Choose one (1) of the following options and write a 3-page minimum (at least 750
Choose one (1) of the following options and write a 3-page minimum (at least 750 words) essay in response to it. Note: The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate that you have read and understood the story you’ve chosen, and are able to explain some of the important events in it and their significance in your own words. You could pretend you’re telling a friend or relative about one of the readings you did for class.
Option 1: Julius Caesar. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar could be titled The Tragedy of Rome, or The Tragedy of Brutus.Your assignment: Analyze the character of Brutus.Show your reader how Brutus’s own words and actions bring about a catastrophe for Rome and his own downfall, giving rise to questions about his judgment and integrity. Find things that he says or does that reveal the quality of his leadership and the content of his character. Identify places in the play that reveal his guilty conscience, his faulty or self-serving reasoning, and his bad decision-making in everything from the personal to the political to the military. Then, most importantly, explain to your reader how and why these things you’ve identified lead to his downfall and a disaster for Rome. In other words, analyze the important decisions he makes as well as the reasons he gives for his actions, and discuss the consequences. (The page “Brutus Character Analysis Exercise” in this Module provides an excellent guide to help you write this paper.). Use examples from the play to back up your points, but keep quotations brief and concentrate on your explanations.To cite the text, place Act, Scene, and Line numbers in parentheses at the end of your quotation. Example: “Your quotation here” (1.3.5-7).
Option 2: Othello. For this option, analyze the play by focusing on one of the following characters: Cassio, Desdemona, Othello, or Iago. Explore the motives, emotions and circumstances of the character you choose, and his or her relationships with all the other significant characters in the play. Try to give your reader a good sense of why things play out as they do. Each of these characters has significant interactions with all the others, and you will end up discussing them all no matter which one you choose to focus on. But try to explain what happens in Othello by following the trajectory of a single character throughout the entire play. As always, use short but effective quotations from the play to point out significant words and actions, but focus mainly on your explanations of what the words and deeds mean and why we should agree with your analysis. To cite the text, place Act, Scene, and Line numbers in parentheses at the end of your quotation. Example: “Your quotation here” (1.3.5).
Option 3: Hamlet. For this option, paraphrase and analyze Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy beginning at 3.1.57 and ending at 3.1.89. Explain as fully and clearly as you can the events and circumstances he’s reacting to, as well as what his words mean. There are two parts to your assignment: Part 1: Paraphrase it. That means “translate” what he says into your own words (not No Fear Shakespeare’s words or anybody else’s). Make sure you capture anything and everything he may be implying or suggesting. Don’t just include what he says, tell us as much as you can about what is implied, what’s between the lines, where he’s coming from, etc. Don’t assume that what seems obvious to you is obvious to your readers. When in doubt, spell it out. Part 2: Analyze it. Explain why what he says is important for us to understand him as a character, and how it gives us insight into his reaction to what has already happened, and how it helps us to understand his actions as the play goes forward. Some things to think about as you analyze it: What prompts him to launch into this speech? What has been happening to him, and how is he reacting to it? What is his mental and emotional state, and why is he thinking and feeling that way? What issues is he trying to work out? What ideas is he speculating on? What do we learn about his outlook, his fears, his personality? How does what he says here give us insight into his motives in events in the play that come after this speech? Give us as good a character sketch of Hamlet as you can, using this soliloquy as a guide to his mindset and actions. Feel free to psychoanalyze the melancholy young Dane, but back up what you say with evidence from the text. The better you explain what he means, why he’s feeling the way he does, and how it all relates to what happens in the play, the better your grade will be. As always, use short but effective quotations from the text to point to significant words and events, but focus mainly on your explanations of what we learn from his words and actions. To cite the text, place Act, Scene, and Line numbers in parentheses at the end of your quotation. Example: “Your quotation here” (1.3.5).
Option 4: Antony and Cleopatra. Many would argue that the true “hero” of this play is Cleopatra. She is often discussed by other characters, and portrayed as enigmatic and exotic. Antony dies in Act 4 of the play yet Cleopatra does not die until Act 5. In the end, she is still in control, wearing her queenly regalia and choosing the time and manner of her death. Your assignment: Analyze the character of Cleopatra.Explain her character by examining what she says, what she does, what other characters say and do about her, or to her, or because of her, to determine what we as the audience should think of her. Is she a “hero” like other central characters in Shakespeare’s plays we’ve read (e.g. Hamlet, Othello, Brutus? Why or why not? To cite the text, place Act, Scene, and Line numbers in parentheses at the end of your quotation. Example: “Your quotation here” (1.3.5).