I cannot recall, but maybe the Sdopers can refresh my memory: When writing an essay or composition about a ficitional work for an English class…are such papers written in the past or present tense? Because it is fiction, I want to say it is ALWAYS discussed in the present…but past tense sounds correct, too! Dang, which is it?
English teacher speaking! And your instinct is correct – fiction is discussed in the present tense. Unless, of course, you’re talking about something mentioned in the work that’s already happened when it starts: “Claudius murdered the King and married the Queen, so the King’s ghost returns to warn Hamlet.” Badly written example, I grant you, but it serves our purposes well enough.
