With literary analysis, the focus is not on offering your opinion about the work; rather, the focus is to interpret and analyze the text.

Certainly, you offer your informed opinion of the text's interpretation, but
you do not assess the merits of the text or tell readers whether or not you
liked the work.

Literary analyses are written using third person pronouns.

They include a clearly stated thesis (often called a claim) that is supported by reasons and evidence from the text.

Writers use present tense verbs to discuss the work rather than past tense.

In order to write well about literature, you must be able to read the text closely, looking at its structure, the words the author has chosen, the characters' motivations, the patterns of language and literary devices.

Character:
A character is a "person" in a literary work. Characters have moral and psychological features that make them human in some way or another.
We often think of characters as being either flat or round. Flat characters
are one-dimensional; they act stereotypically or expectedly. Round characters,
on the other hand, are more complex in their make-up; they may act in contradictory or unexpected ways.

Drama:
This term actually has several meanings; however, in this unit, drama refers to plays, works of literature that can be read and performed on stage.

Fiction:
Work that comes from a writer's imagination is considered fiction. Types of fiction include short stories, novels, fairy tales, folklore, and fables.

Foreshadowing:
Foreshadowing uses either action or mood to prepare the reader for something that will happen later in the work of fiction or drama. It is often helpful to think of foreshadowing as clues that a detective might follow when solving a mystery. The writer leaves hints along the way to set the stage for what is to come later.

Narrator:
The narrator of a literary work is the person who tells the story. Sometimes the person who tells the story is a character within the work; we call this person a first person narrator. Other times, the story is told by someone who is not part of the action; this type of narrator is called a third person narrator. A third person narrator can know everything about the characters-their history, their minds, their emotions-in which case, the narrator is considered an omniscient narrator ("all-knowing"). An omniscient narrator can also move back and forth through time and space. A third person narrator who has only limited knowledge of the events and characters, or who only knows the minds of some characters and not others, is a limited omniscient narrator.

Personification:
Giving animals or inanimate objects human characteristics is personification.

Plot:
The term plot refers to the action or "story line" of the literary work. Drama and fiction have plots, but sometimes poems do also. Plot usually involves conflict between two or more characters or between a character and himself or herself. Traditionally, the plot of drama or fiction follows a particular pattern, which includes the exposition (where the conflict or action begins), the rising action (the events that promote the conflict), the climax (the point of greatest emotional tension in the work), and the resolution or denouement (where the loose ends are wrapped up). However, literary works do not have to follow this pattern.

Setting:
Setting is where the action takes place and includes both the physical location as well as the time period.

Symbolism:
Writers use symbolism so that a person, object, or event can create a range of emotional and intellectual responses in the readers. For example, using a flag as a symbol might conjure patriotic feelings in one person, anti-patriotic feelings in another, or perhaps, like a warning flag, a sense of danger. By using symbols, the writer can evoke a wide body of feelings.