INTERPRETING TEXTS

Naturally, the primary purpose of an essay on a literary text is to provide an interpretation of that text. In so doing, an essay needs to move beyond a description of characters and events to an analysis of the different elements of the text.

This analysis should bear in mind that the world that is presented in the text may well be fundamentally different from the world in which you live. Therefore, in analysing the characters and events of a text, you will need to take an "imaginative leap" into the moral and social framework of that text, imagining how such characters and events would be judged from within that framework.

The following tasks are designed to highlight these two different aspects of interpreting texts: narrative vs. analysis and making judgements. Select these individual tasks from the menu on the left

NARRATIVE VS ANALYSIS

Click on the highlighted text to see the comments.

When discussing a literary text, it is easy to get sidetracked into describing what happens in the text rather than analysing the text. That is, you might give an accurate summary of the characters and what happens in the text, instead of providing, for example, an explanation of the theme and how the various elements in the story contribute to making the theme more evident.

If you simply tell the reader of your essay what happens in the text, you have not helped them to understand the text better because the reader can easily have read the text him or herself. Analysis, on the other hand, provides the reader with some insight into the events of the text:

What are the ideas that lie at the centre of the text? How are these ideas presented in the text (e.g. through metaphor and symbolism, through dialogue, through supernatural events, etc.)?

1. Read the following extract from a student' s essay on the novel, Jane Eyre:

[1] "I must be provided for by a wealthy marriage" (p. 343). 

[2] These were the circumstances surrounding a young Edward Rochester's marriage to Bertha Mason. Rochester's father had given all of his money to his older son Rowland, leaving Edward penniless, so he had to marry wealth. 

[3] The Masons were acquaintances of the family, so where better to find a match than with a wealthy family in the West Indies who were willing to give Edward 30,000 pounds for marrying their daughter Bertha. 

[4] Rochester knew nothing of the money "My father told me nothing about her money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty; and this was no lie. I found her a fine woman. . . tall, dark and majestic" (p. 343). 

[5] When they married, Rochester and Bertha had barely spoken, they had simply appearances to go by and for Edward this was all he needed. 

[6] The Rochester narrative in the novel paints him as a naive young man doing what his father told him was best. 

[7] It could almost be said that he was tricked into the marriage.

Which sentences provide a description of the text and which make an evaluation or analysis of the characters and events of the text? Select them from the list below below.

DESCRIPTION:

Sentence 1 

Sentence 2 

Sentence 3 

Sentence 4

Sentence 5 

Sentence 6 

Sentence 7

EVALUATION/ANALYSIS:

Sentence 1 

Sentence 2 

Sentence 3 

Sentence 4

Sentence 5 

Sentence 6 

Sentence 7

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS

2. Now read the following passage from another student's essay on the novels, Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

Rochester is the dominant masculine subject in both Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette and Rochester's loveless wedlock is representative of many marriages during the mid 19 th century. Rochester's motives seem suspiciously mercenary, as his marriage to Antoinette (a prosperous Creole heiress) inevitably makes him incredibly rich according to customary English law. Christophine realizes Rochester's underlying ambitions: "Everyone knows that you marry her for her money and you take it all" (p. 98). 

Their wedding, as described in Rochester's narrative during Part Two, seems superficial: as Rochester remembers, "It meant nothing to me. Nor did she, the girl I was to marry" (p. 46). 

Rochester vividly remembers the touch of his bride's hand: "cold as ice in the hot sun" (p. 47). Although Antoinette is "afraid of what may happen" (p. 48), she nevertheless marries him, as the necessity of securing a husband overwhelms her. On the other hand, the autonomous Jane is able to reject a prospective husband, St. John, by audaciously telling him, "I scorn your idea of love" (p. 408). Jane is able to marry for love, not out of necessity. Antoinette's thoughts on marriage represent the norm for many women living in 19 th century society. Unlike Jane's experiences in Jane Eyre, the security of marriage was the ultimate gain in a woman's life during that patriarchal era.

Can you identify phrases that indicate an analysis of the events in the novel? Select them from the list below below:

 "...dominant masculine subject..." 

 "...loveless marriage is representative..." 

 "...motives seem suspiciously mercenary..." 

 "...inevitably makes him incredibly rich..." 

 "Their wedding... seems superficial..." 

