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free guidance notes on writing skills and English Language, sample pages, How-to guides, and study resources

free guidance notes on writing skills and English Language, sample pages, How-to guides, and study resources

Alliteration – how to understand it

August 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Alliteration – definition

alliteration Alliteration is a figure of speech featuring the repetition of consonant sounds.

alliteration These are the hard sounds of letters such as B, D, K, P, and T – as distinct from the softer vowel sounds of letters such as A, E, I, O, and U.

redbtn The repeated sound is often (but not always) at the beginning of words.


Examples

She sells sea shells on the sea shore

‘Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor’

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper


Use

redbtn Alliteration is used for emphasis or stylistic effect

redbtn It is featured heavily in children’s rhymes and popular poetry.

redbtn It is also used in the lyrics of popular songs, and in advertising.

redbtn NB! Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, whereas assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds.

redbtn Alliteration is used a great deal (along with assonance) in children’s rhymes, because it emphasises rhythm and makes memorising easier.

Baa baa blacksheep

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, no sir.

Three bags full.

redbtn The same effect is used in advertising, so that slogans will stick in people’s minds:

Snap, crackle and pop

redbtn [Notice that this example also makes use of assonance and onomatopoeia.]

redbtn Alliteration is used much more in poetry than in prose. It is also used in song lyrics, football chants, and advertising jingles.

redbtn Alliteration also has a long and distinguished history. Middle English poetry was written in a verse form which featured the repetition of consonants within the line:

In a somer season, whan soft was the sonne

I shope me in shroudes, as I a shepe were

[PIERS PLOWMAN]

redbtn Take care not to use alliteration where it is not appropriate — in formal writing for instance. In such cases, it can have a distracting and irritating effect.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2003


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Analysing characters

February 25, 2014 by Roy Johnson

how to study and understand fictional characters

Analysing characters

When studying literature, you will be asked to write about the characters in stories, plays, and novels. Most people find it easy to describe characters – that is, what they look like and what they do in the story. But it is much more difficult to analyse them. That’s because analysing characters in fiction requires not only insight into human behaviour but also the ability to make moral assessments about their psychology, motivations, and the consequences of their behaviour. This skill distinguishes an academic study of literature from casual leisure reading.

You need to know how fictional characters have been constructed by the author. After all, the very nature of a literary character is that it is a fictional construct. It’s an account of somebody who doesn’t exist in real life, but has been created by words written on paper. The character is imaginary, but if the author has been successful, we think of these characters as if they were real people. This attitude is described as a ‘suspension of disbelief’: that is, we are temporarily willing to believe that the character and the story are like real people.

Analysing characters

Eugene Onegin

Character analysis also requires the ability to understand the complex relationship between fiction and real life – a skill which requires a fairly mature reading experience. Fortunately, most people have been exposed to fictional narratives from an early age, and will already be experienced readers by the time they are asked to make such analyses.


What is a fictional character?

A fictional character is somebody in an imaginative literary work created by an author. The character could be Peter Rabbit, David Copperfield, Macbeth, or Madame Bovary. In other media, it could be Luke Skywalker (feature film), Donald Duck (cartoon), Dan Dare (comic), Super Mario (computer game), or someone from The Archers (radio).

What we can know about a character in fiction depends almost entirely on what the author decides to tell us. Authors normally create characters using any number of devices. They might reveal to us –

  • their name
  • their physical appearance
  • how they dress
  • how they behave
  • what they think and feel
  • what they say

The composition of a character

Authors are at liberty to combine these elements in whatever way they choose. They may give different levels of emphasis to any of these options. There are no fixed rules they must follow, but the outcome must be a coherent piece of characterisation.

Charles Dickens for instance went to a lot of trouble to give his characters unusual and memorable names – Uriah Heep, Lady Honoria Deadlock, Josia Tulkinghorn, and Inspector Bucket for instance. At the other extreme, the Czech writer Franz Kafka reduced his most famous protagonist to the single letter K, with no first name or surname at all.

Some characters are memorable because of the way they are depicted visually. For instance, Miss Havisham in Great Expectations has shut herself away in an old house for years and years wearing the wedding dress she wore on the day she was jilted at the altar. She is described as a cross between a waxwork and a skeleton.

The fictional character might have a peculiar way of speaking, or a physical habit that becomes easily recognisable. Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s play The Rivals is memorable because she often uses the wrong word in her statements. She says “promise to forget this fellow – to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory” when of course she means obliterate. This characteristic is so easily recognisable that her name has been attached to that particular mis-use of language ever since – malapropism.

The good thing about this fictional technique is that it helps to fix the character in the audience’s mind. Its weakness as a technique is that it can reduce the character to no more than a verbal tic.

Some fictional characters are not given any name at all, and we know nothing about their appearance. Fyodor Dostoyevski’s Notes from Underground features a character whose name we don’t know, and whose appearance is never described. All we are told is what the character thinks – which is a torrent of existential rage against the world.

So – there are no fixed rules for the creation of fictional characters. Authors are free to tell us anything they wish about the characters they create. As readers we can merely hope that they are at least convincing or at best memorable. However, you need to be able to explain the mechanisms used to achieve this effect.


How to analyse a character

You can think of character analysis as a three part process. If you are a beginner, it will be safest to write about these parts separately. If you are more experienced, the parts may be combined – though you will still need to give your writing some structure.

  1. First – identify the character
  2. Second – describe the character
  3. Third – explain the character

Identify

In the first part of the process you are merely choosing the character you wish to write about. In many literary studies courses the character will be chosen for you by a question set for an essay or term paper. It is important to choose a character who is genuinely significant and who plays a dramatic part in the story.

Part of identifying a character is knowing their importance in the story. You will probably have no difficulty in distinguishing important characters (the protagonist or most significant character for instance) from lesser or secondary characters.

Describe

In the second part of the process you are ‘locating’ the character within the story and giving an overview of what part they play in its events. The term ‘describe’ implies that you can consider the character in isolation, and give a surface account of their presence in the story. You do not have to look under the surface to discuss any of their psychological motivation at this stage.

Explain

In the third part you will give an account of the character in relation to other people in the story or the play. You should explain what motivates the character, what the significance of their actions might be, and how they relate to other characters in the story or the theme of the work in general. At this stage you might also say something about their role in the story from an artistic point of view. That is, the role of the character in relationship to the events of the narrative.


Studying FictionStudying Fiction is an introduction to the basic concepts and technical terms you need when making a study of stories and novels. It shows you how to understand literary analysis by explaining its elements one at a time, then showing them at work in short stories which are reproduced as part of the book. Topics covered include – setting, characters, story, point of view, symbolism, narrators, theme, construction, metaphors, irony, prose style, tone, and interpretation. The book also contains self-assessment exercises, so you can check your understanding of each topic. Best-selling title, written by the author of these web pages.

Studying Fiction Buy the book at Amazon UK
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Character analysis – example

Identify

Joe Gargery in Great Expectations is very significant as a character. He acts as a formative influence on Pip; he is unwavering in his support for him throughout the novel; and he is instrumental in rescuing Pip from moral shoddiness in the final parts of the novel.

Describe

Joe is married to Pip’s elder sister and is therefore technically his brother-in-law; but he acts very much as a protective father-figure during Pip’s early life. Joe is naive, sometimes unconsciously comic, hard working and loving.

Explain

Joe represents the simple good nature that Dickens contrasts with Pip’s self-seeking complexity. His role as a constant in Pip’s life throws into sharp relief Pip’s plunge into increasing bad faith. The character of Joe is used as a fixed point by which we can trace Pip’s downfall and finally his moral redemption and recovery. Joe is also a comic foil against Mrs Joe’s violent behaviour as his termagant wife.

There is also a complex element in Joe’s child-like characterisation in relation to his wife Mrs Joe. He tolerates and never challenges his wife’s abusive behaviour towards both himself and her young brother Pip.


Narrative perspective

Thus far we have basic information about a fictional character – which we might call characteristics. But in addition, the author might provide any of the following information as well.

  • what the author thinks about them
  • what other characters think about them
  • what happens to them

This does not obtain so much in plays, where the author normally prescribes the appearance of characters and what they say – but nothing else. The point of view or perspective in this case is provided by the director of the play, in deciding how the play will be presented and how the characters will behave on stage.

In narrative fiction (novels and stories) you are likely to be presented with information about characters from a number of different sources – from the author, from other characters, possibly from a narrator, and of course from the characters themselves. Not all these items of information carry equal weight, and you will need to make careful discriminations in making your judgements.


Stock characters

What is a stock character? It’s a fictional creation that is a recognisable type who occurs in lots of other stories. This is what’s called a stereotype. Here are some examples you will recognise:

  • the miser
  • the mysterious stranger
  • the wicked stepmother
  • the absent-minded professor
  • the whore with a heart of gold
  • the damsel in distress
  • the hard boiled detective
  • the femme fatale
  • the gentleman thief

New stereotypes are being created all the time – and may be generated by new genres of fiction from film, television, and other media, as well as from the traditional literary genres of story, novel, and play.


Two and three-dimensional characters

The term two-dimensional character is used as an expression of negative criticism to label a character who always behaves in the same way, and does not change or grow as a result of the events in the story. They are sometimes referred to as cardboard or flat characters – as being flimsy, undeveloped, and not particularly credible.

