Shakespeare
Write on THREE of the topics below (You may do a FOURTH essay for ten points of extra credit). Each of your essays should have a clear paragraph structure with a beginning, middle and end. Common mistakes are to write too much or to fail in giving good textual examples in support of your claims.
1. Why does King Lear have three daughters and not three sons? Would this story be any different if Lear had three sons instead? More importantly, what is Shakespeare saying about the fundamental relationship between daughters and fathers in this play. Use examples from Goneril, Regan and Cordelia’s dialog in your answer.
2. Compare and/or contrast Richard III and Hal as men on their way to being king.
3. The malcontent is a common figure in Renaissance drama. Moliere has his Misanthrope and Shakesperare has his Malvolio and Jacques. Write an essay on the function of a misanthrope and why it is important in Shakespearean drama.
4. Is Falstaff a good man or a bad man? Why?
5. Compare and/or contrast Richard III and Edmund as Shakespearean villains.
6. Is Cordelia a Christ figure? If she is, who is she redeeming and how would her life story mirror the journey of Christ in the world?
7. Compare and contrast Touchstone (As You Like IT) and Feste (Twelfth Night) with the fool in King Lear.
8. How do Shakespeare’s comedies seem influenced by festivals of misrule (Mardi Gras, Halloween, Christmas and New Year’s)? Give examples.
9. Compare and/or contrast Rosalind, Viola and Cordelia.
10. What is Shakespeare saying about extremes of behavior in Twelfth Night?
11. Examine the role of social class in Shakespeare’s As You Like IT and Twelfth Night.
12. A leitmotif is a repeating pattern of words or imagery (like “moon” in Midsummer Night’s Dream or “Night” in Romeo and Juliet). Trace a leitmotif word or image through one of the plays we’ve studied and explain what you think it means in terms of the play’s theme.
13. Why does Shakespeare repeat the ironic failings of King Lear in the Gloucester subplot? Why is it important that we see this story twice in the play?
14. How is Prospero related to other Dukes and Kings that Shakespeare has written? Compare Prospero to at least two other similar figures in the plays.
15. What is the function of Caliban and Ariel in The Tempest?
16. How does The Tempest sum up the works we have studied?
17. Is Prospero Shakespeare or is Falstaff Shakespeare? Is neither Shakespeare?
