4th of February’21

The Epistolary Novel - In Brief

• Origin:-
Originating with  Samuel Richardson's  Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded  (1740), the story of a servant girl’s
victorious struggle against her master’s attempts to seduce her, it was one of the earliest forms of novel to be
developed and remained one of the most popular up to the 19th century example of this is also Diego de San
Pedro’s Prison of Love (1485), which is considered by some to be the rst epistolary novel. Others say the form
came from collections of letters and poems that tied together into a plot. Either way, the epistolary novel has
become a signi cant part of literary history.

•Meaning and definition:-

Epistolary is a word derived from the Greek word 'epistole', which means 'Letters'. So, an epistolary novel can
be de ned as a series of documents written through the medium or in form of letters.The founder of the
epistolary novel in English is said by many to be James Howell (1594 –1666) with "Familiar Letters" (1645–50),
who writes of prison, foreign adventure, and the love of women.

• Features:-
1) The plot unfolds as the characters write letters to each other (or to the reader) to narrate the events that have
taken place.
2) Multiple points of view can be revealed directly to the reader without any third person authorial intervention.
3) The letters, apart from being the means of narrating the story, also help in re ecting the psychological &
moral con icts of the plot.
4) Since the letters provide an intimate look into a character's thoughts and feelings, epistolary novel is seen as
the forerunner of the psychological novel.
5) This form of the novel also depends on other document entries, telegram, newspaper clippings to develop the
plot.
6) Drawback- arti ciality; some sense of immediacy is also lost when describing action

•Treatment given to different aspects:-

The Perks of Being a Wall ower

1.Story:-
Epistolary novels are expressed in letters as well as both blogs and emails too.Compartmentalized in the view of
the writers, the story is broken up in parts and the readers get know about it in bits and pieces as the story
proceeds.Fine skill and expertise is required because a slight bias, language, opinions, and maturity is all
expressed through writing.The novel selected as an is Perks of being a wall ower.And Charlie the protagonist,
writes letters to an anonymous friend.We slowly realise his likes and dislikes and hatred as well as thoughts and
opinions regarding his family and his feelings, and by the third and fourth letter are introduced to exposition of
the plot.Similary, the same procedure is followed for the other elements of the story, the conclusion, climax, and
the falling and rising action.

2.Plot:-
Aspects of the plot:
1.Charlie the protagonist is the "wall ower". He is withdrawn and quiet but also observant and thoughtful.
Charlie write the entire book as a series of letter to an anonymous "friend".
2.When the novel opens, Charlie is grappling with two major traumatic deaths of loved ones in his past. The

fi



fl

fi
fi


fl






fl

fi


fl
fl
.

 most recent death occurred last spring, when his only friend from middle school committed suicide. When
Charlie was seven, his beloved Aunt Helen was killed in a car crash on Christmas Eve, which is also Charlie’s
birthday.
3.In an epilogue, Charlie writes a nal letter to his “friend”, dated two months later, saying that his parents had
found him naked in a catatonic state on the couch. They took him to a mental hospital, where Charlie
eventually realises that Aunt Helen had sexually abused him, but that he had repressed these memories. Charlie
forgives the memory of his Aunt Helen, and the novel ends with Charlie writing that he is planning to stop
writing letters and to start participating fully in his life.

3. Characters:-
Major characters are Charlie, Patrick and Sam.
1. Charlie - he is the wall ower of the perks of being wall ower.He is the narrator of the novel, so the book is
told entirely through Charlie's point of view.At rst, Charlie was the wall ower because he has no friends and
does not try to connect with people.But later on in the novel, he confesses everything in his life to his
anonymous friend.It enables Charlie to gain the con dence that he needs to participate more fully in his life.
2. Patrick - he is Charlie's best friend. Patrick accepts Charlie for all his quirks.
3. Sam - A high school senior, Patrick's stepsister and one of the Charlie's best friend.
Minutely studying these characters, we get to know that they are less dialogue- driven , with more emphasis on
thoughts, feelings, and emotions. For example, if we observe the relationship between Sam and Charlie, we can
see that, by loving Sam so much, Charlie nally ables to unlock his most suppressed emotions, and by doing so,
he ends as a mature kind of person who can both give and receive love.

4.Setting:-
Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted observing teenager, through his freshman year
of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. Chbosky took ve years to develop and publish The Perks of Being a
Wall ower, creating the characters and other aspects of the story from his own memories.

The Perks of Being a Wall ower is a young adult coming-of-age epistolary novel by American writer Stephen
Chbosky, which was rst published on February 1, 1999, by Pocket Books. Set in the early 1990s, the novel
follows Charlie, an introverted observing teenager, through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh
suburb. The novel details Charlie's unconventional style of thinking as he navigates between the worlds of
adolescence and adulthood, and attempts to deal with poignant questions spurred by his interactions with both
his families and friends.