It is a term used in contradistinction to a three-dimensional character which is used to describe fictional characters who have the depth and complexities of real human beings, and are therefore deemed more successful creations.

This ‘third’ dimension might be the capacity to change as a result of events in the story; it might be the successful depiction of contradictory beliefs and behaviour; or it might be acting on an irrational impulse – something which human beings are doing all the time.

For instance, in A Tale of Two Cities Sydney Carton is a cynical and alcoholic barrister who acts in a self-indulgent and disreputable manner throughout the majority of the novel. But at the end of story he takes another man’s place at the guillotine – an act of self-sacrifice which atones for all his past wrongdoings. Dickens makes the change of character credible, and Carton’s last words (his thoughts) have become famous: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”


Dubious characters

Successfully realised characters are not necessarily likeable or even decent. Authors are at liberty to create characters who are flawed, and they might still be attractive or memorable..

Fagin in Oliver Twist is a grizzly old rogue who runs a children’s criminal gang. He mistreats the members of the gang, tells lies, and is partly responsible for the death of an innocent woman (Nancy). Despite all these negative characteristics, he is so vividly portrayed by Dickens that he remains a standout and very memorable figure in the novel.

Some characters might be likeable even though they commit reprehensible acts. Vladimir Nabokov’s protagonist Humbert Humbert in Lolita is attractively clever and very amusing, even though he abducts and sexually abuses a teenage girl and murders his rival, Claire Quilty. But the first-person account of events Humbert delivers is so full of jokes and witty observations of American life, that we tend to overlook his flaws.


Providing evidence

A detailed character analysis depends on a close reading of the text, coupled with an understanding of the character. It also requires evidence drawn from the text to support any argument about the character.

It is not enough to say that you don’t like a character, or disapprove of something they do in the story. What you are doing is closer to showing that you understand what the author is trying to demonstrate to the reader. This is the reason that it is necessary to understand the literary techniques by which characters are created.

© Roy Johnson 2014


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Analysing essay questions

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. Analysing essay questions is the first thing you should do before you start answering them. You should read the question very carefully. Study it closely, and try to analyse its full meaning. Make an effort to understand the problem it is posing, the principal issue or concept behind it, or the topic it is asking you to explore.

2. One way you can help yourself in this is to write out the question fully and accurately on the papers you will be using for your essay plan.

3. Most questions contain within them (even if by implication both key terms and instruction terms. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

4. “Examine the significance of Iago’s role in Othello”

Examine here is an instruction term because it tells you to discuss the topic in a general manner.

Iago’s role is a key term because it sets
the limit of the question and is asking you to focus attention on this particular aspect of the play.

5. “Compare and contrast liberal-democracy and state-socialism as forms of government”

Compare and contrast are instruction terms because they indicate that you should be looking for any similarities and emphasising differences in the two systems of government.

The words liberal-democracy and state-socialism are key terms because they specify the two forms of government that should be examined.

6. Other typical instruction terms are – Discuss, Evaluate, Illustrate, Outline, Review, Trace, Explain – because they tell you what to do with the topic and which approach your answe to the question should take.

7. Most common problems in understanding questions usually arise from a failure to pay close enough attention to what they actually say. This often results in –

  • Answering the wrong question
  • Misunderstanding the question topic
  • Failing to see the emphasis of the question
  • Not following the instructions

8. Contrary to what many people think, questions are not set to catch you out, to surprise you with something new, or to be especially difficult and cause intellectual pain. In almost all cases they are set to give you the opportunity to show what you have learned in a course of study.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Analysing fiction – a glossary

November 1, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a checklist of literary terms

Analysing fiction requires that you are able to name and describe the features of a story or a novel that you find interesting. This means having a clear understanding of language and grammar, plus the basic elements of narrative prose. The definitions below are just the beginning. This is where the complex process of analysing fiction starts.

Vocabulary
The author’s choice of individual words – which may be drawn from various registers such as colloquial, literary, technical, slang, journalism, and may vary from simple and direct to complex and sophisticated.

Grammar
The relationships of the words in sentences, which might include such items as the use of adjectives for description, of verbs to denote action, switching between tenses to move between present and past, or any use of unusual combinations of words or phrases to create special effects.

Syntax
The arrangement and logical coherence of words in a sentence. The possibilities for re-arrangement are often used for emphasis or dramatic effect.

Figures of speech
The rhetorical devices often used to give decorative and imaginative expression to literature. For example – simile, metaphor, puns, irony.

Literary devices
The devices commonly used in literature to give added depth to a work. For example, imagery, point of view, symbolism, allusions.

