Essay 1

The essay is to be written in-class only, no exceptions. Arrive at class a few minutes early and log in to the course through EduCat. The assignment, with prompts, will be available at precisely 10am. You must arrive no later than 10am. Students arriving late will not be permitted to write the essay, no exceptions. You will have until 11:40 to complete it.

You are permitted to use the prescribed course text book and your class notes. No other aids or devices are permitted, including earphones. Cell phones must be silenced and stowed.

1. General Instructions

Your essay should begin with a clear statement of your thesis in a single sentence.
Build your essay’s argument around evidence from the texts. There is no need to copy out passages to which you refer. Instead, simply indicate the act, scene, and line numbers. For example, if you wish to cite lines 23-25 from Act 3, Scene 2 of Richard II, simply write “3.2.23-25”. There is no need to write “Shakespeare” or “Richard II” or the words “Act,” “Scene,” and “Lines.” Indeed, you need not indicate this information at all, so long as your discussion makes clear what passage you are referring to.
Be as exhaustive as possible in building your argument. Do not be overly fussy about formal considerations (spelling, grammatical accuracy, paragraph divisions, etc.). The task here is not so much to submit a pretty piece of writing as it is to demonstrate your knowledge of the plays and the subject of your thesis.

2. Prompts

Choose one of the following:

Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy and Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, both plays contain both tragic and comic elements. Compare the plays in terms of their combining of these two literary modes.
Both Richard II and 1 Henry IV are history plays which chronicle the origins of the English Wars of the Roses. One of them, however, is presented in the tragic mode, the other in the mode of comedy. Why does this difference matter, and how does it affect our reception of the two plays?
With reference to two plays, compare Shakespeare’s presentation of two tragic or two comic heroes (e.g., Richard II and Juliet, Hermia and Prince Henry). Because the differences between such characters is obvious, your answer should concentrate almost entirely on their similarities as either comic or tragic figures.
With reference to one tragedy and one comedy, discuss the ways in which otherwise minor characters play important roles—characters whose presence is essential either to the plot and/or to our understanding of one or more of the major characters.