Critiquing a Literary

Selection:
Formalist Approach

By Jireh Noemi V. Solejon

 Objectives
define formalism/
01 structuralism approach ; critique a selection using
the formalist approach;
03 and
explain the principles of
02 formalist criticism;
Formalist/ Structuralist
Approach

By Jireh Noemi V. Solejon

 Formalism or Structuralism, as its name
suggests, focuses on the form of the work,
assuming that the text itself contains the keys in
understanding the text. It discovers the true
meaning of a work by giving attention to the
form or structure, elements and literary devices
operating in it.
Structure/ form
- It scrutinizes the plot (chronological sequence)
and the conflict in a story.
It studies how the elements work together to
form unity and to give meaning to a text.
 Structuralists believe that there is a deep structure that is
universal to all members of a particular genre: structural
elements that are seen in all poems, all short stories, and so
on. For example, a structuralist may hold that all novels are
expected to have a plot, characters, a setting, a core conflict,
and etc.
 It analyzes the work as a whole, the form of
each individual part of the text from the individual
scenes and chapters, the characters, the settings,
the tone, the point of view, the theme, and all other
literary elements and devices such as imagery .
Character- It is a person, animal, being , creature or anything
personified in a story.

Setting-It is not only the place and time a story takes place but
also includes the atmosphere.

Tone- It is the overall emotion conveyed by both the choices

of words, theme, sensory images, symbolism and the narrator
of the story such as suspenseful, affectionate, happy or sad.
Point of View- It answers the question “Who is telling the
story?”
Types:

1. First person- It uses either of the two pronouns “I” or “We”.

The narrator is a participant in the story relating his or her own
experiences directly or an observer.

2. Second person- The story is told to “You”.

3. Third person- It uses pronouns “They”, “She”, “He”,
“It” or a name. The narrator may be omniscient (all-
knowing) or has a full access to the thoughts and
experiences of all characters in the story or may be a
limited omniscient who usually cannot see into minds or
know the future, etc.
Theme- It is the author’s message to the
readers.

Imagery-It consists of descriptive language to

create images in the mind of the readers
through their senses.
 Formalism/ Structuralism Approach
It examines a text exclusively as a self-contained object in isolation from the
world, biographical information about the author, or the text’s effect on the
reader.

It does not concern the historical events outside of the story, social,
cultural, religious nor political ideas .

It emphasizes the value of the text as an entity in itself.

 How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways. I love thee with the passion put to use
I love thee to the depth and breadth and In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s
height faith.
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
For the ends of being and ideal grace. With my lost saints.

I love thee to the level of every day’s I love thee with the breath,
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God
I love thee freely, as men strive for right. choose,
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I shall but love thee better after death
 Analysis of the Poem How do I love Thee (Formalist/ structuralist
Approach)

Elizabeth’s “How Do I Love Thee”

centers around love, the work describes
how the speaker love “thee”. The music
or the rhythm made each line connects
with each other and sounds good. The
last words of first and second lines
rhyme with each other same as the
following lines, with connection or
related to each other.
 The first line introduced the
usual question of a person in love,
“How Do I Love Thee?”, the word
“thee” is synonyms to the word
“you”. Elizabeth used a word before
the 12th century (pertaining to thee).
On the second line, the words depth,
breadth and height are mentioned,
these words emphasize
measurement.
 It is obvious that the speaker’s
affection to “thee” was described.
“My soul can reach” (line 3), this
one pictures a strong personality of
the speaker. The personality of that
lover was also connected to those
words written in second line, the
depth, breadth and height.
 The work used sweet and useful
words, Horace emphasized the
“dulce et utile” which can be seen in
thus work. The word “thee” and
“love” are mentioned for how many
times. The relationship of the errors
really are showing useful image.
 Reporting “thee” and “love”
shows speaker’s strong feelings.
Also, the pronoun “I” was
repeated many times that
emphasize the great
involvement of self. “I”, “love”
and “thee”, they show the
elaboration of the poem.
 “I love thee purely, as they turn
from praise”, contains image that the
speaker seen to praise “thee”. The use
of the words “praise” has a great
impact to the readers. The author
carefully selected each wood to build
more speaker’s thought and actions are
revealed. “I love thee freely, as men
strive for right” (line 7).
 The used of figure of speech which
is called simile, comparing two unlike
things. To love freely and to strive for
right.

The word breath was repeated, this

must portraying to a degree or amount
of separation followed by the words
“smile” and “tears”, of course, in life it
is inevitable to not to face the two.
 Smile is when life is in happiness
and tears is when in Hard time. “For
the ends of bring and ideal grace”, the
word “end” has somewhat negative
connotation of being stop, death,
discontinuance and to come up to an
end, then followed by “grace” which
has positive connotation of a pleasant
behavior. So it means the end of
goodness.
 “I love thee, with passion put to
use”, Elizabeth used the word passion
as the module in showing the scene of
loving. That the line was followed by
“In my old griefs, and with my
childhood’s faith”. The passion the
emotion on the line 9 basically taken
from old griefs and childhood’s faith.
 Dead Star
Sample Formalism Analysis

