Discuss the importance of time in the narration of a story.

Forster brings out the importance of time in the narration of a story. He says that time is an integral part of a story. Though its appearance is both unlovely and dull, according to the essayist, yet he exhorts us to consider it first in connection with daily life. Forster says that daily life is also full of the time sense. But in daily life one can think of any situation, even going beyond the time sequence. One can chose to think of any situation in the past or in the future without going by the strict order or sequence. This one does according to the value one attaches to a particular situation. In other words, according to Forster, daily life is practically composed of two lives-- the life in time and the life by values. Our conduct reveals a double allegiance. According to the essayist, the story narrates the life in time. In our daily life one can deny that time exists and act accordingly. But in case of a story, time sense cannot be denied otherwise it becomes unintelligible. The essayist mentions about many experiments made by the story tellers and novelists in which they wanted to narrate events by not following the exact time sequence. But these experiments failed to sway the readers. According to the essayist, the basis of a novel is a story and a story is a narrative of events in time sequence.

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