ENGL 144

Dr. A. Eastwood

Topics for Paper 2

Write an essay (no less than 7, no more than 10 pages, 1 inch margins, 12 point font, double spaced) in which you address one of the following questions.  Remember that your essay will illuminate something about Shakespeare’s plays that is not obvious.  Feel free to use any of the primary materials from the BCS to enhance or supplement your argument.  Make sure that you include close readings of the text, a title for your essay, and page numbers in the upper right-hand corner.  Secondary materials are not required, but if you choose to use them, you must include a works cited page. 

1.  Discuss who would make a better political leader: Hal, Hamlet, or Rosalind.  Make sure you back up your argument with a clear discussion of details from each of these respective plays.

2. Describe a social institution that is critiqued in As You Like It (e.g. marriage, primogeniture, romantic love) and write an essay in which you explain exactly how the play critiques that institution. 

3. Discuss the role of fools and clowns in Hamlet, As You Like It, and Henry IV, Part I.  Your essay should take shape around your theories about how clowns and fools function in the play.  I will not accept an argument that suggests that clowns provide “comic relief,” so you will have to think more deeply about how these characters function. 

4. Consider the treatment of role play in any two of the following: Henry IV Part 1, Hamlet, and As You Like It.  How is role play used in these plays?  What conclusions can you draw about the psychological, social, or political importance of role play in Elizabethan England?