Genre
Non-fiction, Theory
Setting and Context
Literary context
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person narrator.
Tone and Mood
Critical, explanatory, scholarly, and literary
Protagonist and Antagonist
A protagonist and antagonist are not present in the text, which is mostly analytic.
Major Conflict
There is no precise conflict in the text.
Climax
The text does not have an archetypal climax; it is largely descriptive.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
Eagleton understates the literary implication of George Orwell's essays: “ It would probably have come as a surprise to George Orwell to hear that his essays were to be read as though the topics discussed were less important than the way he discussed them.” The understatement underscores the complexity and difficulty of defining literature.
Allusions
Literary and historical allusions relating classic literary works completed by renowned authors such as Milton and Shakespeare
Philosophical allusions such as ‘Heidegger’s philosophy’
Imagery
Eagleton provides imageries of the attributes that dominated literary works during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
Paradox
“The failure of religion” during the final years of the 19th century is paradoxical considering how widespread religion was then in the Victorian society.
Parallelism
Literary movements such as ‘structuralism, post-structuralism, New-Historicism, and psychoanalysis’ are compared and contrasted.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Don Quixote denotes gentlemanliness/chivalry.
Personification
N/A
