Explore "Penance" by Blanche Colton Williams on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
CLASSIFICATION. See classification of "The Survivors. " Here the elements all work toward unity of effect: even the thirty year period contributes to the same unity. It is even necessary to the working out of the penance. (Could it have been massed in such a way as to give the reader the same consciousness of retribution as it here conveys? ) But the length of the action is not the length of the best short-story action.
"Penance" provides an interesting companion-piece to "The Survivors. " Notice that whereas in the former instance the _initial incident_ was separated by the long space from the turning point of the action; here the plot is completed except for the fact that Buckingham's understanding (the _dénouement_) comes after thirty years.