Plan Of The Literary Analysis

Plan of the literary analysis

I. Introduction
1) story presentation (including some words about the author)
I have read an extract from ... under the title ... by ...
To start with I'd like to draw your attention to the author of this story.
... is an outstanding contemporary English (American) writer
... is one of the world's greatest novelists
... is the greatest English (American) short-story writer
... is one of the most prominent English (American) novelists of the second half of the 19th century
... is known as a humorist and satirist of a remarkable force
His literary heritage includes a number of short stories (novels, plays, detective stories etc.)
His works won their creator a world wide popularity

2) type of the story (psychological, relationship, philosophical, etc)

3) genre of the story (a realistic story, a detective story, a drama, a historical novel, etc)

4) tone of the story (humorous, ironical, sarcastic, satirical, lyrical, dramatic, tragic, optimistic / pessimistic, melodramatic, melancholic (sad), meditative, sentimental, emotional, / unemotional, pathetic, dry and matter-of-fact, gloomy, bitter, cheerful, nostalgic, romantic, etc)
The extract is written in dry, matter of fact, ironical, lyrical style (way)

5) subject matter (what about)
The subject matter of the story is ...

6) title (if any comments arise)

7) setting (place, time of day or year, historical period, etc)
The scene is laid in ...

8) conflict (basic opposition: external / internal)
The story deals with ... (it touches upon the problem of..., presents a broad panorama of...)

9) point of view (first-person narrative / third-person narrative)
The extract (story) under consideration presents a first (third) person narration.

II. Interpretation body
1) Summary

2) composition of the plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denoument)

3) structural division of the text (according to three principles: the plot, the form of the text (narration, description, dialogue, interior monologue), the atmosphere, created by the author)

4) language analysis / SD commentary (idea-quotation-device name-idea)
Different stylistic devices employed by the author in the extract are ...

5) character sketch (protagonist / antagonist, round / flat, comment on the conflict, the author’s method of portrayal (direct / indirect / dramatic), characters presented statically or in development, character’s speech, etc)
The central figure(s) is (are) ...
In the extract given below we see (him/her/them) in ...
The plot of the story develops around the fate of...
The author uses direct characterization and description of his personages and indirect methods of character drawings through people's feelings, actions, manner of speaking.

6) message (what for)
The main idea of the extract is ...
The key problem of the extract is ...

III. Conclusion personal opinion (what the story shows you, what it teaches you, what it makes you think of)