“An Honest Thief”
“An Honest Thief” encompasses of the Core Narrative and the Frame Narrative. The primary narrative gives attention to the narrator, Agrafena (the maid), Astafy Ivanovitch (the lodger) and the thief who steals the narrator’s coat. The main narrative updates the reader about the narrator’s introverted live. The main narrative is terser than the Meta Narrative because there is nothing more in the narrator’s life other than the self-contained survival; Agrafena’s routine discreteness and quotidian chores, the advent of Astafy Ivanovitch and the theft of the narrator’s coat.
The switch from the main narrative to the frame narrative is efficient due to the stipulation of a contextual info that prompted the frame narrative. The narrative elucidates all that emerged in relation to the broad-daylight pilfering of his “wadded greencoat” after which Astafy Ivanovitch takes over the Frame Narrative that recounts his experience with Emelyan Ilyitch whom he catalogues as ‘an honest thief.’ The flowing transition stimulates connection between the two narratives.
“A Novel in Nine Letters”
“A Novel in Nine Letters” takes up Arguments and Counterarguments .To elaborate, in the first letter, Pyotr Ivanitch argues, “Ivan Andreyitch vowed and declared that you would be at Woe from Wit, at the Alexandrinsky theatre.” This argument suggests that Pyotr Ivanitch desired to see Ivan Petrovitch that is why he made the exertion to proceed to Woe from Wit. Pyotr Ivanitch transferences blameworthiness to Ivan Andreyitch for misinforming him about Pyotr’s whereabouts. In the second letter, Pyotr advances a counterargument when he writes: “You met Ivan Andreyitch yesterday, and you write that he told you that I was at the Alexandrinsky theatre with my wife. I write, that he is a liar, and it shows how little he is to be trusted in such cases, that only the day before yesterday he did his grandmother out of eight hundred roubles.” Ivan Petrovitch’s counterargument attacks Ivan Andreyitch’s trustworthiness by emphasizing that he is a fraud who cannot be depended on to relay straightforward information considering he took advantage of his grandmother.
In the fifth letter Pyotr Ivanitch claims, “My aunt, Yefimya Nikolaevna, passed away yesterday evening at eleven o'clock in the night. By the general consent of the relatives I was selected to make the arrangements for the sad and sorrowful ceremony.” Pyotr mentions the explicit time that his aunt breathed last to validate how unworkable it was for him to see Ivan. In the sixth letter, Ivan Petrovitch presents his counterargument by writing, “ I have found out that your aunt died twenty-four hours later than the time you so impiously fixed for her decease in your letter. I shall never have done if I enumerate all the signs by which I have discovered your treachery in regard to me.” Ivan Petrovitch’s counterargument implies that he accomplished an enquiry to authenticate the particular time that the aunt passed on. The outcomes of the inquiries specify that Pyotr is a deceitful individual who would exploit the ailment of a family member and conjure up death as long as it precludes him from resolving his liabilities.
