What this element asks you to analyse

Narrative voice is the verbal persona used to tell a story. Perspective is the position from which characters and events are perceived and understood. Narration refers to the method the writer chooses to present the story: what information is selected, how it is ordered and what is withheld.

Don’t confuse the author with the narrator. A first-person narrator is a textual construction, not necessarily the writer speaking personally. First establish whether the narrator takes part in the events. Then consider when the narration occurs in relation to them and how much the narrator knows.

Next, ask who perceives each moment. A third-person narrator might shift between characters’ viewpoints or stay closely aligned with one consciousness. This control of perception is often called focalization. A change in focalization can reveal differences between public events and private interpretations.

Track narration through:

• first-, second- or third-person reference
• participant or non-participant narration
• retrospective or immediate telling
• restricted or wide access to knowledge
• direct address to the reader
• scene, summary, dialogue and omission
• free indirect discourse, where third-person narration adopts a character’s vocabulary or patterns of thought
• gaps, contradictions and signs of limited or unreliable judgment.

The figure traces how the author’s choices reach the reader through a narrator and a focalizing perspective. Meaning is constructed through this mediation rather than simply transmitted.

What the criteria reward

Criterion A: understanding and interpretation rewards a convincing explanation of the narrator’s position and what follows from it. The interpretation should show what the passage encourages readers to trust or doubt, as well as what they are led to notice or overlook.

Criterion B: analysis and evaluation rewards close attention to how pronouns, modality, tense, distance, access to thought and perspective shifts shape meaning. Evaluation goes beyond naming a narrative method: it explains why that method matters in this particular passage.

Criterion C: focus and organization rewards a controlling argument that addresses the guiding question. Paragraphs might move from narrative position to the control of knowledge, then examine the reader’s response.

Criterion D: language rewards clear distinctions among author, narrator and character. Terms such as “first-person narrator,” “retrospective voice” and “restricted focalization” should sharpen the analysis, not stand in for it.

Worked example

Charlotte Brontë writes in Jane Eyre: “Reader, I forgave him at the moment and on the spot.”

Through the address “Reader,” Brontë’s first-person narrator turns a private decision into a direct exchange with the audience. The compact declarative places Jane in control of the action and its interpretation. Grammatically, Rochester is the person acted upon, while “I” remains the subject who judges and forgives. Pairing “moment” with “spot” makes the decision sound immediate and free from hesitation. Yet the retrospective voice shows that Jane has chosen this instant for later narration. Her intimacy with the reader also gives her narrative authority, encouraging us to accept her moral account while reminding us that she decides what to disclose.

What this element asks you to analyse

Characterization is how textual choices construct a character. It can be direct, with a narrator or another character stating a quality, or indirect, with readers inferring qualities from speech, action, appearance, thoughts and relationships.

When analysing speech, look at vocabulary, syntax, register and figurative language, as well as hesitation, interruption and silence. Dialogue may show what a character wants, but it can also be strategic. Politeness might hide hostility; confidence might mask fear. A repeated phrase can suggest that the character is performing an identity.

With action, separate one-off behaviour from a recurring pattern. Consider what the character does under pressure, who is affected and whether the narrator interprets the action for the reader. A small gesture may reveal more than a dramatic event, especially when it clashes with the character’s claims.

Description is never neutral. The choice of bodily features, clothing, posture or surroundings can idealize, diminish, stereotype or complicate a character. Identify whose description it is. The words may characterize the observer just as strongly as the person being observed.

The figure places speech, action and description around the reader’s inference. Strong analysis asks whether these channels support or contradict each other.

What the criteria reward

Criterion A: understanding and interpretation rewards an interpretation of the character that draws on several precise details. It also recognizes that characterization may stay ambiguous or develop during the passage.

Criterion B: analysis and evaluation rewards explanations of how particular choices construct the character and shape judgment. Move from evidence to implication. A clipped sentence matters because it may suggest something about attitude, power or emotional control.

Criterion C: focus and organization rewards paragraphs built around claims about characterization rather than separate inventories of speech, action and description. Bring evidence from different channels together to establish a pattern or expose a contradiction.

Criterion D: language rewards controlled analytical verbs such as “presents,” “qualifies,” “exposes” and “undermines.” Don’t present inferred qualities as unquestionable facts.

Worked example

Jane Austen writes in Pride and Prejudice: “Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society.”

Austen’s narrator characterizes Mr. Collins through an apparently measured description, but its restraint makes the ridicule sharper. The negative construction “not a sensible man” sounds less severe than a direct insult. Yet “deficiency” makes his foolishness seem like a fundamental absence. The balanced reference to “education or society” removes the two influences that might have corrected him. This narratorial judgment leads the reader to interpret his later elaborate speech as a performance unsupported by understanding, rather than as wisdom. Description becomes the lens through which his behaviour and dialogue are read.

