Essay # 2: Shakespeare's Comedies

Please post your essay on blackboard as a word document attachment
Checklist:
 Please don’t forget the introduction and thesis statement.
 Content (relevant, accurate)
 Academic Vocabulary
 Grammar
 Punctuation, Spelling and Capitalization
 MLA format
 Length: 850 – 1000 words
 Works Cited: Include at least one academic source
 Include at least one quote from the academic source. Introduce and explain the quote’s
relevance
 Include at least one quote from the comedies. Introduce and explain the quote’s relevance

Please use this quote and citation:
Richter, Natasha L. "A Midsummer Night's Dream: Imagination, Romantic Love,
and the Creation of Art." Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 2.01 (2010).
<http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=130>
Quorate sentence:
" lovers dream about the people they love; and poets dream of a world
beyond the physical world and make it accessible to people through
language"

Possible Topics for Second Paper

1. Twins. What do we learn about a character from his or her "twin"? To what extent does
doubling accentuate or eradicate differences between characters? What is the broader effect of
this doubling on the play? What is the effect of twinning across gender lines, as in Twelfth Night?

2. One of the conventions about a comedy is that it has to end in marriage (or, more often,
multiple marriages). Consider the representation of marriage in one of the plays we have read.
How does the playwright portray the rewards and costs of being married, and how does marriage
affect lovers?

3. Country vs. City. There are certain scenes that take place in the forest, away from the city.
Why are those scenes important?

4. Although comedy is often associated with pleasure, as a genre it can be heavily invested in
cruelty or “dark notes”. Choose a moment in one of the plays we have read that seems to embody
this cruelty: Demetrius's dismissal of Helena in the woods, or the treatment of Malvolio, for
instance. What is the effect of this scene, and what does it do for the play at large? Why is it
here?

5. Compare and/or contrast male friendship and/or female friendship in these plays. How are
these kinds of social bonds constructed and maintained? What threatens them? What do they
exclude?

6. Consider Shakespeare's representations of minor characters, such as Phoebe and Sylvius, or
Bottom and the mechanicals. How does Shakespeare portray the "popular," and what is the effect
of the parodies he offers?