Frame story

Some of the earliest frame stories are from ancient Egypt, including one in the Papyrus Westcar, the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, and The Eloquent Peasant.

[4][5] Other early examples are from Indian literature, including the Sanskrit epics Mahabharata, Ramayana, Panchatantra, Syntipas's The Seven Wise Masters, and the fable collections Hitopadesha and Vikram and The Vampire.

[7] Ovid's Metamorphoses makes extensive use of framing, with the stories nested several deep, allowing the inclusion of many different tales in one work.

[11] Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights uses this literary device to tell the story of Heathcliff and Catherine, along with the subplots.

In the book, Robert Walton writes letters to his sister, describing the story told to him by the scientist Victor Frankenstein.

In medieval Europe, this was a common device, used to indicate that the events included are fictional; Geoffrey Chaucer used it in The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, Parlement of Foules, and The Legend of Good Women (the last also containing a multi-story frame story within the dream).

Tolkien, in his essay "On Fairy-Stories" complained of such devices as unwillingness to treat the genre seriously; he used frame stories of different kinds in his Middle-earth writings.

In the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the events really occur; the dream frame added for the movie detracts from the validity of the fantasy.

This final segment suddenly has no narrator unlike the rest of the film that came before it, but is instead told through Forrest and Jenny's dialogues.

Most of the story is narrated at a police station by Jamal, who explains how he knew the answers to each of the questions as the show is played back on video.

[27] In musical sonata form or rondo, a reprised theme occurs at the beginning and end of the work, or returns periodically.

This scene, although chronologically in the middle of the film and unimportant to the straightforward plot, serves to convey a defining emotion and tone that sets the context for the main story.

One of the earliest frame stories is in the Odyssey , which begins with Odysseus telling stories to King Alcinous on the island of Scheria . [ 2 ] Painting of Odysseus at the Court of Alcinous by Francesco Hayez , 1814–1815
One Thousand and One Nights frames many stories with a single narrator, Shahrazad ; embedded within it are further framed sets of tales, such as those of Sindbad the Sailor . Illustration Sindbad the sailor and Ali Baba and the forty thieves by William Strang , 1896
The Return of Rip Van Winkle , painting by John Quidor , 1849