In Paz Marquez Benitez's masterpiece "Dead

Stars", published in 1925, a formalistic approach
was used to show the forms of imagery,
symbolism, and theme depicting the mixed
emotions of an over thirty years old bachelor,
Alfredo Salazar whose love and passion for his
fiancé started to fade for he was attracted to
another woman named Julia Salas.
 "Dead stars" was a narrative story
and it was written in a third-person
point of view.
Upon analyzing the text, a vast
amount of imagery can be seen,
which helps bring aspects of the text
to life. One of which was the image
of Julia Salas as described by
Alfredo, "There was a breeze from
the water.
 It blew the hair away from her
forehead and whipped the tucked-up
skirt around her straight, slender
figure. The gin had grace,
distinction. Her face was not
notably pretty; yet she had a
tantalizing charm, all the more
compelling because it was an inner
quality."
 It is also clear that the ending, when
both Alfredo and Julia met again after
eight years, insinuated symbolism. As
Alfredo finds her different from what
he perceived in the past and all the
gone years, he realized that the love
they had, had already faded,
symbolized by a
"dead star"; emitting an illusion of light
and spark when it was already dead
long ago.
One theme conveyed in the
story is forbidden love which
infers that it is possible for a
person to meet somebody whom
he thinks is perfect for him even
when he is already committed to
somebody else.
Until such time that the person
realizes the wrong moves he did,
and the damage has already been
done. The underlying theme
suggests that people do change, no
matter the circumstances, as shown
in the ending when Alfredo walks
up to Julia and realizes that she had
already changed and so did he.
ACTIVITY 2: READ AND CRITIQUE!

Directions: On ½ sheet of paper, use the table

below to analyze the selection “Cracked Pot” Use
the guide questions provided in answering.
 The Cracked Pot

There once lived a water carrier. Every morning, as soon

as the sun rose, she walked from her home to collect water
in two earthen pots that hung from a long pole that she
carried across her shoulders. One pot was perfectly formed,
the other, although the same shape and size as its
counterpart, had a crack in its side. So, whenever they
returned to the water carrier’s house it was only ever half
full.
 For years, the water carrier repeated her journey to and from
her house collecting water from the river. As the years passed by,
the cracked pot created a story in its head about its level of
worthiness and inability to properly perform the job for which it
had been created. Eventually, the pain and shame that it felt about
its own perceived imperfections, became too much for it to bear.
So, one day as the water carrier knelt beside the river and began her
usual task of filling the pots with water, the cracked pot found its
voice and said;
 “I am so sorry. For years and years, I have
watched you fill me with water and I can only
imagine what a fruitless task it must be for you.
As whenever we return to home, I am only ever
half full. While in comparison, the other pot is
perfect, rarely does it lose a drop of water on our
long walk back to our home, but me, I am far
from perfect.
 This crack in my side, not only does it cause
me so much hurt and shame, but it must also
cause you to want to get rid of me. Surely, I am
only making this long, arduous job that you do
each day, that much more difficult? I can
understand if you are thinking of getting rid of
me and replacing me with another perfectly
formed pot.”
 The water carrier listened to these words with both
care and compassion. The cracked pot’s story of
unworthiness and shame was not one that she
recognised. For this was not what she thought of the
pot. She knew about the crack, but did not see it as an
imperfection, or as something that made it less worthy
than the other pot that hung from her shoulder.
 Gently she turned to the pot and said, “On our
return walk home, I want you to look up and to the
side of you. For too long, it would seem you have
been looking down, comparing yourself to others and
not noticing how you and the crack that you have in
your side has brought untold beauty into my life”
 Puzzled, the Cracked pot wondered what on-earth
her words meant. She seemed to be suggesting that its
story of lack, unworthiness and shame, was in some
way faulty. As to how this could be, it could not
comprehend.
 However, the Cracked Pot trusted the water carrier. It
occurred to it that in all the time that it had journeyed with
her, she had never said a harsh word, never scorned or
ridiculed it, but had always shown a sense of gratefulness
and care when filling it with water.
 So, on the return journey it heeded the water
carrier’s words. It looked up and it looked out. In its
former depressed state, it had not noticed that along
the path that they travelled there was a dazzling array
of beauty, colour and life.
 The water carrier in her wisdom, knowing of the crack
in the pot’s side, had sprinkled seeds along the path. These
seeds were duly watered every day as a result of the crack
in the pot’s side and the path that had once been barren and
devoid of life was now resplendent with an array of
beautiful wild flowers.
 Now, the cracked pot understood. Now the
cracked pot began to see itself in a new light. Now
it understood that indeed it had been telling itself a
faulty story. If its experience of being a ‘cracked
pot’ was going to change then it would have to
change the story that it was telling itself.
Activity 3: WRITE IT RIGHT
Directions: Analyze the story
“Crack Pot” once again, then
critique it using a
formalism/structuralism
Approach.
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REVIE
W
ACTIVITY 4: I’M THE ONE!
Direction: Draw a happy face  if the statement
describes a formalist critic. Otherwise, draw a sad
face .
A formalist critic…

1. must be a close or careful reader who

examines all the elements of a text individually to
discover how they form an organic unity.
 2. questions how they come
together to create a work of art.
3. looks beyond the work by
reading the author’s life, or literary
style.
 4. examines the work’s historical
background and condition of the society.

5. allows the text to reveal itself.

 6. analyzes how the elements
work together to form the unity of
structure and to give meaning to the text.
7. achieves understanding of the
text by looking inside it, not outside nor
beyond.
 8. studies how the text’s
influences or figures out similarity
with other works.
9. takes the elements distinct
and separate from each other.
 10. Scrutinizes the point
of view, structure, symbols,
tone, theme and other
elements or literary devices.
SUM IT ALL
UP
ACTIVITY 5: THINK TWICE
Directions: With your group, read and
understand the selection “The Story of an
Hour”. Analyze it using Formalist
Approach.
 CRITERIA 5 4 3
Critique The content includes correct The content Needs improvement.
formalism/structuralism slightly lacks in the
analysis. analysis using
formalism or
structuralism
approach.

Organization The analysis is organized and The analysis is Disorganized ideas are
well-planned. somehow curvy. clearly visible.
Neatness The analysis is well-written, free The analysis The analysis is not neat.
from erasures, and creative. contains some It shows no interest in
erasures but still writing.
readable.
Thank
you!