What this element asks you to analyse

Setting refers to the time, place and social environment in which a narrative takes place. Landscape is the natural or built environment as it is represented, particularly the way it is selected and perceived within the narrative. Atmosphere is the emotional quality created by the details of a scene working together.

Place names alone don’t establish setting. Look at the time of day, season and weather, as well as architecture, objects, boundaries and patterns of movement. Together, these details shape the conditions in which characters act. The social setting matters too. Ownership, privacy, labour, custom and access may make the same space welcoming to one character but threatening to another.

Landscape may constrain action or reflect a character’s state of mind. At other times, it contrasts with that state, embodies social power or suggests values such as freedom, isolation and decay. Don’t assume that weather automatically mirrors emotion; you need to demonstrate the relationship through the language.

Atmosphere develops through patterns. Follow the sensory details and changes in sound, light, colour or temperature. Sentence rhythm and the connotations of descriptive vocabulary also shape the effect. When one of these patterns shifts, it may mark a movement from security to exposure or from stillness to danger.

The figure links environmental details to character experience and reader response. It also shows that textual selection produces atmosphere; atmosphere does not exist independently of narration.

What the criteria reward

Criterion A: understanding and interpretation rewards explanations of what the setting implies about the passage’s characters, concerns or values. Any context inferred from the passage should stay grounded in textual evidence.

Criterion B: analysis and evaluation rewards analysis of the ways sensory language, spatial arrangement, recurring details and narrative perspective create atmosphere. Evaluation focuses on what the setting does in the passage, rather than simply describing its appearance.

Criterion C: focus and organization rewards a clear claim about atmosphere or setting, followed by connected evidence. For example, a paragraph might track how a landscape that first appears open becomes restrictive through a sequence of details.

Criterion D: language rewards precise descriptions of effects. Terms such as “claustrophobic,” “exposed” or “tranquil” can’t stand as unsupported labels; they need to be explained through the passage’s language.

Worked example

Emily Brontë writes in Wuthering Heights of the house: “Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times.”

At first, “pure” and “bracing” sound approving. Yet the excessive certainty of “at all times” undercuts them, making Lockwood’s comment seem wry rather than admiring. His euphemistic use of “ventilation” domesticates the force of the exposed landscape, as if violent weather were merely a household convenience. The description reveals both the place and its observer. The Heights seems harsh and permeable to the elements, while Lockwood initially treats its severity as picturesque. From this tension comes an atmosphere of exposure that his socially polished language cannot fully control.

What this element asks you to analyse

A relationship is the changing connection characters establish through their roles, desires, language and behaviour. Tension is unresolved pressure caused by incompatible expectations, hidden feelings or uncertain outcomes. Conflict occurs when characters actively oppose one another’s aims, values or claims.

Start by asking what each character wants, then identify why both desires cannot be satisfied. Power might come from status or knowledge. It can also depend on physical position, emotional dependence or control of the conversation. Since power may shift during a scene, follow those changes instead of fixing characters into permanent categories such as “strong” and “weak.”

Forms of address, commands and questions can expose a relationship through dialogue. So can interruptions, repetition and unequal speaking time. Silence might suggest refusal, fear or control, depending on the context. Watch actions and spatial details too. Approach, withdrawal, touch and physical separation may support the spoken words or contradict them.

Tension often grows from a gap in knowledge or understanding. The characters may know more than the reader, or the reader may know more than one character. At other times, characters interpret the same event differently. Conflict may remain internal or implicit before it becomes openly verbal or physical.

The figure treats relationship analysis as a changing system of desire, obstacle, power and response, rather than as a list of personality traits.

What the criteria reward

Criterion A: understanding and interpretation rewards a supported explanation of the relationship and its implications. Strong interpretations recognize mixed motives, along with shifts in power or sympathy.

Criterion B: analysis and evaluation rewards close analysis of dialogue, gesture and spatial position, as well as focalization and patterns of response. Evaluation shows how these choices intensify, delay or transform conflict.

Criterion C: focus and organization rewards an argument that tracks the relationship as it develops. Paragraphs might follow stages such as concealed tension, confrontation and altered power.

Criterion D: language rewards relational phrasing: one character “challenges,” “depends upon,” “withholds from” or “claims authority over” another. Such wording is more precise than describing the characters one at a time.

Worked example

Mary Shelley writes in Frankenstein: “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.”

Through the antithesis between “Adam” and “fallen angel,” the creature defines his relationship with Victor. “Ought” presents a creator’s care as a moral obligation. Meanwhile, “thy” casts Victor directly as God, turning his rejection of the creature into a failure of responsibility. The adversative “but” condenses the shift from hoped-for belonging to conflict. Shelley therefore allows the socially powerless creature to control the encounter rhetorically. He interprets their shared history through a framework that accuses Victor, while still exposing his desire for recognition.

