The 'jhatka' format in other stories.

"Say, Anne, did you know that Gilbert Blythe is dying?" Anne stood quite silent and motionless, looking at Davy. Her face had gone so white that Marilla thought she was going to faint.

"Davy, hold your tongue," said Mrs. Rachel angrily. "Anne, don't look like that -- DON'T LOOK LIKE THAT! We didn't mean to tell you so suddenly."

"Is -- it -- true?" asked Anne in a voice that was not hers.

"Gilbert is very ill," said Mrs. Lynde gravely. "He took down with typhoid fever just after you left for Echo Lodge. Did you never hear of it?"

"No," said that unknown voice.

"It was a very bad case from the start. The doctor said he'd been terribly run down. They've a trained nurse and everything's been done. DON'T look like that, Anne. While there's life there's hope."

"Mr. Harrison was here this evening and he said they had no hope of him," reiterated Davy.

Marilla, looking old and worn and tired, got up and marched Davy grimly out of the kitchen.

"Oh, DON'T look so, dear," said Mrs. Rachel, putting her kind old arms about the pallid girl. "I haven't given up hope, indeed I haven't. He's got the Blythe constitution in his favor, that's what."

Anne gently put Mrs. Lynde's arms away from her, walked blindly across the kitchen, through the hall, up the stairs to her old room. At its window she knelt down, staring out unseeingly. It was very dark. The rain was beating down over the shivering fields. The Haunted Woods was full of the groans of mighty trees wrung in the tempest, and the air throbbed with the thunderous crash of billows on the distant shore. And Gilbert was dying!

There is a book of Revelation in every one's life, as there is in the Bible. Anne read hers that bitter night, as she kept her agonized vigil through the hours of storm and darkness. She loved Gilbert -- had always loved him! She knew that now. She knew that she could no more cast him out of her life without agony than she could have cut off her right hand and cast it from her. And the knowledge had come too late -- too late even for the bitter solace of being with him at the last. If she had not been so blind -- so foolish -- she would have had the right to go to him now. But he would never know that she loved him -- he would go away from this life thinking that she did not care. Oh, the black years of emptiness stretching before her! She could not live through them -- she could not! She cowered down by her window and wished, for the first time in her gay young life, that she could die, too. If Gilbert went away from her, without one word or sign or message, she could not live. Nothing was of any value without him. She belonged to him and he to her. In her hour of supreme agony she had no doubt of that. He did not love Christine Stuart -- never had loved Christine Stuart. Oh, what a fool she had been not to realize what the bond was that had held her to Gilbert -- to think that the flattered fancy she had felt for Roy Gardner had been love. And now she must pay for her folly as for a crime.

(And then he recovers and they have a lovely courtship and get married and have six beautiful kids who are all awesome characters and live happily ever after). 😆

It would be so great if the CV's borrowed from the way other people have written this idea from the beginning of the history of love stories!

No matter where I encounter this format, I always love it. It always works, and it is a well established format because it is an actual real life experience that happens. Not often, but often enough. If you've encountered this format anywhere else, I'd love to hear where. 😊

Edit #1: As pointed out by Supriya ji, it also happens in Jane Austen's Emma, when Emma realizes her friend Harriet is after Mr. Knightley, her friend and critic who she hadn't realized she was in love with.

Edit #2: Supriya ji's point again: Laurie (Theodore Laurence) and Amy (Amy March) from Little Women. Laurie and Amy both realize when she is in pain after her sister's death.

Edit #3: Prem and Suman in Maine Pyar Kiya. Prem doesn't realize he loves Suman until she is hurt by his friends humiliating her.

As always, Anandi/Shiv/AnSh haters, bashers, snarky comment passers, please don't reply.