Notes on Literary Analysis . . . A Beginning

Literary Analysis is based on “reading between the lines,” with specific textual examples or references to support the analysis. Literary Analysis goes much deeper into a literary work than knowing the plot. Analysis takes time, requires that one re-visit the text.  Written analysis in 1102 most often revolves around a theme that can be traced throughout a novel or drama, a character who plays a significant role, irony or symbolism that occurs and underscores theme or an aspect of human nature, or even the setting that conveys atmosphere.

While there are stylistic differences between drama and fiction, there are important literary elements they share. Understanding how to go about analyzing those elements in one work is a skill that will carry over to future selections.

Setting – time & place but much more. Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 is a simplistic answer, just as it would be if a book was set in the Vietnam War in the mid 1960s. The atmosphere and the specific location the author chooses to use can indicate a point.  For example, where does each act of The Crucible take place?  What do those openings have in common?  The playwright is making a point about the Puritan community of Salem and its people.  What could it be? 

Character Analysis is inference derived from direct and indirect characterization. In The Crucible, Miller uses direct characterization for each major character before he/she speaks. For example, the audience is told that Abigail Williams is: a strikingly beautiful seventeen-year-old girl with “an endless capacity for dissembling.”  He is counting on the audience to know what seventeen year-olds could be like, what it was like to be that age in a setting like Salem, and he expects the audience to understand what “dissembling” means and that Abigail apparently does it all the time.  That’s a great deal to “read between the lines.”  In addition to direct characterization, though, Miller, through his drama that unfolds, uses indirect characterization to provide EVIDENCE of this statement.  Indirect characterization relies on the words spoken by a character, his/her actions or thoughts (if we are privy to those), and what other characters say to and about that person.

Character	Direct Characterization & page	Indirect Characterization/Support & page	Inference
Abigail

With all the information that can be gathered about a character from a re-examination to the text, it becomes much easier to compose a well-developed essay, with detailed support.

Inference – a conclusion based on what one perceives and what one already knows