Literary Analysis Notes

Each instructor develops her or his own assignments. Your instructor and the assignment sheet s/he has provided are the two best sources for guidance as you work toward a final draft. The handouts/tutorials for the types of essays feature general guidelines to help you write solid essays, but they should be treated only as supplements to your instructor and the assignment sheet. Purpose To interpret a story or poem, often using literary elements to explain why you understand the literature the way that you do. The Elements of Literature (For more elements of literature, see our handout: Literary Elements) Plot – the events that take place in the work Example: Romeo and Juliet meet, fall in love, and marry. Juliet fakes her death. Romeo kills himself. Juliet kills herself. Conflict – the oppositional relationship between a work’s components, often identified broadly as a character vs. ___________ (nature, herself, another character, fate, society, etc.) Example: Romeo and Juliet are in love, but their families hate each other. Characters – the people who populate a work Example: Romeo, Juliet, the various Montagues and Capulets, the Friar Imagery – the specific “visuals” used by an author or poet to achieve certain effects Example: The balcony scene. Juliet’s death. Symbolism – objects, characters, or images that represent other, more abstract ideas Example: A famous speech that Mercutio delivers in the play presents Queen Mab as a tiny, fanciful symbol of the minute, unreal nature of love and other “dreams.” Topic Try to find a story or poem that you respond to personally, especially one that you understand confidently. Thesis The writer must deduce “meaning” from a story or poem, and proving the veracity and significance of that meaning becomes the thesis of the paper. Interpret what the work “says” about a certain theme. Attribute this message to the author. Example: In “The Open Boat,” Crane enhances his overall theme of nature’s indifference to man by using (element), (element), and (element). Audience Take for granted that your audience has read the story or poem. Assume that your audience understands what happens in the work, but is interested to find out how you interpret it. You probably need to work for a deeper interpretation than the example thesis, which is pretty elementary. Specifics As you defend your claim, use specific examples from the text without overloading your paper. Remember, the most important feature of this essay is your analysis of the story. Example: The play begins by establishing the conflict between the Montagues and Capulets, who “[f]rom ancient grudge break to new mutiny” (line 3). In Act 3, scene 1, the feud between the two families turns violent as Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo avenges his friend’s death by killing Tybalt. Romeo’s response to these events—“I am fortune’s fool”—indicate the degree to which the violence is associated with a familial conflict that predates and predominates Romeo’s life (3.1.142). Structure You will probably structure this essay according to the literary elements you use to discuss the work. You will also want to organize your argument according to the ideas that constitute your thesis. Break up the pieces of your thesis statement to see what its individual components are, then consider how you need to order them. Example: If my thesis is that the feud leads to tragedy, I should establish that the feud exists before I discuss the tragedy it causes. Using the literary element “conflict” to establish the presence of that feud is probably the best choice. To discuss the tragedy part of your thesis, you might go with “image” to discuss the specifics of both Romeo and Juliet’s deaths to show that Shakespeare uses images to communicate the tragedy of the play. Notes Write about events in the story or poem using present-tense verbs. Everything that happens in a text is discussed as though it is perpetually taking place in the present. Be sure to identify the title and author of the piece. Do not summarize the work unless you have been asked to. The focus is on the specific pieces of the work that you think best illustrate why you interpret it the way you do. Read the work several times. After you have read it all the way through at least once, think about what it means and what you have to say about it. Then, read it again. Once you are set on your interpretation, read it again and underline or highlight portions that are particularly relevant to your interpretation. Then read it again.