 "...necessity of securing a husband overwhelms..." 

 "...able to reject a prospective husband..." 

 "...thoughts on marriage represent the norm..." 

 "...security of marriage was the ultimate gain..." 

Check Your Answers

Making Judgements

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Sometimes, students can get sidetracked into making value judgements about characters' actions, basing their arguments on the values and conditions of the time and place of the world in which they themselves live. In interpreting a text, it is important to keep in mind that the world of the text is different from the world that you inhabit. When dealing with works from the distant past, this is easier to keep in mind. For example, Charlotte Bronte published her novel, Jane Eyre, in 1847; the values and conditions of Bronte's mid-19 th century world are clearly very different from our own.

But, in addition to these differences between the world of the author and the world of the reader, there are also differences between these two worlds and the world of the text itself. Bronte presents a moral and social framework within the novel that is characteristic of that particular novel; it is not identical with the life that she led or the world that she inhabited. It is thus important to distinguish between the author and the narrator: the character Jane Eyre is not Charlotte Bronte, and Jane's world is not the same as Bronte's world.

To illustrate how one might describe a novel's social framework, here is what one of your lecturers, Alan Dilnot, had to say about the world of the novel, Jane Eyre:

"When interpreting a text, It is important to try to understand the conditions of the world as it is set up and depicted within the novel. In Jane Eyre, for example, one of the underlying themes is that women have to fight harder in their world - in the world of the novel - to make themselves heard and to leave a mark on the world than men do. Men in the novel may or may not be treated sympathetically, but they are more likely to be in positions of power than women are; and they tend to set up situations in which the lives of women are circumscribed or at least influenced."

The differences between the world of the reader, of the author, and of the text, can be illustrated clearly through a discussion of the novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. Here is what Alan Dilnot had to say:

"Wide Sargasso Sea (WSS) was produced much nearer to our own time (1966), but the action in the novel is set back in the first half of the 19th century. The author, Jean Rhys, has in fact made exactly the kind of imaginative leap from her own time to the time of the characters in the novel that readers of literature need to make. In any case a reader of WSS who is located in the early 21st century in Australia needs to make some allowance for social relationships as they were in the West Indies in the early part of the 19th century, and affected as they were by ethnic and racial antagonisms and hostilities.

Some of these issues are presented as being extremely complex in the world of WSS. Now we've got to make some allowance for these factors, even if they don't occur in our own daily lives; we've got to ask ourselves what a world would be like in which these were important factors. So that's the kind of imaginative leap that students often need to make when they are writing on a work of literature."

In presenting your analysis of a text, it is important to avoid making judgements from within your own moral and social framework, and instead look for the elements in the text itself that support a particular interpretation.

To illustrate this point, let's look at an example from an essay on Jane Eyre.

First, read the following essay topic:

Mr. Rochester describes in Vol. 3, Chapter 1, the circumstances in which he was married to Bertha Mason, and how he came to incarcerate her in the attic at Thornfield. What do we learn about him from this and how far does the novel endorse his claim that he has acted for the best?

Now, read the following conclusion to an essay on this topic:

Many incidents in the novel demonstrate that what Rochester did was in the best interests of Bertha, but these only occur during his narrative when a negative picture is painted of Bertha, but a closer reading of the novel doesn't endorse this claim. There are immense problems with what Rochester did. The incarceration of Bertha in the attic most probably caused her onset of madness to flourish. She should have been rehabilitated rather than imprisoned. Certainly Rochester kept to his marriage obligation and had Bertha taken care of but in reality what Rochester did wasn't the best thing for her condition. We must remember though that Rochester was young and naive when he got married so hiding Bertha away meant that if he couldn't see the problem then it meant that it wasn't there enabling him to move on with his life. Ultimately though we learn that Rochester thought what he did was the right thing to do for not only Bertha but also for himself, but in reality he caused more harm than good.

Has this student answered the question posed in the assignment topic?

Does her analysis interpret events in terms of the moral and social framework of the novel itself, rather than in terms of her own world?

Check your answers

Further resources for Literature

Books

Fox, Alistair (Ed.). 1995. How to Study Literature in English: A Guide for the Advancing Student, 3 rd Edition. Otago, NZ: University of Otago Press.

Griffith Jr., Kelley. 1990. Writing Essays in Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet, 3 rd Edition. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.