Tone
The author’s attitude to the subject as revealed in the style and the manner of the writing. This might be for instance serious, comic, or ironic.

Narrator
The person telling the story. This may be the author, assuming a full knowledge of characters and their feelings: this is an omniscient narrator. It might alternatively be a fictional character invented by the author. There may also be multiple narrators. You should always be prepared to make a clear distinction between Author, Narrator, and Character – even though in some texts these may be (or appear to be) the same.


Analysing Fiction - Dictionary of Literary TermsChris Baldick’s Dictionary of Literary Terms has entries which range from definitions of ‘the absurd’ to ‘zeugma’. It’s also a guide to grammatical terms, traditional drama, literary history, and textual criticism. It contains over 1000 of the most troublesome literary terms you are likely to encounter. Some of the longer entries and explanations become like short essays on their subject.

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Narrative mode
This is usually either the first person singular (‘I am going to tell you a story about…’) or the third person singular (‘The duchess felt alarmed…’).

Narrative
The story which is being told: that is, the history of the events, characters, or whatever matters the narrator wishes to relate to the reader.

Characterisation
The means by which characters are depicted or created – commonly by accounts of their physical appearance, psychological characteristics, direct speech, and the opinions of the narrator or other characters about them.

Point of view
The literary strategy by which an author presents the events of a narrative from the perspective of a particular person – which may be the narrator or may be a fictional character. The point of view may be consistent, or it may switch between narrator and character(s). It should not be confused with the mere opinion of a character or the narrator.

Structure
The planned underlying framework or shape of a piece of work. The relationship between its parts in terms of arrangement or construction.

Theme
The underlying topic or issue, often of a general or abstract nature, as distinct from the overt subject with which the work deals. It should be possible to express theme in a single word or short phrase – such as ‘death’, ‘education’, or ‘coming of age’.

Genre
The literary category or type (for instance, short story, novella, or novel) to which the work belongs and with whose conventions it might be compared. We become aware of genre through cultural experience and know for instance that in detective stories murder mysteries are solved; in fairy stories beautiful girls marry the prince; and in some modern short stories not much happens.

Cultural context
The historical and cultural context and the circumstances in which the work was produced, which might have some bearing on its possible meanings. A text produced under conditions of strict censorship might conceal its meanings beneath symbolism or allegory.

© Roy Johnson 2009


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Analysing narratives

September 9, 2012 by Roy Johnson

understanding how stories are told

What is analysing narratives?

Analysing narratives is making a critical assessment of features in a piece of work. This activity goes from making a detailed inspection of grammar and vocabulary, to offering judgements on major issues such as structure and genre.

A narrative is the account of a sequence of events. It’s the term used to describe the whole of a story, a tale, or even a process.

The term is used mainly in literary studies when discussing major genres such as the short story, the novella, and the novel. There are also narrative poems – such as Robert Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1842).

A narrative is an account which has a discernable beginning, includes a sequence of events, and an outcome or a conclusion.


Narratives and media

The term narrative is also used for non-literary works. In such cases its used in a general and neutral sense, when the work does not have the consciously engineered structure of written works such as the short story or the novel.

For instance, any of the following can be considered narratives:

  • A newspaper report of a natural disaster such as a volcanic eruption
  • A television documentary covering the whole of a general election
  • The description of a manufacturing process such as car production

The analysis of narratives is a form of study which arose in literary studies, and has been continued in related cultural fields of media studies such as film, television, and even computer games.

It is even possible to have narrative paintings. The Bayeaux Tapestries for instance provide an account of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, depicting a sequence of its key events, but all presented simultaneously within one frame.

Bayeux Tapestry - analysing narratives

The language of narratives

The term narrative is used to described the whole of the piece of writing or the sequence of its events – as in

The narrative of Great Expectations is one in which Dickens combines all his favourite themes and unites them with a complex plot which is full of dramatic suspense.

The term story is used to describe the content of the narrative – as in

The story of Great Expectations is one of a young boy from a humble country background who becomes a London gentleman. In doing so he loses his moral sense – only to recover himself through painful scenes of redemption.

You can see that this is an extremely compressed summary of the novel which focuses only on its most important theme and excludes any of its smaller details.

Great Expectations - analysing narrativesThe term theme is used to describe the underlying topic or issue of the narrative. This is often of a general or abstract nature, as distinct from the overt subject with which the work deals. It should be possible to express theme in a single word or short phrase such as ‘redemption through suffering’, ‘moral education’, or ‘coming of age’.

The term plot is used to describe the manner in which elements of the narrative have been arranged to create dramatic interest, suspense, and possibly surprise. This arrangement could be the withholding of certain information, rearranging the sequence in which it is revealed, or embedding mysteries which only become clear when a later piece of information is presented.

