Essay 1: Analysis of PlaysDescription: 5-page essaySource: TWO of our assigned texts (at least one of the plays we have read before mid-term)Total Points: 150Due: Oncourse “Assignments” tab by 5pm on appropriate date

The AssignmentWrite a concise, well-supported, claim-driven 5-page comparative close reading that analyzes how two of our assigned texts address a shared concern, problem, or issue. Identify and analyze a meaningful, unobvious relationship between the two texts’ ideas, approaches, and/or literary and theatrical strategies, using specific details from each to support your analysis. Be sure that your argument delves into the deeper implicit and symptomatic meanings of the texts, and develop an argument in which you place them into conversation with one another. In other words, rather than a simpler comparison-and-contrast structure, really be sure to keep the issues, ideas, problems, or themes that the texts raise in related, yet different ways. Those key differences will help to sift out the larger, deeper cultural meanings.

Address ONE of the following prompts in a clear, coherent, and concise manner that follows your line of thought through to its most significant implications (i.e., your answer to the prompt will be the thesis statement of your essay):

1. How does the play Richard II constrain or mobilize specific cultural attitudes toward history and/or time? Some particular issues you might consider (but are not limited to) include the uses of the past in this play; the manner in which a historical legacy is created for the future; the role of war in historical narrative; the way that people use language to construct historical narratives. As you consider the representation of history in this play, please draw evidence from ONE or TWO specific moments in the play. Consider these moments in relation to Macbeth, Venus and Adonis, or ONE of the sonnets assigned in this class as a constructive comparison.

2. How does the play Macbeth constrain or mobilize specific cultural attitudes toward gender and/or sexuality? Some particular issues you might consider (but are not limited to) include the relationships men share in the play; the relationships between men and women; the gender “roles” that characters take on through various means; the definitions of masculinity and femininity in the play. As you consider the representation of gender in this play, please draw evidence from ONE or TWO specific moments in the play. Consider these moments in relation to Richard II, Venus and Adonis, or ONE of the sonnets assigned in this class as a constructive comparison.

3. How are cultural attitudes toward social class and/or status constrained or mobilized by TWO of the assigned texts for this class (i.e., Richard II, Macbeth, and/or ONE of the assigned sonnets)? Some particular issues you might consider (but are not limited to) include the relationships among people of the same class; the relationship among people of different classes; upward mobility through various means (i.e., title, wealth, marriage, etc.); the manner in which power shifts through subtle means (i.e., one-upmanship). As you consider the representation of social class or status in two of these texts, please draw evidence from ONE or TWO specific moments in each of the works.

English L220Intro to ShakespeareE1

As you develop your argument, please take into account the advice on thesis-writing and paragraph organization discussed in class and available on the course website. A successful essay will examine specific moments in these texts and look very carefully at the specific form these themes, issues, and problems take in the language of the texts. Though you will only be handing in a final draft of the essay, it is expected that your work will evolve through a series of drafts so that you can produce the best essay possible. In other words, start early!

Criteria for Evaluation Focus: the focus of your essay is a very specific issue raised by ONE of the prompts above; this focus is

clear from the first paragraph

Unity: your essay has a concise and complex thesis statement at the end of your introductory paragraph that clearly answers the question in the prompt and previews the various turns your argument takes

Coherence: each paragraph has a topic sentence that advances a specific, clear claim about how the particular moments you’re examining construct this issue; each paragraph has a clear transition that moves the argument along carefully from one point to the next; every paragraph is in its proper place in the argument (i.e., it doesn’t feel arbitrary)

Support: each paragraph appeals to specific evidence from the text of the plays and/or poem to support claims; it uses quotations wisely, explaining and unpacking precisely how you interpret them and why they support your claims

Critical Thinking: your thesis is an interpretation that develops the texts’ implicit meaning, and your argument evolves and considers why this interpretation might matter (SO WHAT?!)

Readability: prose is clean and trimmed of any fat; the essay makes every word count; the essay is revised at the paragraph and sentence levels for clarity, spelling, and grammar