In The Great Gatsby, Nick sees Gatsby 'stretch out his arms toward the dark water' toward 'a single green light, minute and far away' at chapter 1's end, though Gatsby does not speak until chapter 3. What does this wordless first appearance accomplish?

In Heart of Darkness, Marlow says of Kurtz before meeting him, 'He was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do.' What does this delay accomplish?

Homer's Odyssey opens with four books following Telemachus in Ithaca; Odysseus himself is not shown until Book 5, weeping on Calypso's island. What does this delay let the epic establish first?

In Othello, before Othello ever speaks onstage, Roderigo asks Iago, 'What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe / If he can carry't thus!' referring to Othello only by that epithet. What does this delayed, unnamed introduction do?

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley is discussed and feared for most of the novel but appears in person only at the end, when Scout finally says, 'Hey, Boo.' What does this delay accomplish?

In Wuthering Heights, Catherine tells Nelly, 'it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now,' unaware Heathcliff overhears and leaves before hearing the rest. Why is this overheard line the novel's turning point?

In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy's first proposal ('In vain have I struggled') and Elizabeth's refusal are followed by his letter explaining Wickham and Jane. Why is this exchange the novel's turning point?

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest and Hester says, 'Let us not look back... The past is gone!' as they plan to flee together. Why does this forest scene function as the novel's turning point?

In Hamlet, during the players' performance of 'The Mousetrap,' Claudius suddenly rises and cries, 'Give me some light! away!' confirming his guilt to Hamlet. Why does this moment count as more than a startled reaction?

At the end of A Doll's House, Nora tells Torvald, 'I must stand quite alone, if I am to understand myself,' then leaves; the play ends, 'the sound of a door being slammed is heard from below.' Why is this exit structural?

In To the Lighthouse, the 'Time Passes' section reports a death in one bracketed aside: 'Mrs Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty.' What does this compression do?

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway opens, 'Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself,' and the entire novel expands to cover just one day in London. What does this expansion accomplish?

One Hundred Years of Solitude opens, 'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.' What does compressing decades into one sentence establish?

Beloved opens '124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom,' but the killing of Sethe's daughter is not narrated until deep into the novel, arriving in fragments. What does this delay accomplish?

A Tale of Two Cities closes on Carton's walk to the guillotine and the words, 'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.' What does ending on this moment emphasize?

In Oedipus Rex, the plague arrives before Oedipus learns his own past crime; Tiresias tells him, 'you are the murderer.' What causal relationship does the play support?

In Frankenstein, Victor abandons the creature the instant it opens its eyes; it later says, 'I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.' What cause does this support?

In Othello, Iago plants doubts about Desdemona before the handkerchief ever goes missing, reflecting that 'trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmations strong / As proofs of holy writ.' What cause does this sequence support?

In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov publishes an article claiming that extraordinary people have the right to overstep moral law months before he murders the pawnbroker. What should a reader infer about the murder's cause?

In Death of a Salesman, Biff's confrontation ('I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!') comes just before Willy drives off to his death. What does the play's larger sequence suggest about cause?

Wuthering Heights frames its plot as Nelly Dean's flashback to Lockwood, whose journal opens, '1801.--I have just returned from a visit to my landlord,' before Nelly turns back to the Earnshaws' arrival with young Heathcliff. Why place it there?

In Jane Eyre, Rochester's flashback explaining his marriage to Bertha Mason comes only after the wedding is interrupted at the altar. Why place this backstory there rather than earlier?

In The Sound and the Fury, Benjy's section shifts without warning between the present and memories of Caddy, marked by italics and the line 'Caddy smelled like trees.' What does this scattering do?

In The Great Gatsby, the flashback revealing that Gatsby was born James Gatz opens chapter 6, just before Tom Buchanan visits and starts asking who Gatsby really is. What does this placement accomplish?

In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim becomes 'unstuck in time,' so the bombing of Dresden recurs in fragments across the novel, each death met with the refrain 'So it goes.' What does this placement accomplish?

In Great Expectations, Pip assumes Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor, but Magwitch reveals late, 'Yes, Pip, dear boy, I've made a gentleman on you!' What does withholding the benefactor's identity cost?

In Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, the narrator only learns late in the novel that Maxim did not love Rebecca but killed her, undercutting the idealized version of Rebecca built up for most of the book. What does this late disclosure cost?

In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, which opens, 'I am an invisible man,' the narrator is never given a proper name across the entire novel, and this namelessness is never explained or resolved. What effect does withholding his name create?

In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale's fatherhood of Pearl stays hidden until the scaffold scene, when he cries, 'Behold! Behold a dreadful witness of it!' and opens his shirt. What does withholding his role do?

In Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, Stevens narrates his years of service without disclosing, until very late, that he suppressed his feelings for Miss Kenton and ignored Lord Darlington's Nazi sympathies. What is managed by this delay?