Analysis

This analysis of “Petronella” by Jay Williams will explore narrative and stylistic elements which will help you better understand and discuss the fairy tale.

In what follows, we will summarise the text and discuss its structure, looking at typical and atypical fairy-tale narrative elements.

We will examine the most important characters, Petronella, Albion, and Ferdinand, considering their inner and outer characterisation and whether they are typical fairy-tale characters or not.

We will present the setting of Skyclear Mountain kingdom and its surroundings, pointing out fairy-tale elements along with social setting aspects related to family, magic, and relationships.

We will look at the third-person narrator and the way he uses the main character’s point of view.

We will also consider the language of the story, focusing on choice of words, similes, repetition, and symbols.

You can find the full analysis in what follows.