5.Setting of the Novel:-

Though we never learn through Charlie letters exactly where he lives, most analysts agree that he is near
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A few clues to this are that Charlie's brother and one of his friends attend Penn State,
which is nearby. Also, we know that Ohio is a two hour drive when Charlie has to drive the family there for
Christmas. Also, Charlie twice mentions a tunnel called the Fort Pitt Tunnel, which is in Pittsburgh. So, that
takes care of the where.

He does, fortunately, give us the dates that the action takes place, which is in the fall and winter of 1991 and the
spring and summer of 1992. There are mentions of things like cassettes and mix tapes, which show the story
takes place in the early 1990s. Thus, these are the indicators of the setting of the novel ‘’the perks of being a
wall ower ‘’.

5.Narrative Techniques:-
Motif:-
The Perks of Being a Wall ower is all of Charlie's letters in one book. This is the way the author wrote it so the
reader knew it was from Charlie's point of view. The recurring element is the letter format. Charlie is writing his












fl
fl














fi




fl
fl
fl
fi
fi


fi
fi


fi
fl


fl








 letters to you, the reader. When Charlie writes his letters, it is his way of letting out what he is going through.
Him being able to write down what is happening to him, for him to realize it's not all a dream. Also as a
precaution, like telling the reader to watch out and avoid what he had to go through. I think he writes these
letters because he just needs someone to talk to and vent and won't have to know if the reader judges him. It's
his way of letting his problems go and get them out of his head.

Irony:-
The major piece of irony in The Perks of Being a Wall ower is Aunt Helen. Charlie talks much about Aunt
Helen, referring to her as his favourite person in the world. But signi cantly Charlie doesn't remember what she
would do to him. Something bad happened to her when Charlie was 7, and whenever Charlie thinks about this
it take him to a bad place. The title can also be referred to as irony. When he makes friends, they call him and
themselves wall owers. But the story doesn't necessarily point out the perks of it. The book talks about how bad
things happen to all the characters.

Epiphany:-
When Sam kisses Charlie, it triggers something in Charlie which involved Aunt Helen. It made him somewhat
remember being molested by her. But when he remembers this, he doesn't realize it was by Aunt Helen. After
the kiss with Sam, Charlie has a dream of being molested by his Aunt Helen, but doesn't think it means
anything. Until he is sent to a hospital after his breakdown. He is told the dream was a memory, and that is
when he nds out about his childhood with Aunt Helen.

6.Point of View:-
1)The point of view is one of the main aspects of a literary work which affects the reader's response to a story,
novel, or play.
2)"The Perks of Being A Wall ower"  is written from the rst-person perspective of Charlie,  as the novel is
written as a series of letters known as an epistolary, from Charlie to an anonymous “friend”.
3)Each of the letters are dated which gives perspective to the time frame of the story.
4)The point of view is subjective, as the novel is entirely through Charlie’s eyes. The reader only knows exactly
as much as Charlie chooses to describe in each letter.
5)Usually, Charlie seems to present a reliable description of events, but sometimes, he inserts tangential details,
or he waits and buries the most crucial aspects deep in the body of a letter.

•Writers-Followers, Examples:-

• Lady Susan by Jane Austen

• Elinor and Marianne by Jane Austen
• Perks of being a Wall ower by Stephen Chomsky
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga

•Limitations of an Epistolary Novel:-

1.Too Many Layers of Meaning:-
What people think and what people communicate are two very different things. We don't have personalities so
much as construct them for the bene t of others. We think, we feel, and then we choose how to express those
thoughts and feelings to produce the effect we want








fi




fl


fl

fl

fi





fl
fi


fi





2.Limited Ways to Reveal Details:-
At some point in an epistolary novel—or likely at many points—you will want to narrate a scene linearly. You'll
want to incorporate dialogue and action. The problem is, people don't write emails, diary entries, etc. like
they're ction. At many points in this novel, the epistolary style devolved from a tool to a conceit.

3.Bias:-
It can also limit the eld of vision. This is because what the character might be saying can possibly be biased,
retold and it is simple told from the character’s point of view. We never nd out what other people thought
about a particular event.

• Explanation in reference to one part of a novel:-

The novel Perks of being a Wall ower is explained in reference to all the basic fundamental elements of an
Epistolary novel, explained above in Elements of a Novel.

• Conclusion:-
A quite popular but not completely reliable to express minute details, still stands strong as a form.It gives a
personal, inside view in the minds of the characters writing it.Their beliefs and opinions can be vividly
portrayed.

fi

fi

fl

fi