The Super-Successful*-Strategies-for-Stating Significance Seminar

*satisfaction mostly guaranteed if you put a little effort into it

In a good quotation analysis, you must:
1. Make a clear statement of significance.
2. Support your statement with textual evidence.
3. Make meaningful explanatory statements connecting back to the point of
significance.
THATS IT IN A NUTSHELL. But its a fiddly little nutshell. You need to go right back to
the beginning of the Quotation Analysis process which youve likely already learned,
(probably dealing with a character sketch), and then develop your skills from that point.
So, to review - You should know from previous English classes how to discuss
character, plot, and theme.
Character

Characters are the persons presented in works of narrative or drama who

convey their personal qualities through dialogue and action by which the reader
or audience understands their thoughts, feelings, intentions and motives.
Characters either remain stable in their attitudes throughout a work (static
characters) or undergo personal development and change, whether through a
gradual process or a crisis (dynamic characters); but in any case they usually
remain consistent in their basic nature. - The Department of English, University
of Victoria, 1995
If you remember from class, characters are revealed through their own
words or actions (or their reactions), or through the words of other characters.
Therefore, if you have decided that a quotation has significance because it reveals

character, you should focus closely on what this character says in the quotation, what this
character does in the quotation, or what another character says about this character in the
quotation. Make sure you incorporate a clear statement somewhere in your
analysis specifically about how the quotation reveals character (one of the three
choices).

Dont wander around in the analysis trying to be eloquent. Just make clear
statements and stick to the point. Connect back to your main character trait at
least twice in your analysis.
Plot
The basics of plot are often diagramed on a plot graph,
Climax (sub-climax for subplots)
Rising action (conflict)
Falling Action (conflict)
Inciting incident
Denoument (conflict resolution)
Introduction
Conclusion
When you are discussing significance, one of your choices is that something
moves the plot forward. That something must be an action, though the action
can be the act of speaking some words. The plot does not move forward in the
Introduction, that is just where the foundation of the story is laid. You need to
include in your clear statement of significance exactly what action you think
moves the plot forward, and from what point to what point on the plot graph you
think the plot moves forward. I wont say never, but I dont think the plot would
advance more than one progression from a single action. Focus in on what is
happening, and what happens because of it.
Theme
In the analysis of literature, discovering the theme is an interactive process
between the reader and the text. Teachers and textbooks have confused matters
somewhat through their careless use of the word theme, so lets be very clear. A
one-word summation is not a theme eg. love, death, alienation. The theme of a
piece of fiction is its view about life and how people behave. Your thematic
statement should therefore contain a view about some aspect of life. Harking
back to your Grade Nine days, we tried to encourage you to avoid clichs Slow
and Steady Wins the Race etc. Now well crank our criticism up a notch and we
might tell you that your statement of theme is trite. This means we want you to
reach for a more universal statement or a less superficial statement.
This is all well and good, but what do you do if you dont know what the theme is,
and dont want to look trite or clich? There are a few different ways that the
author tries to communicate his/her worldview. It is rare in a good piece of
writing that the author will explicitly tell you the theme, although this certainly

happens in fables and parables. As an educated reader, you need to winkle the
theme out from the text you are reading.

How to Identify the Theme

1. Look for a recurring idea. The idea could be presented explicitly, or be illustrated
through a situation.
2. Find the conflict of the story. Remember person vs. person, person vs. self, person
vs. nature, person vs. technology. The conflict is a way for the author to examine
problems, possible solutions and final resolutions, so it is an excellent clue.
3. The author may use repetitive imagery, patterns, or symbols to encourage her
readers to think about how things are connected or represented. If readers are thinking
and making connections, its likely that there is a theme behind all the mental energy.
4. What sorts of things happen to good characters? Noble characters? Generous
characters? If the outcomes tend to be negative, the author may actually be expressing
a negative worldview. Not everyone is happy and in love, you know.

Ok, weve covered enough background for you to take a good running jump
at your next analysis.
Lets try an example from The Lamp at Noon by Sinclair Ross:
Her eyes all the while were fixed and wide with a curious immobility. It
was the window. Standing at it, she had let her forehead press against
the pane until the eyes were strained apart and rigid. Wide like that they
had looked out to the deepening ruin of the storm. Now she could not
close them.
(Viewpoints 63)
WAIT!!! Before you read my incredibly insightful, articulate, yet compassionate
analysis, try it yourself. Youve read the story. Then check mine to see what you
think.
In The Lamp at Noon, Ross creates the unforgettable character of Ellen,
an unhappy wife who unwittingly smothers her own child. (Preamble and
identification of source text) Ellen is revealed to be an emotionally fragile
character from the time when we first meet her through her 3ehavior in the

kitchen as she watches a break in the storm. (Clear statement of significance

with specific reference to characters 4ehavior) Ellens eyes are fixed and wide
with a curious immobility. (specific reference to source text) Staring at
something with a fixed gaze generally implies intense concentration, but in this
case, Ellens eyes are immobile, as if she isnt really seeing anything. In fact,
Ellen isnt looking at anything; shes trying the potatoes, but she had been
staring out the window at the dust clouds and the deepening ruin of the storm
and now seems unable to see anything else. Ellen is not even able to close her
eyes, to blot out the suffocating dust. In this strained and helpless state, Ross
reveals the fragility of his characters mental state, and suggests that the
deepening ruin has taken possession of her. (meaningful explanatory statement
connecting back to point of significance) Ross repeats his description of Ellens
eyes, still wide in a immobile stare when Paul finds her and their son. This echo
is a confirmation of what [we] had known since noon, that Ellens fragile
emotional state was soon to deepen into its own storm. (statement of larger
significance within the text)
It is perhaps not a coincidence that Tennysons heroine, The Lady of Shalott,
has the same fixed and wide gaze:
Her wide eyes fixed on Camelot,
Though the squally east-wind keenly
Blew, with folded arms serenely
By the water stood the queenly
Lady of Shalott.
With a steady, stony glance-Like some bold seer in a trance,
Beholding all his own mischance,
Mute, with a glassy countenance-She looked down to Camelot.

140

(statement of larger significance outside the text) Tennysons Lady looks at her
world through a mirror, Rosss Ellen through a window, and yet both are under
the same curse. The Lady of Shalott is driven to leave her tower because she is
half sick of shadows: Ellen because she too is sick of shadow, though hers are
the shadows caused by the unabating dust storm. Death waits for both the
heroines: Tennysons Shalott is a pale corpsedeadcold, while Ellen is left
oblivious, holding the cold body of her dead child. It would be interesting to

discover if Ross intended this connection, as Tennyson based his heroine on the
character Elaine of Astolat from Mallorys Le Morte dArthur.

30/11/2004 01:12:00