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 highlighted in color.
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