Essay --

â€Å"The Judge’s Wife† a short story written by Isabel Allende presents many of the necessary techniques required to write an effective short story. Alledende’s keen use of setting, character development, and point of view dramatically affect the way the reader perceives the story during crucial turning points throughout the story. Alledende uses these devices to make the theme of fate being inescapable, no matter how hard on tries to avoid it. setting, character development, and point of view play a vital role within the story and without them it would be impossible to fully understand the story. In The Judge's Wife Nicolas Vidal is the main character. He was born a fatherless to a prostitute and was foretold at birth that he would lose his head to a woman. Keeping this in mind, he hardened his heart to allow no woman to come close to him emotionally. As Vindal grew up he became an outlaw and leader of a gang. On the wedding day of Judge Hidalgo, Vidal looks down on the judge’s bride, Casilda, and is not impressed. Vidal's gang have been plaguing the judge’s jurisdiction as well as surrounding areas despite the numerous attempts to stop Vindal. To solve this problem judge Hidalgo set a trap by caging Vidal's mother in the town square surrounded by guards. The judge believes that Vidal will come to rescue his mother, but after three days it is clear that he is not going to fall for the judge's trap. Vidal's mother hangs herself out of embarrassment that her son did not come to save her. As a result, Vidal hunts down Hidalgo. During Hidalgo's escape he suffers a h eart attack loses control of his car and dies. Only his wife and kids survive. Casilda hides her children in the nearby caves for safety as she awaits Vidal's gang, with the i... ... also allows for deeper plot development with the characters back stories and ties two seemingly unrelated events into one flowing story removing the need to use in medias res. The shared point of view is extreamly important in connecting the story with the theme and allows for the reader to pick up on the foreshadowing and irony present throughout the story. â€Å"The Judge’s Wife† is not a long story, but in those few pages Allende creates a piece readers can understand to the point of empathy. Throughout the piece the use of theme, setting and character development make this story effective in developing a deep story in a small amount of time. Allende does an excellent job of writing a short story. Even though the story lacks symbolism it makes up for that lacking by making effective use of setting to really pull the story together and develop the story completely.