How to analyse a Literary work ?

Writing a literary analysis is a feat of close reading, insight, and creativity. Some required technical writing elements are explained in this article.

Above all else, writing a literary analysis requires the writer to have a thorough understanding of the elements of the story, poem, or novel being analyzed. This might sound obvious, but students often try to begin writing an assigned analysis before they have fully comprehended and thought about the subject of that analysis.

Read for Literal Understanding

Before "interpreting" the story and trying to analyze it, the writer must fully understand the literal events. In other words, the reader should not interpret the story before knowing the story. Some plots are complicated, and interesting characters are complex. The reader should have a thorough understanding of the plot and a good sense of each character. Only then can the reader write about the literary piece.

Questions to Ask Before Writing a Literary Analysis

The events in a literary story happen to a particular character in particular circumstances. Analyzing the story requires that the reader is very aware of these particulars. Writing a literary analysis requires the reader to ask and answer several questions. The big question to answer is: How and why did this particular character, in these particular circumstances, respond to and/or cause these particular events?

o answer that question, ask these:

• What happens in this story, and who does it happen to?
• What does the main character want?
• What is getting in the way of the character getting what he or she wants?
• What are the opposing forces, or conflict in the story?
• Is the opposing force nature?
• Is it another character?
• Is it society?
• Is it something within the character?
• How does the character try to overcome the obstacle?
• Why does the character fail or succeed?

Interpreting the Story

Once the reader can answer the questions above, interpretation becomes possible. An analysis is really an interpretation of the story, based on an intricate understanding of the elements of the story.
Knowing the conflict and how the character creates or reacts to that conflict, the reader can begin to analyze that character: is the character flawed? How? What are the character's strengths? Most literary characters are ambiguous; that is, they have more than one motive or conflicting desires. This makes them interesting, and is often a good subject to analyze.

Little Do's and Don'ts

Certain conventions must be followed, in writing the analysis:

• Do not retell the story; interpret the story.
• Do not go into unnecessary detail; only use details that clarify this interpretation.
• Use the story's time frame for writing the analysis. Most of the analysis will be in present tense.
• Order the analysis logically, not chronologically.

Finding the Truth of the Story

A truly literary story - or poem - has its own intrinsic truth. By truth, this writer does not mean some idea that is true for all people, but an idea that is consistent and works as an operating idea for that story.
For example, in James Joyce's story, "Eveline," it is true that the forces against changing Eveline's circumstances are stronger than the forces for changing her circumstances. This truth is ultimately what determines the outcome of that story. An analysis of the story would discuss in detail the forces that keep Eveline from changing her circumstances.
To find the 'truth' of the story, the reader needs to analyze the events in the story: How did the character cause these events to happen -- or not to happen? What is it about the character that led to the particular outcome of the story? This is the real essence of the story.

The Joy of Understanding

Successfully analyzing a story, and conveying one's deep and coherent understanding of the characters and their situation, can be a very rewarding intellectual experience. But it cannot come without a sincere interest in and understanding of the story.