A surprising turn of events, or the unmasking of a hidden identity are well-known plot devices of traditional fiction. Contemporary readers might feel that such devices have been so over-used as to become poor clichés.


Narrative mode

It is the author who writes the story, But an author can choose to convey events using one of what are called narrative modes. The two simplest are the first person singular (‘I’) and the third person singular (‘he’).

It is also possible to have stories related by multiple narrators. This is a device often used to present events from different perspectives or points of view.

Modern writers have also introduced further complexities into their stories by using what are called unreliable narrators. These are first person accounts given by characters with a limited, distorted, or even mistaken understanding of events.


First person narrators

The author creates a character who tells the story from his or her own point of view. That character may or may not be part of the story. Charles Dickens’ famous novel David Copperfield (1867) is an example of someone telling their own life story and participating in its events as one of the characters in the novel. Dickens is the author, David Copperfield is the narrator, and he is also a character in the story.

F Scott-Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby (1925) is largely concerned with the mysterious and very rich Jay Gatsby, but it is narrated by Nick Carraway, one of his neighbours and also a participating character in the novel.

Fyodor Dostoyevski on the other hand has a first person narrator in Notes from Underground (1864) whose name we never know. Almost the entire events of the novella consist of what’s going on in his head.

First person narrators tend to create a strong relationship with the reader, and many authors exploit this attraction to make the narrator persuasive or acceptable. The important thing to keep in mind is that the narrator does not necessarily represent the author’s own personal opinions.

Sometimes the author may act as the first person narrator, or make little attempt to create a fictional constructed character. But readers should never assume that narrators are a direct reflection of the author’s own opinions.


Studying FictionStudying Fiction is an introduction to the basic concepts and technical terms you need when making a study of stories and novels. It shows you how to understand literary analysis by explaining its elements one at a time, then showing them at work in short stories which are reproduced as part of the book. Topics covered include – setting, characters, story, point of view, symbolism, narrators, theme, construction, metaphors, irony, prose style, tone, close reading, and interpretation. The book also contains self-assessment exercises, so you can check your understanding of each topic. The book was written by the author of these web page guidance notes.

Buy the book at Amazon UK
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Third person narrators

This is the most traditional manner of delivering narratives, in which the author creates a distance between author, character, and reader.

John Belstaff was a gentleman farmer who had lived at Aylesbury Reach ever since inheriting the property from his father twenty years previously. He had worked the land to profitable advantage during that time, and was now looking forward to a peaceful retirement.

All the information we have about such a character is presented to us by the author, and there is no intervening narrator. This gives the author an opportunity to create multiple characters in a single narrative, and to show events from their different points of view. If the author chooses to reveal the innermost thoughts and feelings of any characters, this approach is known as omniscient narrative mode.

Jane Austen uses a third person narrative mode for her novel Pride and Pejudice (1813). But part its charm is the ironic and witty authorial observations she scatters through the narrative.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.


Omniscient narrators

The term omniscient means ‘all-knowing’ or ‘all-seing’. It comes from the language of religion, and in this sense the author is presenting a God-like view of events in which the characters’ innermost thoughts, feelings, and aspirations are revealed.

Authors are at liberty to tell us as much or as little about their characters as they wish, but once they have chosen an omniscient mode of narration they cannot claim ignorance about any aspect of their story. Having said that, many of them sometimes do – in order to create the impression of honesty or an ordinary human intelligence at work.


Unreliable narrators

Many modern writers have created what are called unreliable narrators. In this case a story is told in the first person mode by a narrator who has flawed perceptions, a limited understanding of events, or who maybe even tells lies. In such cases the reader is given the additional task of unravelling the ‘true’ story from information some parts of which are misleading.

The Turn of the Screw - analysing narrativesA very famous case in point is Henry James’ ghost story The Turn of the Screw (1898). In this a governess to two children in a large country house provides a dramatic account of how they have been demonically possessed by the spirits of former servants who are now dead. The story has become famous because it can be interpreted in a number of different ways. The governess does not provide any evidence to support the claims she makes, and she invents scenes which nobody else in the story observes. However, the reader only has her account from which to make any sense of what is actually happening. It is only by comparing small details of her account that we can see that she is an unreliable narrator.

In fact this story has both a first person outer narrator, and an inner narrator who reads a copy of the written account of events created by the governess herself – making it an extremely complex thread to unravel.

Another (very amusing) example is Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire (1962) in which his first person narrator Charles Kinbote edits a long poem in four cantos composed by an American writer who was his campus neighbour. On the surface, the poem is composed of scenes from the poet’s life and his philosophic reflections on domestic relationships.

