ShakespeareS Writings Essay Research Paper Term Paper

Shakespeare`S Writings Essay, Research Paper

Term Paper for Shakespeare 101

Specifications:

Title paper (do not underline).

Number pages.

When citing the text, follow the form of citation used in the

introductions to the plays in Norton. Four lines of quotation or more

should be indented and single spaced. Less than four lines should be

incorporated into your own text.

Avoid plot description.

Support observations and claims with examples and citations from

Shakespeare.

State your thesis in the first paragraph.

If you choose to use any secondary texts (and doing so is not

required), be sure to cite them in footnote or bibliography.

Paper Topics:

In every case, I have given you some questions to get you started thinking

on the topic. I hope they will be helpful in suggesting what kind of

issues you might address.

1. The Motive for Cursing: King Lear and Caliban

You might begin by locating a good dictionary definition of “curse”. (No

need to quote it, but do make sure you know what constitutes a curse).

This paper would involve collecting curses from the mouths of both Lear

and Caliban. You might also want to consider what the king and slave have

in common that drives them to curse. Whom do they curse? In what

situation? What passions does cursing vocalize? What kinds of misery

would Lear and Caliban bring down upon those they curse? What might an

alternative to cursing be? At what point do Lear and Caliban stop

cursing, and why?

2. Two Flashbacks: Hermia and Helena’s Childhood and Hamlet I and

Fortinbras’s Combat

Think about the circumstances that lead to these two narratives of the

past. How is each gendered? How is the experience each one records

different from that of the play in which it appears? Does the world

described in the sketches still exist in the world of the play? What has

superseded the girlhood friendship and the chivalric combat?

3. Shipwreck in two of the following plays: “Comedy of Errors,” “The

Winter’s Tale,” “The Tempest”

In what way does a shipwreck mark the end of tragedy and the beginning of

comedy in two of these plays?

4. The Cause of Death: Mamillius in “The Winter’s Tale” and Titania’s

Votary in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

What do we know about the circumstances of these two deaths? What are

the natural causes of each death? Does either the boy or the young woman

in any sense deserve to die? Is their death a punishment? Why do you

think death figures in these two plays when neither is a tragedy?

5. Allusions to Women in “Hamlet”: Niobe (1.2.149), Hecuba (2.2481ff.),

Jepthah’s daughter (2.2.392) , Nero’s mother (3.5.364)

Ophelia and Gertrude are the only women in the play, but there are

allusions to all the females listed above. Look up each of them in the

appropriate dictionary: mythological, classical and biblical. In what

respect are they all associated with different forms of reproduction? Do

they bear any relation to Ophelia and Gertrude?

N.B. If you prefer to write on a topic of your own choosing, please email

me a paragraph stating what you would like to write on. If the topic is

feasible for this course and this length of paper, I will happily approve

Ophelia’s chanting in the “mad” scenes is a parody of the OT

story of Jepthah’s daughter, who “bewailed her virginity” for a month before

she was sacrificed. In fact, “virginity” signifies dying before marrying and,

particularly, without offspring. Ophelia’s “virgin crants” were apparently hung

in the church during her requiem. This suggests a need in the community to

believe her a virgin. Those who read Hamlet as a Reformation chronicle detect

glances at the BVM here. You might see an article, “Ophelia’s Maimed Rites.”

Hope this helps.

Jephthah returned to Gilead and in Mizpah they made him commander over

the army and the head or leader of Gilead. Jephthah then set up negotiations

with the Ammonites but they would not listen to anything he had to say. (The

Ammonites were the descendants of Lot’s son, and inhabited a tract of country

east of the river Jordan and had always been hostile towards the Israelites.)

So as he marched into battle against the Ammonites he made a vow; “If You will

indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever

comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the

people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s and I will offer it up as a burnt

offering.”

Jephthah secured a great victory “..from Aroer as far as Minnith –

twenty cities — and to Able Keramin.” It was a very bloody battle with much

loss of life and many great prizes were captured and the Ammonites “..were

subdued before the children of Israel.”

Upon Jephthah’s return home his daughter came dancing and singing

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