The introduction to a literature paper is usually one paragraph long. In most cases, you will want to begin the paragraph with a few sentences that provide context for your thesis and end it with a thesis that sums up your interpretation. Here, for example, is an introductory paragraph announcing one student’s interpretation of one aspect of the play Electra; the thesis is underlined.
In Electra, Euripides depicts two women who have had too little control over their lives. Electra, ignored by her mother, Clytemnestra, has been married off to a farmer and treated more or less like a slave. Clytemnestra has fared even worse. Her husband, Agamemnon, has slashed the throat of their daughter Iphigenia as a sacrifice to the gods. The experience of powerlessness has taught Electra and her mother two very different lessons: Electra has learned the value of traditional, conservative sex roles for women, but Clytemnestra has learned just the opposite.
Related topics:
Outlining an interpretive paper
Supporting your interpretation with evidence from the work
Avoiding simple plot summary