Diegesis

a facet of literary narrative:

the method of listing events, actions and/or feelings of character’s in the course of literary narrative, mainly prose.

diegesis is entirely commentated by the narrator and does not include any character dialogue.

1. “a twisted piece of paper lay half burned upon the hearthrug; he picked it up, and unfolded it, in order to get a better pipe-light by folding it the other way of the paper. as he did so, absently glancing at the pencilled writing upon the fragment of thin paper, a portion of a name caught his eye–a portion of the name that was most in his thoughts. he took the scr-p of paper to the window, and examined it by the declining light.”

– mary elizabeth braddon, lady audley’s secret

2. “i know that the tune i am piping is a very mild one (although there are some terrific chapters coming presently), and must beg the good-natured reader to remember that we are only discoursing at present about a stockbroker’s family in russell square, who are taking walks, or luncheon, or dinner, or talking and making love as people do in common life, and without a single p-ssionate and wonderful incident to mark the progress of their loves.”

– w.m. thackeray, vanity fair
the diegesis braddon uses in ‘lady audley’s secret’ consumes the reader into the world of her character. the seductively detailed course of events of a single moment transports us straight onto the scene – we can almost feel the warmth of the fire. on the other hand, thackeray in ‘vanity fair’, uses diegesis to give us an overall glimpse of the events of the story which is to come.