3 min read•june 18, 2024
Ariella Ramjohn
Ariella Ramjohn
Characters are essential towards literary works as they represent different notions and help to build on variety of ideas in which the author tries to communicate. Analyzing a character allows readers to explore or infer a wide range of values, cultural norms, assumptions, beliefs, and biases intended by the author.
How can readers interpret these aspects? Well, the author uses different methods of (such as , , , and details) to reveal a character's perspective. Diction refers to the author's word choice, syntax refers to structure or organization, action sequences are the decisions or actions in which the characters take, and details are intentional elaborations formulated by the author. Each element is imperative towards understanding a poetry, or any text in general.
Dissecting the construction of a poem helps readers to analyze a the purpose of a character. Poems are crafted with many meaningful techniques. Throughout this unit, we will study the most impactful methods an author may use. This lesson in particular will focus on how dramatic situations as well as can help readers identify characters in a poem.
What is the of a poem and how can readers determine it? A dramatic situation in poetry refers to a literary tool in which the author manipulates to communicate an underlying message or plot line about a character's circumstances.
When trying to determine the dramatic situation, readers may ask the following questions:
In Robert Browning's poem, "Porphyria's Lover", the answers to all of these questions are revealed: the speaker (a male psychopath) lives in a remote cottage (most likely in Renaissance Italy) is sitting near his mistress who he strangled. In other poems, it is up to the reader to assume or interpret certain details left out by the author. A reader could still be able to contemplate the poem without direct answers, seeing as the analysis itself to find the answers can give the audience a general understanding.
What are the essential images and in the poem? Imagery refers to the "images" or literary concepts that appeal to senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing). Figures of speech refer to the phrases and words in which the author utilizes for a rhetorical, non-literal effect. Both literary tools can contribute to a character's identity as it provides implicit details of their motives.
When trying to determine the purpose of imagery and figures of speech, readers may ask the following questions: