Essay
For this essay, let us bring our skills as close readers to the table in our search to understand literature. It might seem intimidating at first; maybe you do not know the difference between alliteration and chiasmus. But, as an intelligent scholar, you DO know the difference between a sentence that repeats the same sound (alliteration) and a sentence that has one logical structure and then, halfway through, reverses that structure (chiasmus). So, for this assignment, I do not ask you to pull from the lexicon of literary criticism – instead, I ask you to analyze what you see happening in the literature in your own words. When I look over your essay drafts, I might suggest some vocabulary from literary criticism, but in the meantime, just write what you see happening.
This essay should be thesis-driven. This means that, somewhere in your introduction (usually at the end), you will make a distinct claim about what the language is doing in the text. The claim should demonstrate your own “take” on the text and also give an indication of the way you will prove that claim.
While I always make it a rule to accept almost any substantial essay topic that you might propose, for this essay I would like you to choose from the following three suggestions. If you have a better or different idea, I am open to it, but you must e-mail me and receive approval before Spring Break begins. Please read through all three suggestions, as it will help you focus on the unique aspects of your individual essay. As you can see, each of these prompts ask you to analyze literary representation.
Suggestion 1: Compare the dramatic representations of madness in Hamlet and Medea. Choose one passage (of around 10-15 lines) from each play and compare how the language conveys a degree of madness. Note: this essay topic does not ask for a comparison of the relative “madnesses” of Hamlet and Medea as characters (we already did that in our weekly activity); nor does it ask for an explanation of the causes of their madness. Instead, this prompt asks for you to describe the ways a character’s words (from the mad character herself/himself or from another character describing his/her madness) reveal or portray madness. How do their words reveal that something upstairs is amiss? This requires that you perform a “close reading” (or, “explication”) of the passages you choose. Describe the ways the words, images, phrases, logic (or illogic), or other elements represent madness. This essay asks you to focus on the writing of Euripides and Shakespeare, not the characters as if they were real people.
Suggestion 2: Compare the literary representations of mourning in Gilgamesh and Hamlet. Choose one passage (of around 10-15 lines) from each text and describe the ways these two texts represent characters mourning the death of a loved one. You might choose to focus on the moments of greatest despair, or you might choose to focus on the moments of relative acceptance of death, or something in-between. Either way, this prompt asks you to look at the ways the words themselves describe the process of mourning. The best essays in this category will refrain from making value judgments about who mourns “better” (obviously, Gilgamesh does, since Hamlet dies), but will instead make a claim about the ways the texts themselves represent mourning. How do these two texts represent mourning?
Suggestion 3: Compare the literary representations of revenge in Hamlet and Candide. Choose one brief passage from each text and describe the ways the texts portray either the act of revenge or the plotting of revenge. Candide is a very comical text and does not seem to take anything too seriously, yet it is riddled with characters murdering (or attempting to murder – spoiler alert) each other for grave or petty offenses. Hamlet is a very serious text and dwells on one act of revenge almost endlessly. How do the texts of Voltaire and Shakespeare represent revenge?
No matter what your essay topic, it is important that you focus on the words themselves. Your claims, from your overall thesis claim to your smaller supporting claims, must be supported by textual evidence – by words from the text. This essay writing assignment is to help you develop your writing skills, to be sure, but it is primarily designed to help you develop your reading skills.
