This is the prompt for this Writing Project:
Prompt: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman feature main characters who narrate their own stories. Write a literary analysis that compares or contrasts the two main characters. Describe two to three ways the characters are alike or different. Make sure to use evidence from both stories to support your analysis.
What a Literary Analysis Is
- The purpose is to explain how or why something happens.
- The audience is familiar with the basic subject, so your explanation needs to go deeper than just a description.
- explains the deeper meaning of elements in the text
- explains how the parts contribute to meaning
- examines the author’s techniques
- a brief introduction, including an overview of the purpose, audience, and message
- a claim or thesis
- a body section, including
- your analysis of one or more literary elements; in a longer literary analysis, this may consist of several body paragraphs
- quotations and/or summary from the literary text to provide evidence for your analysis
- a conclusion, including a restatement of your thesis and a reflection on how your thesis was discussed
What a Literary Analysis Is Not
A literary analysis is an essay that explains and interprets the author’s intentions in a piece of literature, along with its literary elements. The primary purpose of such an essay is to develop and express a complete understanding and a deep appreciation of a piece of literature. Sometimes, as in this Writing Project, you might be asked to analyze two or more texts to compare their treatment of a particular literary aspect. In that case, you would have a greater understanding and appreciation of two or more texts.
A literary analysis is an explanatory text. Explanatory texts have a specific purpose and audience.
A literary analysis closely examines the elements of a literary text. A literary analysis
Literary analyses can be short or long, but typically they include these characteristics:
Analysis writers should use a formal and academic style and voice. The tone should be objective—free of opinions or overly emotional language. In addition, the ideas in an analysis should be logical and supported by evidence from a work of literature.
A literary analysis has some similarities to a research project. However, to write a literary analysis, you will not need to do research beyond the text itself. The evidence you will use to support your analysis will come from the text. Your evidence will be made up of quotations from the text—from single words to entire sentences. Evidence may also be paraphrases, or details from the text rewritten in your own words. You may also summarize parts of the text as evidence for your analysis.
A literary analysis is an essay that explains and interprets the author’s intentions in a piece of literature, along with its literary elements. The primary purpose of such an essay is to develop and express a complete understanding and a deep appreciation of a piece of literature. Sometimes, as in this Writing Project, you might be asked to analyze two or more texts to compare their treatment of a particular literary aspect. In that case, you would have a greater understanding and appreciation of two or more texts.
A literary analysis is an explanatory text. Explanatory texts have a specific purpose and audience.
A literary analysis closely examines the elements of a literary text. A literary analysis
Literary analyses can be short or long, but typically they include these characteristics:
Analysis writers should use a formal and academic style and voice. The tone should be objective—free of opinions or overly emotional language. In addition, the ideas in an analysis should be logical and supported by evidence from a work of literature.
A literary analysis has some similarities to a research project. However, to write a literary analysis, you will not need to do research beyond the text itself. The evidence you will use to support your analysis will come from the text. Your evidence will be made up of quotations from the text—from single words to entire sentences. Evidence may also be paraphrases, or details from the text rewritten in your own words. You may also summarize parts of the text as evidence for your analysis.
A literary analysis is not just a summary of a text. It must explain how or why a piece of literature works the way it does. An analysis looks more deeply into the meanings of the work. To analyze a text is to break it down into its smaller parts in order to understand the meaning of the whole.
A literary analysis is also not a review that evaluates whether something is good, bad, recommended, or not recommended (though some reviews include some analysis). The essay may include your response and opinion, but it must explain how and why you respond that way.
A literary analysis is not just a summary of a text. It must explain how or why a piece of literature works the way it does. An analysis looks more deeply into the meanings of the work. To analyze a text is to break it down into its smaller parts in order to understand the meaning of the whole.
A literary analysis is also not a review that evaluates whether something is good, bad, recommended, or not recommended (though some reviews include some analysis). The essay may include your response and opinion, but it must explain how and why you respond that way.