ENGLISH 2310 SECOND ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

GRADY FALL 2011

Essays should be typed, double-spaced with one-inch margins, and four to five pages long on one of the topics below. Be sure to refer as helpfully and specifically as possible to the texts upon which you're basing your argument--and be sure to have an argument or thesis. Your essay should have an original title, should not use the word "portray," and should not contain any sentence fragments. Essays are due on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28.

1. Design your own topic, of suitable specificity and sophistication, about something that interests you in Marlowe, Shakespeare or the poetry we’ve read. Consultation with the instructor is required for those of you intending to use this option; talking with one another is highly recommended, too.

2. Discuss the relation of plot to subplot in Shakespeare's King Lear (i.e., Lear and his daughters/Gloucester and his sons). Some questions to consider: How are the plots alike, and how are they different? What do the participants in one plot think about the participants in the other, and how do characters play a part in both? How does the order of scenes in the play invite us to compare the two plots? What kind of knowledge (about character, relationships, family, the universe) does each plot produce?

3. Discuss the relation of plot to subplot in Shakespeare's King Lear and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.

4. Discuss the themes of hierarchy, order, obedience, legitimacy, and the natural order of things as treated King Lear. “Hierarchy, order, obedience, legitimacy, and the natural order of things" are of course all aspects of the same topic; they do not represent a list of topics to be dealt with in turn, one by one. You might begin to prepare for this essay by asking how characters of different classes—masters and servants—approach these issues.

5. Write an essay about the theme of disguise and deception in King Lear, with a strong and clear thesis and liberal use of examples. Some questions to consider: who deceives, and why? who disguises themselves, and why? what's the difference between deception used for good purposes, and deception used for ill? Or is there a difference? Is the play worried that there might not be one? How can we tell? Are there circumstances where deception or disguise is to eb preferred to honesty and truth? What about the issue of self-deception?

6. Write an essay about Shakespeare's use of animal imagery in King Lear. What (or who) gets compared to animals, and in what ways (flattering, insulting, deprecating, praising)? What is the overall effect of this imagery? (NOTE: a list of Shakespeare's uses of animal imagery is only the first step in writing on this topic.)

7. Pick several sonnets by several different poets but with similar themes or conceits and discuss how different writers employ and experiment with the conventions of the sonnet form. You might focus on the notion of immortality through poetry; the impermanence of (physical) beauty; the naturalness and artlessness (or alternately the self-conscious complexity) of writing verse; the blazon or inventory of beauties; reason versus passion; divine versus earthly love; or any other theme you find employed by three or more poets.

8. Write a sonnet cycle of four sonnets, on whatever theme inspires you. Provide a paragraph of analysis for each poem, describing its conceit, its rhyme scheme, and any other information relevant to its structure or interpretation. Remember, as part of a cycle your sonnets should all be connected to the same story or theme, perhaps reflecting on different aspects of the same subject or using different conceits or metaphors to describe the same thing or idea. The length (14 lines) and the meter (iambic pentameter) will be closely scrutinized. Please feel free to come to me (or any other poets you know) for help with the form or rhythm of your work.