But in a series of extended footnotes Kinbote analyses the poem in detail for hidden meanings. He reveals that it contains a subtly coded account of Kinbote’s own life, and his dramatic escape from eastern Europe which he had privately related to the poet as part of their friendship. Since the poet is dead, we only have Kinbote’s own word for the truth in any of his claims. However, Nabokov provides the reader with enough information to work out that Kinbote is a madman, and all his interpretations and literary detective work is a pack of lies.


The framed narrative

Many stories begin with a first or third person narrator who establishes the circumstances by which the story is known, In other words, somebody (named or un-named) informs the reader how the details of the story have come into being. The scene is set, or some prefatory knowledge is imparted. This takes the form of an introduction.

Then the main substance of the story is related, which constitutes the bulk of the narrative. This may be presented by the opening narrator, or it might be information from a different source – a second narrator, or a story passed on via letters or a diary from someone else.

At the end of the narrative, there is usually a return to the first narrator, who might reflect on the substance of what has been revealed. This is the ‘conclusion’ or the closing part of the overall narrative.

Such a case is called a framed narrative. An outer narrator passes the storytelling over to an inner narrator who relates the bulk of events.

Heart of DarknessA famous and much-discussed example is Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (1898). The story begins on board a ship moored in the Thames estuary, where a group of experienced seamen are reminiscing about their maritime experiences. An un-named outer narrator sets the scene, and then introduces Captain Marlow, who regales the company with the story of a journey he once made into the interior of Africa.

As readers we tend to forget all about the outer narrator, and even that the main events of the story are being spoken by Marlow. But at the end, when Marlow has finished his tale, the outer narrator comes back onto the page to ‘remind’ us that we are still on a ship in the Thames. The main narrative of a journey up an African river is ‘framed’ by the setting on the Thames, and the reader is implicitly being invited to draw parallels between the two.

© Roy Johnson 2012


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Analysis of a Shakespeare sonnet

October 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample answer to an examination question

This analysis of a shakespeare sonnet is an example of literary analysis at third year undergraduate level. It’s also an example of an answer to an essay question set for a final-year exam paper. It poses the fairly standard test of analysing one of the sonnets. This is one of three questions to be answered in three hours. So – allowing ten minutes for making notes and maybe an outline plan, this shows what can be done in fifty minutes!

Question
Write an essay on the following sonnet. Your answer should:

  • briefly summarize the argument of the sonnet
  • comment on the language Shakespeare employs and the way that language reflects the sonnet’s argument

You may wish to refer to other sonnets in your answer, but any references to other texts must be relevant to your broader argument.

Sonnet XXII
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me;
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O therefore, love, be of thyself so wary,
As I not for myself but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gav’st me thine, not to give back again.


Answer

In Sonnet 22, the speaker contemplates the difference in age between himself and his beloved, and asserts that he obtains youth through his relationship with the young man. In the second quatrain the speaker explains that the reason for this is the love between the himself and the young man which is portrayed as a mutual exchange of hearts, with the implication that the two have become one flesh. The speaker urges the young man to take care of himself and promises to be faithful to the young man. In the couplet, the motivating factor for the poem becomes clear, with the speaker acknowledging that he is afraid that his heart may be broken by the young man.

Although there are no personal pronouns which can confirm the sex of the addressee of the sonnet, the first 126 sonnets are assumed by critics to have been written to a young man. Sonnet 22 appears shortly after the early group of poems which urged the young man to have a child, and is one of the first sonnets to focus upon the speaker’s feelings.

The structure of the sonnet is 4-4-4-2, although there is a change of emphasis and tone after the 8th line which means that the sonnet has a distinguishable octave and sestet.

In the first quatrain, the speaker focuses upon youth and age and the disparity in age between himself and the young man. The opening line shows the speaker looking at himself in a mirror or ‘glass’ and is an echo of the opening line of sonnet 3 in which the young man was urged to look at himself in a mirror as a warning against growing old and remaining childless. The imagery of Q1 emphasises the disparity with ‘old’, ‘youth’, ‘date’, ‘death’ and the metaphor of ‘times furrows’ which effectively describes the wrinkles that the speaker has now and which the young man will have in the future’. The emphasis of this quatrain is on outward, physical appearance. The quatrain ends with the speaker looking forward to his own death which he hopes will be peaceful.

In the second quatrain, the emphasis changes and the poet uses an extended metaphor of the exchange of hearts to describe the mutual love between himself and the young man. The exchange of hearts was and still is a common motif of love poetry. However in this sonnet it is examined in a more literal way with the speaker suggesting that the two have actually exchanged hearts with the outward beauty of the young man being but ‘the seemly raiment of my heart’. Here the clothing imagery and the reference to the young man’s beauty link back to Q1 and the stress on external appearance.

