
The themes of the story are Ghosts and Death.
My thoughts and feelings towards this story is quite the same as towards the Signal Man. Although this story is mostly based on the afterlife as the writer Arthur Conan Doyle believed in, which I personally don’t believe in. The story was written in a well enough explained English which was easy to understand and follow.
By Christina Lomakina.
HOW IT HAPPENED essay
ReplyDeleteby Tatiana Torriani 9A =D
'How It Happened’ is written by Arthur Conan Doyle, who is also the creator of the Sherlock Holmes series. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK on May 22, 1859. He went to Stonyhurst College and was an optometrist. The story was published in 1918
The short story is set in England, in the narrator’s land. Set in Clayston Hill, which is near the main London road. For the most part, the story is set on the dangerous Clayston Hill with sharp turns and a long road. It is horrible to drive on. There are three sharp turns, a mile and a half in one place, and one mile in six others. There are many ditches and the roads are rather narrow at the turns.
The two main characters in the story are Perkins and the narrator. Perkins is a chauffeur that works for the narrator, the one who is supposed to drive the narrator around. He is fairly calm and doesn’t freak out too easily, while being very loyal to the narrator, his ‘master’. Perkins seems like the narrators friend, simply chatting with him casually. The narrator, though, is a little wilder. He seems to have a rather optimistic personality and is fairly rich to be having a chauffeur and a brand new car. The narrators name remains unknown.
Basically the whole story is about the narrator trying to control a new car whose brakes are broken. The car was different from the narrators older one, but he had thought that he would be able to master this one. He thinks that he knows how to drive it, but it was ‘foolish’ (as the narrator comments) to try and learn how to drive a new car in the dark while driving down a dangerous road. The car is going 50 miles per hour fast down the hill, in the dark, with no breaks, and the narrator has to think quickly while waiting for the next sharp turn to come up. Perkins, the chauffeur, acted as if it were no big deal and that it was very normal to be riding at that speed down Clayston Hill. The narrator does successfully drive down most of the hill, but then, when they think that they’d turn out all right, the car’s side hits the pillar of the narrator’s land gate and it flips, killing the narrator and badly injuring Perkins. The narrator only finds out that he is dead when his dead friend shows up, as a ghost, and informs him of his misfortune.
The story is first person, shown in the driver/narrators point of view. Arthur Conan Doyle builds suspense by explaining how the narrator had to handle the sharp turns, and making you think ‘They might make it!’ or ‘No, they’re not going to make it.’ While he also uses foreshadowing, in a way, near the end while the narrator is driving towards the gate.
The themes shown in this story are ‘death’, ‘ghost’, and ‘action’, in a way. One of the themes is death because of how the narrator dies, rather quickly, as well. ‘Ghost’ because of how Stanley showed up at the end of it telling the narrator that he was dead. And ‘action’ because of how quickly the narrators movements and thoughts had to be while plunging down that hill while going at such a speed.
I thought the story was well written and wasn’t too boring. I thought it was rather funny how cool and calm Perkins and the narrator were acting at a time like that, plunging down the hill, when they could die. It was interesting how, at the end, he brought the narrator’s old friend into the story to prove that the narrator had, in fact, died.