What this element asks you to analyse

Imagery uses language to evoke sensory experience or create a vivid mental impression. Figurative language builds meaning through a non-literal relationship, as in metaphor, simile, personification or symbolism. Descriptive language chooses and qualifies features of a person, object, place or experience.

Simply identifying a device isn’t enough. With a metaphor or simile, establish what is being described, the image it is linked to and the qualities transferred between them. Look at where the comparison breaks down too. An image may bring out one quality while distorting or hiding another.

Follow patterns of imagery instead of treating each example in isolation. Recurring images of machinery, disease, enclosure or performance can form a conceptual field through which readers interpret characters and events. A shift within that field may suggest development or contradiction.

Sensory description affects pace and viewpoint as well. Dense visual detail can pause the action; an abrupt sound may interrupt reflection. Description is filtered through narration, so choices about what seems beautiful, ugly, familiar or strange can reveal a character’s values.

The figure traces the analytical movement from the literal subject to the figurative image, its associated qualities and a larger implication.

What the criteria reward

Criterion A: understanding and interpretation rewards a plausible explanation of how an image or descriptive pattern contributes to the passage’s meaning. Where an image carries conflicting associations, the interpretation should acknowledge that ambiguity.

Criterion B: analysis and evaluation rewards close attention to diction, sensory appeal, connotation and figurative relationships. Evaluation shows why the chosen image works within this particular viewpoint, atmosphere or characterization.

Criterion C: focus and organization rewards the grouping of related details into meaningful patterns. Each paragraph should develop one interpretive claim, rather than simply listing metaphors, colours and sounds.

Criterion D: language rewards accurate terminology and precise explanation. Instead of a vague claim such as “creates an image,” name the specific effect: idealization, dehumanization, intimacy, disgust or instability.

Worked example

Oscar Wilde writes in The Picture of Dorian Gray: “The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold.”

The metaphor constructs Dorian from “ivory and gold.” These materials suggest beauty, rarity and value, but they also imply hardness and lifelessness. By saying that Dorian is “made” of them, the speaker turns a person into an aesthetic object whose appearance supposedly changes “the world.” The exaggerated scale of the claim reveals the seductive power of aesthetic worship, while the material imagery quietly points towards dehumanization. Wilde’s description idealizes Dorian even as it warns against that idealization.

What this element asks you to analyse

Structure describes how a text’s parts are arranged and how they relate to one another. Contrast occurs when unlike elements are placed beside or against each other for a meaningful effect. Pacing is the reader’s sense of how quickly narrated experience moves and how long it lasts.

With an unseen passage, start from the structure on the page. Identify the opening position and stages of development, then locate the turning point and ending. Follow any shifts in time, place, focalization or topic, as well as changes in tone and paragraph length. When the passage is an extract, don’t invent the plot around it. Instead, explain how the opening and ending produce expectations or a sense of incompleteness.

Writers can create contrast between characters or settings, between time periods and registers, or through images and narrative perspectives. The effect goes beyond showing that two things are different. A contrast might expose hypocrisy, unsettle the reader’s first judgment, create irony or make change easier to perceive.

Pacing emerges from the relationship between story time and narrative space. Scene and dialogue usually give a short period more space on the page, whereas summary may compress months into one sentence. Ellipsis leaves out a period entirely. Syntax affects pace too. Brief clauses, repetition and quick shifts may speed up the reading; long sentences or detailed description can hold back the action.

The figure connects large-scale structure with pacing at the local level. It shows how scene, summary and ellipsis can shape the opening, development, turning point and ending, alongside syntax and repetition.

What the criteria reward

Criterion A: understanding and interpretation rewards discussion of the passage as a whole that develops from beginning to end. Interpret the ending in relation to the expectations created by the opening.

Criterion B: analysis and evaluation rewards explanations of how arrangement and juxtaposition create emphasis or change, along with temporal control, syntax and repetition. Evaluation should identify why a contrast, delay or acceleration matters to the passage’s meaning.

Criterion C: focus and organization rewards an essay shaped by a purposeful line of argument. A chronological approach can work, provided each stage develops the interpretation instead of slipping into paraphrase.

Criterion D: language rewards precise vocabulary for movement and relationships, such as “foreshadows,” “interrupts,” “compresses,” “delays,” “juxtaposes” and “returns to.” Use transitions to show how the argument develops.

Worked example

In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens writes that “the hurry of them became more and more rapid.”

The comparative pattern “more and more rapid” makes the acceleration audible in the sentence. At the same time, “hurry” turns the footsteps into an approaching pressure rather than a neutral background sound. On a local level, the increasing speed reduces the reader’s sense of how much time remains. Structurally, the recurring footsteps connect separate moments in a pattern of anticipation. Repetition doesn’t pause the narrative here; it makes the impending arrival seem progressively less avoidable. By returning to the motif in an intensified form, Dickens aligns pacing with suspense.