Novel and Short Story

Though novels and short stories are two different forms of literature, there are some similarities between them. The main difference between a novel and a short story is that the former is a long narrative written in prose and the latter is a short narrative written in prose. A novel has a plot and the protagonist of the novel is the main attraction of the story. In the similar way, a short story has a plot and the plot of the story centres around the protagonist. A novel has a series of incidents that are related to the central situation. Similarly, a long short story also has several incidents which are related to the central situation of the main plot. Both a novel and a short story aim at entertaining the readers. Like the characters, actions and incidents of a novel are closely related to one another, they give a sense of unity. A short story also has the same sense of unity on the basis of the close relationship between character, incidents and action. Thus we see that there are some similarities between a novel and a short story.