What is a short story?

There are alot of things that makes up a short story but I will mention three basic qualities of a short story. One is all short stories (all stories in genral) have characters in them. No matter if the charcter is a monster or a spirit or even a human a short story must have a charcter or charcters. Without charcters then a short story has no ground to stand on and nothing to move the story foreward. Some short stories may have alot of minor charcters to make up the cast but they are charcters none the less. The second quality is it can't be a entire novel. A novel may consist of many short stories but they are seperate. Short stories are called short stories for a reason. Because they are fairly short in length. Some can be a bit longier than others but they don't have entire chapters that last like 17 pages. The story doesn't last 100 to 200 pages but is shortened down to 4 or 5 pages. Maybe even 10. True some stories like Bartleby the Scrivener and Sonny's Blues may be 25 or so pages long but still practically all short stories (that I have read) has been under 35 pages. Thus short stories are stuck to a limit in length because if it doesn't stick to shortness then it isn't a short story. I once read a story that was called a short story yet it spanned over 45 pages which I don't consider and many others wouldn't consider to be short by any mean. The third and final quality is it has a single ending. Even if the story has multiple plots they should all end the same way. Short stories may create different scenarios but each one should end the same exact way. If it ends differently one not only is it confusing but then I consider that storie to be completly different and if they are to many different stories then it could turn out to be many seprate short stories instead of one product. This may be fine if the product is a novel made up of alot of short stories but if its one short story it should stick to one basic or complex ending not 5 or 6 different ones because then in my opinion you got 6 different stories. There are many other qualities that make a short story a short story but these are three of the basic qualitites that make a short story a short story.