A critical analysis of a story closely examines its various narrative elements with an eye toward how well they work together to express the point of the story. Let's begin by taking a look at some of the narrative elements in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Captured Shadow."

This story is largely character-driven and centers around the protagonist, Basil Duke Lee, a fifteen-year-old aspiring playwright who has written a play called “The Captured Shadow” and is recruiting several of his fellow students to produce it. Basil is, in some ways, a typical teenager, staying out late, falling for a girl, and talking back to his mother. Yet in other ways, he is not typical at all, and this makes him a strong protagonist.

Basil, for instance, has a strong moral conscience, for he feels guilty when he tells Evelyn's brother to play with Teddy Barnfield, who has the mumps (ultimately preventing Evelyn's family from taking the trip). The guilt of this act actually spoils the success of Basil's play for him.

The story's plot centers around the creation and production of the play and the difficulties Basil and Riply have putting together and keeping together a cast. Side plots include Basil's crush on Evelyn and his relationship with his mother.

The conflict largely centers around Basil himself as he struggles to write a successful play (the author gives us a taste of some of his abandoned work) and as he confronts his antagonist, the ladies' man Hubert Blair, who also likes Evelyn. The climax occurs during the play as Evelyn and Basil kiss, but the resolution draws the story to a close as Basil's guilt spoils his success and his mother prays for him.

Themes explored within the story include trial, failure, and success as well as the lack of perfection that must be tolerated (in the faltering scene, for instance). Jealousy, too, appears, as do moral guilt and its effects. Further, the story is something of a coming-of-age tale in which Basil learns what it means to face the adult world with adult problems and conflicts (at least to a point). These themes are well developed within the story, and readers are invited to reflect on how they apply to their own lives.

Finally, the story-within-a-story motif is interesting here as the play's plot entangles with the story's plot. Basil, perhaps, may see himself a bit as the Captured Shadow, who gets caught up in the melodramatic farce of real life just as his characters do in the play.