A prologue is a short introduction at the beginning of a novel, play, or poem that can provide background information, set tone and setting, hook readers into the story, and introduce characters and conflicts. It can also introduce historical events critical to the plot and characters. Prologues can be used to attract readers and set up fascinating personalities and relationships.
The function of a prologue in the literature is multidimensional. A prologue is a short introductory passage included at the beginning of a novel, play, or poem. It can be as short as a few lines of poetry or as long as an entire chapter. It can serve several purposes, including providing background information, setting tone and setting, hooking the reader into the story, and introducing characters and conflicts.
A prologue provides background information for the reader. It can introduce incidents from the past that are important to the current story. Historical events that are critical to the plot and characters in the story can be highlighted, although they can also be described later. Works of fiction that have prologues would sometimes not be as easy to understand if they did not include a prologue to provide background information and introductory exposition.
Another function of a prologue is to set the tone and setting of the story. If a novel is to have a mostly dark and serious tone, then this can be established in the prologue so that readers get an idea of what the whole story is going to be like. Setting can also be introduced, for even where and when a story takes place can be essential to how the plot and conflicts play out and are resolved or extended.
For novels and plays, another function of a prologue is to hook readers into the story. The small part they read in the prologue may have enough information or interesting situations that they will want to read further. Especially when the prologues are short and provide only summary information, they serve to quickly increase the interest of the readers so that they will want to continue reading. Prologues are sometimes read in much the same way as a book cover — before readers actually decide if they want to read a full story — so a fascinating prologue can hook them and make them want to keep reading.
There are also prologues to introduce characters and conflicts, especially when presented as preliminary chapters. They can go ahead and let the reader see inside the actual story and learn what happened and what could happen in the future, allowing them to get into the action and characters. In addition to attracting readers, prologues that are entire chapters or episodes of novels or plays can set up the fascinating personalities of characters and their interactions, relationships and conflicts with each other and with the world at large.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
