Literature: Prose Analysis
Prose analysis is the A-level skill of closely reading an unfamiliar extract of prose fiction and analysing how the writer uses language, structure, narrative viewpoint and form to create meaning and effect. It typically requires close textual reference, precise terminology and, where relevant, comment on social or historical context.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Read the whole extract at least twice: once for overall meaning, once noting specific language and structural choices.
- Identify the narrative viewpoint, e.g. first or third person, limited or omniscient, and consider what it allows the reader to know or feel.
- Annotate language techniques such as imagery, symbolism or dialogue with their precise effect, not just their name.
- Track how the extract is structured, e.g. shifts between present action, memory and reflection, or changes in pace and focus.
- Where relevant, link details to social or historical context, but always in service of analysing the text itself.
- Build your answer around a clear line of interpretation, using short, precisely chosen quotations as evidence throughout.
Worked example
In an extract, a character 'gripped the letter so tightly the paper crumpled in her fist, though she had not yet read a single word.' Explore what this detail suggests about the character.
- Identify the technique: physical action used to convey inner emotion, a form of indirect characterisation.
- Note the specific detail: gripping so tightly the paper crumpled, before reading any words.
- Interpret the effect: this suggests intense anticipatory anxiety, since her physical reaction precedes any actual content.
- Consider structure and placement: delaying the reading of the letter builds tension and suggests its contents matter deeply to her.
- Support with connotation: 'crumpled' suggests a loss of control, contrasting with any earlier composure she may have shown.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a English exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Re-read this line: 'The kitchen clock had stopped at ten past three, and no one in the house had thought, in over a year, to wind it again.' Identify one technique the writer uses here and explain its effect.
Explore how the writer uses setting to reflect a character's emotional state in an extract where a character walks through 'streets grown suddenly unfamiliar, though she had walked them every day of her life.'
Analyse how the writer creates tension in an extract where a character waits for a phone call that does not come, checking her phone 'for the hundredth time, though it had not made a sound.'
Free printable worksheet
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