Line 7, ‘which in thy breast doth live as thine in me’ is an allusion to the marriage service in which it is suggested that man and woman become one flesh. This, together with the opening lines which make the same suggestion, have convinced some critics that the relationship between the speaker and the young man is a consummated love affair. This however, is a contentious issue and one upon which critics remain divided.

The final line of Q2 links back to the opening line, with the speaker again referring to the age difference, this time asking the rhetorical question ‘How can I then be elder than thou art?’ again suggesting that the two have become one.

In the 3rd quatrain there is a change of tone, with the speaker making a direct exhortation to his beloved. ‘O therefore love, be of thyself so wary’. The heart imagery continues and the speaker uses similes of ‘nurse’ and ‘babe’ to describe himself and the young man’s heart. These similes have a two fold effect. Firstly, despite the speakers assertions to the contrary, they emphasis the difference in age between the speaker and the young man. However, they also change the imagery of the poems from those of old age such as ‘times furrows’ which was present in Q1, to ones of youth. In his way, the poem moves from age to youth. The structure of the sonnet therefore demonstrates the rejuvenation that the speaker is claiming to receive because of his relationship with the young man.

In the couplet, the motivation for the sonnet becomes clear. The poet is concerned that the young man will leave him and this will break his heart. He uses the word ‘slain’ which suggests murder and is in contrast to the peaceful death of old age that the speaker was wishing for in the first quatrain. The ‘heart’ is again the focus of the couplet, thus linking back to the 2nd and 3rd quatrains. Here however, there is the suggestion that the young man may want to take his heart back or leave the speaker. The poet warns him ‘presume not on thy heart when mine is slain’. The implication is that if the young man breaks the speaker’s heart, he will not get his own heart back – leaving him heartless – with the suggestion of cruelty.

In his sonnet, just as the imagery moves backwards from death to birth but with a final reference to death in the couplet, the quatrains take on new meanings in light of those that follow. Q1 is an assertion that the speaker is not old, Q2 explains the reasons for this assertion. Q3 is an exhortation to the speaker and the couplet explains the fear of being left broken hearted which is the underlying reason for the sonnet.

© 2000 Kathryn Abram – reproduced with permission.


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Apostrophes – how to use them

August 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Apostrophes – definition

apostrophes Apostrophes are shown by a raised comma — like this ( ‘ ).

redbtn Apostrophes are used to show possession and to punctuate contractions.


Examples

Possession– My mother’s house – The girl’s bicycle

The house belongs to my mother – The bicycle belongs to the girl

Contractions– There’s nobody here – Where’s Freddy?

There is nobody here – Where is Freddy?


Use

redbtn We can write The tail of the dog or The dog’s tail. This is possession – when something belongs to someone or something.

redbtn We can also write It is a lovely day or It’s a lovely day. This is contraction – when two words are merged. The apostrophe is used to denote the missing letter.

redbtn NB! Many people have problems with the apostrophe. [You’re not alone.] Read on!

Possession

redbtn When the possessor is single we indicate possession by using an apostrophe followed by the letter s:

The man’s coat
my sister’s hat

redbtn When the possessors are plural, the apostrophe is placed after the final s:

The girls’ bicycles
my cousins’ parents

redbtn When names end with the letter ‘s’, either use is acceptable:

James’ wife or
James’s wife

redbtn [It is often said that the choice between the two should be made on how the word is pronounced.]

redbtn The apostrophe is never used with possessive pronouns:

his – hers – its – ours – yours – theirs

redbtn But it is used with one: One must do one’s best.

redbtn Note that the apostrophe is not required where a word has been formed by omitting its first part:

bus – not – ‘bus [from omnibus]

phone – not – ‘phone [from telephone]

redbtn No apostrophe is required in the plural form of numbers and dates:

in the 1920s
the roaring twenties

Contractions

redbtn In formal writing we would write She has always loved him, but when speaking we would probably say She’s always loved him. The apostrophe is used to indicate the missing letters (or sounds).

I’m (I am)    He’s (He is)    You’re (You are)

redbtn Notice the difference between it’s (it is) and its (belonging to it).

redbtn NB! There is no such thing as its’

redbtn The use of contractions tends to make writing less formal.

redbtn It is just possible that the apostrophe will be the next linguistic feature to disappear from common use.

redbtn It causes lots of problems, and in most cases the context would make the meaning clear even if it were missing.

redbtn It is in fact a relic from the days when English was an inflected language. This may be a reason for the problems, and it would form some justification for its disappearance.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2003


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Apostrophes in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. Apostrophes in essays (‘) have two functions. They indicate both the possessive case and contractions. This might seem simple, but apostrophes cause a lot of problems.

