ENG220Y (Prof Percy & R. Ormsby's
section): Essay 1
Write a
2000-word essay on a topic that you have focussed from one of the
subjects below.
Writing
the essay:
The U of
T Writing Home Page also has advice on writing academic
essays:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html
You can also work with your college writing
centre (and New College's, since you're taking this course) at any stage of the
essay-writing process.
Format:
1. Please type or neatly print your
assignments.
2. On a separate title page, please provide a unique (and interesting) title that
reflects how you have focussed the topic; your name & student number; my
name; and the date.
3. Do
not put your name on the body of the essay. Your essay's title and your student number are my keys to your
identity once I've finished grading. Please
put the paper's title and your student number at the top of EACH page; number
each page at the top right.
4. Please use a paper clip rather than a
stapler to hold the paper's pages together.
I do comments on the word processor, and it is easier for me to attach
them to your essay if I don't have to chew off the staple.
Due:
The paper is technically due on December 13th, but as I'll be away from
the 9th through the 18th, you may submit it without late penalty to the Wetmore
Hall Porter, New College, by 10 a.m. on Monday, December 20th. I cannot
and will not accept your essay by fax or by email. The mailing address: Professor C. Percy,
Wetmore Hall Box 310, New College, University of Toronto, 21 Classic Ave,
Toronto M5S 2Z3.
Late
essays: U of T is closed from Dec 22 through Jan 2. 4%
off until 4:45 pm on December 21st. 25%
off on Jan 4th; not accepted thereafter without acceptable documentation
(medical certificate, registrar's letter).
Documenting
your sources:
When
quoting from Shakespeare's text, please include parenthetical references to the
act, scene, and line number (e.g., 1.4.31 or I.iv.31 or 1.IV.31 - just be
consistent). And please give a full
bibliographical reference to the edition that you have used in the
bibliography. E.g.,
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer
Night's Dream. Edited by Peter Holland. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994.
I
do not expect you to use secondary sources: close reading and deep thought over
a 4-week period can produce a first-rate essay. However, it can be satisfying and helpful to contextualize your
ideas about a topic in current scholarship.
It
is better to put off reading secondary sources until you have devised a working
thesis. That way you'll know what you
are looking for. Once you've decided to
use secondary sources, you must use a wide range of articles and books. Start with the general guides to Shakespeare
scholarship listed on the course syllabus.
You
must document all the sources you have used fully and accurately.
of T's Writing Home Page has good advice on how to avoid plagiarism:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html.
1. The primary
source for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
is Arthur Brooke's The Tragicall Historye
of Romeus and Juliet (1562).[1] Compare the two scenes in the tomb. What changes has Shakespeare made, and with
what effect?
2. The
Gardener's speech in Act 3, scene 4 of Richard
II is clearly metaphorical. Analyze
its function in the play generally, and in its immediate dramatic
context, that is, between 3.3 and 4.1.
3. Write an
essay that identifies the thematic functions of the word time in Henry IV, Part I
and/or Henry IV, Part II. You can use a printed concordance (e.g.
Spevack's multivolume Shakespeare
Concordance) or one of the on-line concordances linked to the course home
page.
Write an essay on the functions
(plot, character, theme) of:
4. Servants
and/or lower-class characters in two plays that we have studied in class
so far.
5. References
to religion in Romeo and Juliet and
Baz Luhrmann’s film of Romeo and Juliet.
How to document a film? A film citation usually begins with the title, underlined, and includes the director, the distributor, and the year. But if you are citing the contribution of a particular individual (director, screenwriter), begin with that person's name.Chaplin, Charles, dir. Modern Times. With Chaplin and Paulette Goddard. United Artists, 1936.
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, screenwriter. A Room with a View.. Dir. James Ivory. With Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, and Helena Bonham-Carter. Cinecom Intl. Films, 1985. Based on E.M. Forster's A Room with a View
6. The family
as a structural and thematic element in Romeo
and Juliet and Richard II.
7. Prince
Escalus in Romeo and Juliet and Duke
Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
8. The potions
in Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
9. Female
characters in Henry IV, Part One and Henry IV, Part Two.
10. Shifting
settings in two of Richard II,
Henry IV, Part One, Henry IV, Part Two.
11. The human
body in two of Richard II, Henry IV, Part One, Henry IV, Part Two. `Why you are so fat, Sir John, that you must
needs be out of all compass, out of all reasonable compass, Sir John' (Henry IV, Part I, 3.3.20-22).
12.
Descriptions of the crown (literal or figurative) in two of Richard II, Henry IV, Part One, Henry IV,
Part Two.
Have a
good holiday, when it comes … -- CP
& RO
"Awhile
to work, and after holiday"