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Analyzing Quotes???



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Mon Apr 07, 2014 10:15 pm
TheCrimsonLady says...



How do you analyze quotes and what are the different aspects of analyzing quotes? Also, if anyone can post a set of literary devices, I would be very thankful.
Last edited by TheCrimsonLady on Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Rosendorn says...



Analyzing quotes often depends on what you're trying to do. I'm going to break down the same piece of writing, Hamlet's To Be or not To Be soliloquy, to demonstrate.

Spoiler! :
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.


On technique

Here I would discuss the meter (iambic pentameter), the flow, the ease of delivery, the utter lack of rhyme that results in no awkward spots, the use of repetition to deliver emphasis, ect. I would be discussing the technical aspects of the quote.

For exmple:
The repetition of "to sleep" across two lines draws emphasis to the concept of what death is, and provides space for the actor to recite the line more dramatically and allows a natural transition from talking about wanting to die to wanting to avoid death.

On language and imagery

If I was analyzing the language and imagery, I would focus on the poetic aspects. The use of slings and arrows, the whips and scorns of time, the literary devices (Googling "Literary devices" is a fantastic place to start for lists. These three here cover a pretty broad base) and other things that make the poem particularly pretty and deep.

For example:
"Or to take arms against a sea of troubles" reveals how Hamlet feels about both his current task and how he must prepare for it. The metaphor for his troubles being seas shows how they are neverending, while the fact he must take arms against them, traditionally imagery used to describe war, reveals that they are troubles that must be viciously fought in order to be be vanquished.

As part of the play

Analyzing this quote as one part of a whole means I would look at the themes give in the whole play and what this particular quote means in context. You can use something like how the imagery for the play changes across time, or the character development this piece shows.

For example:
His soliloquy is a moment where Hamlet wonders if it is easier to die than continue, and appears halfway through the play. It reveals Hamlet's fatal flaw in how he refuses to act; instead of making plans to avenge his father, Hamlet wonders if it is worth continuing life instead of staying where his neverending troubles lie. He admits he only continues because he fears what would happen to him in death, and continues gathering information instead of acting. This will lead to his downfall.

To prove my own thesis

This is something you do in academic writing a lot, and is basically a combination of any of the above and then some. You come up with the thesis you want to prove, and you analyze the quotes in order to prove your point.

For example:
My thesis is Hamlet's fatal flaw is progressively more detrimental as time progresses. I would then analyze the soliloquy based on how much of Hamlet's fatal flaw, hesitation, appears within this soliloquy and a soliloquy near the beginning and near the end of the play, describing how the fatal flaw manifests and how heavy the imagery is.

My thesis is that Shakespeare wrote his most emotional scenes according to how your heart beats in time to those emotions. I would then analyze how the pace of the soliloquy speeds up then slows down depending on the exact topic being discussed.

My thesis is that the imagery in this poem reflects how Hamlet feels like he is fighting the invisible. I then compare how the two types of imagery, that of death and that of the living, reflect this.

--

All in all, quote analysis depends on what you're analyzing for and the teacher's expectations. I hope this helps give you some sort of direction!
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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