The Possessive Case

2. We can say either ‘the whiskers of the cat’, or ‘the cat’s whiskers’. This is the possessive case, when something belongs to somebody or something else.

3. When the possessor is single we indicate possession by using an apostrophe followed by the letter ‘s’:

The man’s coat      my sister’s hat.

4. When the possessors are plural, the apostrophe is placed after the final ‘s’:

The girls’ bicycles      my cousins’ parents.

5. When names end with the letter ‘s’, either use is acceptable:

James’ wife    or    James’s wife.

(It is often said that the choice between the two should be made on how the word is pronounced.)

6. The apostrophe is never used with possessive pronouns:

his, hers, its ours, yours, theirs

But it is used with ‘one’: One must do one’s best.

7. Many shops and business concerns these days omit the apostrophe from their titles:

Barclays Bank      Coopers Wines

8. Note that the apostrophe is not required where a word has been formed by omitting its first part:

bus – NOT – ‘bus

phone – NOT – ‘phone

9. No apostrophe is required in the plural form of numbers and dates:

in the 1920s      the roaring twenties

10. The possessive of classical names ending in es is often formed by the apostrophe alone:

Demosthenes’ speeches
Sophocles’ plays
Xerxes’ campaigns

11. French names ending in an unpronounced s or x follow the normal rule, taking an apostrophe and an s:

Rabelais’s comedy      Malraux’s novels

Contractions

12. In formal prose we would write ‘She has told him’, but when speaking we would say ‘She’s told him’. The apostrophe is used to indicate the missing letters.

I am (I’m)      He is (he’s)      You are (You’re)

13. Note the difference between it’s (it is) and its (belonging to it).

14. There is no such thing as its’.

15. It’s may also be a contraction of it has

“It’s been a pleasure meeting you”

16. You should avoid the use of contractions in essays and formal writing.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Arguments in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. The term ‘arguments’ is used to describe your response to an essay question. Your arguments might sometimes be no more than an explaining or evaluating a subject, interpreting a text, solving a problem, or reporting on a project.

2. In its more particular sense, an argument can be a proposition which is put forward and then illustrated, discussed, and defended. It might be the assertion and defence of a particular moral belief (“Killing people is always wrong”) the judgement of a work of art (“Bleak House is Dickens’s greatest novel”) or the inspection of someone else’s belief (“How valid is Chomsky’s notion of a Universal Grammar?”).

3. An academic argument should not be confused with the sort of personal dispute we might have with a family member (“You ate the last piece of cake! No I didn’t!”) – though it is true that both are forms of persuasion. Academic essays should not include literary abuse or personal criticism.

4. The difference between these two notions is that an academic argument should be put forward in an objective and relatively neutral manner. It must also be accompanied by illustrative examples, evidence to support your propositions, and logically persuasive discussion.

5. The argument might be a single claim or a theory for which ‘proof’ is offered. Alternatively, it might be an idea or a notion which is explored in a discursive manner. In this case, the order of the topics being examined forms the structure of the ‘argument’.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Articles – how to use them

August 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Articles – definition

articles Articles go in front of nouns.

redbtn There are two types of articles in English:

  • the definite article [the]
  • the indefinite article [a or an].

Examples

The definite article is the — as in the book

The indefinite article is a – as in a pencil

or an — as in an apple


Use

redbtn When using the indefinite article a is used before

redbtn an is used when the noun begins with a vowel.

redbtn This convention is based on ease of speaking. It is easier to say an apple than a apple, and a new book than an new book.

redbtn The definite article the remains the same in all cases, although speakers do vary the pronunciation according to whether a vowel or a consonant follows. For example:

[thee] – the other – the argument

[theu] – the ball – the tent

redbtn NB! Just be thankful the article is gender-free in English. [It’s not in other languages.]

redbtn Articles in English are fairly simple compared with some other European languages. English articles vary only according to ease of speaking, whereas in French they have to agree with the gender of the noun. For example

MASCULINE le bureau
(the office)
le matin
(the morning)
FEMININE la maison
(the house)
la plage
(the beach)

redbtn Students of English as a foreign language are relieved to find that the articles stay fairly constant with the exception of the variation between a and an.

redbtn However, English wasn’t always like this. Old English or Anglo-Saxon had as many variations as Latin or modern German. These have very gradually disappeared as word-order has become more crucial.

redbtn Even today, some people say an historic occasion or an hotel. This is a remnant of Middle English when, because of the French influence, the aitch was not articulated, making the initial syllables of these words effectively vowels. [End of history lesson.]

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2003


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