In the final paragraph of Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” the narrator recalls lifting something from a pillow: “that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” What does this closing detail emphasize?

In Chopin's “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard notices “trees...aquiver with new spring life,” “the delicious breath of rain,” and “countless sparrows...twittering in the eaves.” What does this cluster emphasize?

In Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator calls the paper “repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow... a sickly sulfur tint.” What does this grouping of sensory details emphasize?

In Dickens's “Great Expectations,” Pip sees Miss Havisham's dress: “everything...ought to be white, had been white long ago... The bride...had withered like the dress...brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes.” What does this emphasize?

At the opening of Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator looks “upon the bleak walls... upon the vacant eye-like windows... upon a few rank sedges... and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees.” What does this grouping of details emphasize?

In Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants,” the man tells Jig, “It's really an awfully simple operation... It's not really an operation at all,” but the word abortion never appears in the story. What does that withholding do?

Melville's narrator withholds Bartleby's past, offering only a late rumor: “Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washington.” What does withholding his history until this report do?

Hawthorne's narrator details the embroidery on Hester's badge, “elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread,” while withholding, for most of the novel, Pearl's father. What does that withholding do?

In Chopin's “The Story of an Hour,” rather than naming Mrs. Mallard's relief, the narrator shows her physical resistance, then one whispered word: “free, free, free!” What does withholding direct exposition of her feelings do?

In Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator offers no coherent motive for the murder beyond obsession: “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this!... Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold.” What does withholding a rational motive do?

Austen opens “Emma” with: “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence.” Which word most directly signals the narrator's irony toward Emma?

In “Pride and Prejudice,” Mr. Collins introduces himself as “distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh,” whose name he repeats often. What does this selected detail reveal about him?

In “Great Expectations,” Pip explains his sister “had brought me up 'by hand,'” a phrase that also describes her habit of striking Joe and Pip. What does this selected detail reveal about Mrs. Joe?

Nick describes Gatsby's smile as one “with a quality of eternal reassurance in it...and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.” What does this selected detail reveal about Gatsby?

In “Moby-Dick,” Ahab's scar, “a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish,” has an origin “no one could certainly say.” What does this unexplained, visible detail reveal about Ahab?

“Eveline” opens: “She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne.” What does ending this description on the dusty cretonne accomplish?

“Heart of Darkness” builds through pages of jungle atmosphere and Marlow's journey before Kurtz's death is compressed into two words: “The horror! The horror!” What does that shift in proportion accomplish?

“A Rose for Emily” spends most of its pages on the decaying exterior of Emily's house and the town's gossip, reserving the locked upstairs room for the story's final paragraph. What does that ordering accomplish?

Before introducing Hester Prynne, “The Scarlet Letter” opens with paragraphs on the prison door and a rosebush beside it that “by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history.” What does placing the rosebush before Hester's entrance accomplish?

“Araby” spends its early pages on the narrator's anticipation of the bazaar, then closes within two sentences on him seeing himself as “a creature driven and derided by vanity.” What does that shift in proportion accomplish?