Essay Assignment 2, English 212

 Please write a short paper on one of the following topics.

1. You’ve been exposed to three comedies, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Tempest. The Tempest is also considered a romance. Summarizing the major events in MOV and MAAN, explain how the two are similar and how they are different in order to invent a definition of Shakespearean comedy. Then demonstrate how The Tempest fits and/or doesn’t fit your new definition.
2. In The Tempest, various characters demonstrate the philosophical opposition between nature and nurture, community and hierarchy, enchantment vs. other ways of getting things done, man as naturally good but corrupted by civilization vs. man as naturally evil and irredeemable by civilization, etc. Write a paper that surveys all oppositions of this kind and observes what the play seems to want us to believe about them, whether critical or supportive.  
3. Beatrice and Benedick, in Much Ado About Nothing. Compare how they fall for and end up with one another, with another difficult coupling that you know about in literature or in real lives that you know about personally. You’ll need a copy of the play or movie for this, and the story of the other literary or real life coupling will have to be made just as interesting.
4. Don John is the villain in Much Ado About Nothing. What are the repercussions of his villainy? In comparison with villains in other Shakespeare plays you’ve read or seen, how does he come across as a character and a man?   

Again, classmates can be valuable resources. It’s not out of bounds to work part way on this assignment with others, the members of a group writing better through discussion.  

Again, if an idea doesn’t fit, though you may love it, don’t try and cram it into your essay. Figure out what the essay wants to accomplish and make it accomplish only that.  

Create a smooth ride from one idea to the next. Don’t leave excess, overblown sentences, portentous language, or grammar and spelling problems that will get in the way of your ideas. Write in your own voice and be crystal clear. 

Use evidence from the text—quotation, summary, paraphrase—and explanation to demonstrate why you assert what you assert. Take the attitude that your reader is vaguely familiar with the plays and interested in your ideas. Make sure you’re reading what’s on the page. When you draw an inference, explain clearly why you draw this one and not another. 

Write an introduction that leads your reader to want to pay attention to what you are about to tell him. Conclude the essay by bringing your ideas out into a wider context. In other words, show that your argument pertains to something beyond itself—that it matters. 

There is no set length limit. Just be complete. 

Due April 10, typed, double-spaced, name on.