THE TRIAD OF FRIENDSHIP AS MOTIF IN SELECT TWENTIETH CENTURY SHORT STORIES

Abstract

Emotions are the same across the world, that is where our arena, literature, art and music survive.
One such emotion is portrayed in this research paper. Friendship is common everywhere for,
literature has the tangibility to make it comprehend to the readers in its own way. Motif is a
literary device in narrative element which depicts the repeated event, term, symbol or image. In
twentieth century, short stories friendship stands as motif. The research paper attempts to bring
together three different short stories which portrayed friendship as motif in various tone. One
friendship, the other is embarrassing humour and the final is absurd. The short Stories Close
Friend by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936, My Lost Dollar by Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) and
The Dying Detective by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle (1859-1930). All these take readers to different
ideologies about friendship. With this basic emotion as a rock base these short stories embarked
its stance. Luigi Pirandello the forerunner of the absurdism stands par with humouristic writings
of Stephen Leacock and Sir Arthur Canon Doyle. This paper made an shot to compare the sense
of absurd and humour.