2. • Tim Macy is not a very well known author. "The Brass
Teapot" was his first publication. He has written plays, and
he is currently finishing his MFA at the University of
Kansas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
TIM MACY
3. ALICE
• Alice is one of the main characters
and an INDIRECT one. She is a
round character because she
changed throughout the story
because of the teapot (making
unwise decisions).
4. JOHN
• He is one of the main characters
and an INDIRECT one. He is the
protagonist because he is always
on the "good side" (trying to make
the right decisions about the
teapot).
5. • THE OLD WOMAN:
She gave the brass teapot to
Alice and John at the beginning
of the story. She is a direct
character
THEIR DAUGHTER:
Indirect character.
She has a little
participation in the story,
making her a minor
character.
THE REPAIRMAN: Direct and
minor character. He is a stock
character because he is a
stereotypical repairman because of
his characteristics. He briefly
appears at the end of the story
having a tragical ending.
6. SETTING
• The story takes place over the course of a few months.
• It happens in a small and nameless town but apparently in the
U.S.
• Sometime in the late 1900's
• Genre: Horror
7. • The Brass Teapot is about a married couple named Alice and John
who get a brass teapot from an old antique shop. They are
struggling with money and are very desperate to get any money
they can manage. They soon realize that money appears inside the
teapot whenever they harm or insult each other or themselves. The
worse things they do, the more money they get. They eventually
become so obsessed with the teapot that they lose their jobs to stay
home to try to get money out of the teapot. In the end, they have
become so desperate that they did something extreme to get
money.
8. CONFLICT
External Conflict: Since they didn’t have any money to pay their
debts the relied on the teapot to get some; however, the price to get
the money was to injure themselves.
• Internal Conflict: John struggles with what he should do about the
teapot and about his wife. Alice deals with an inner conflict about
what to do with the teapot. She ended up insane due to the unwise
decisions she took during the story to get money.
9. EXPOSITION
• The characters appeared in the story as it unfolded; they were
introduced naturally as they spoke their lines. Some minor
characters were directly introduced by the writer. The story
occurred in a nameless place with not exactly given time.
• The conflict was introduced since the beginning of the story and it
continued to be present until the end as the conflict was not
resolved at all.
10. • RISING ACTION: It happened when the main characters noticed
that money came out of the teapot when they injured themselves.
• CLIMAX: It happened when Alice argued with the repairman to
get some money out of the teapot and she ended up killing him and
being rewarded with thousands of money coming out of the teapot.
11. • FALLING ACTION: It occurred after killing the repairman when a lot of
money came out of the teapot causing John to worry about where to
dispose the repairman’s corpse.
• RESOLUTION: This part happened at the moment Alice said the
following words, making her an insane person: "We could buy our way to
paradise," she whispered. "There's got to be fifteen neighbors in houses
right around here that trust us. Don across the street has a gun in his
closet. He keeps it loaded."
12. • POINT OF VIEW
The story was told in the 3rd person viewpoint. The narrator was not part of
the story but he appeared to know every little detail of it. As the narrator
conveyed the story, the reader was able to fully understand all the important
points of it as well to infer others by the clues expressed by the narrator.
• Atmosphere: The author creates uncertainty and fear. As the reader, you do not
know what will happen to the characters.
14. INSANITY: The characters at some point appear to be
mentally ill because they do not think about anything else but
hurting themselves to get the money they wanted. They did
not care about the high price the had to pay to get what they
wanted; they just followed their twisted thoughts they
developed through the story.
