Humanities Homework Help

Essay #1: Character Analysis

In both “A Tale-Tell Heart” and “A Rose for Emily,” we are introduced to protagonists who have a distorted view of reality.  In a “Tell-Tell Heart,” the narrator promises us that “he isn’t mad,” but we know better.  In “A Rose for Emily,” though we never personally meet Emily, based on what the townspeople say about her, we gain a fairly strong understanding of her lack of sanity. While both characters clearly have a distorted view of reality, they are the protagonists, and therefore, we often find ourselves rooting for them.

Write an essay in which you provide a character analysis of either Emily from “A Rose for Emily,” OR the narrator from “A Tell-Tale Heart,” and examine how the character development deepens our understanding of the protagonist’s distorted reality.  Be sure to identify what character aspects (if any) allow us to sympathize with them.  Can we really sympathize with someone who is so far removed from reality?

Purpose: To begin our study of literature, particularly short fiction, it is crucial to practice close reading. This includes scrutinizing and evaluating important words, phrases, and passages from the text in order to have a better understanding of the story’s point of view, characters, setting, tone and style, themes, and symbols. This assignment will focus on studying characters, which are what add life to stories. They also help use better understand the themes, motifs, symbolism and more in stories. They do so by helping us better understand writers’ intentions and sometimes even motivations, which are not always literally revealed on the page. Sometimes we must read between the lines and offer our own opinions and interpretations in order to analyze successfully. This is what you will be asked to do in our first essay assignment.