Final answer:
The overall impact of Durbeyfield as created by the author is to establish his social status and affect the reader's understanding of his character. The way various literary elements work together shapes readers' impressions and interpretations, emphasizing the importance of considering the cumulative effect of a narrative.
Step-by-step explanation:
The overall impact of Durbeyfield created by the author is multifaceted, revealing a complex interaction between character representation, reader perception, and narrative effect. By depicting Durbeyfield in certain ways, such as through the quality of his clothing or the presence of a book like Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', the author provides cues that the character is learned, somewhat affluent, and perhaps possessing land, which can affect readers' impressions and understandings of the character's social status and role in the broader world.
Similarly, the impact of an author's choices in storytelling, such as the revelation of a child's point of view in 'Chickamauga,' can significantly shift the reader's understanding of the narrative, generating reactions such as shock, empathy, or a reevaluation of prior assumptions about the story.
In the context of literary criticism, the suggestion that works such as Shakespeare's plays might be better understood by examining the effect of the whole rather than focusing solely on lead characters speaks to the importance of considering the cumulative impact of various elements in a piece of literature, which can result in a deeper appreciation of the author's craft.