Shakespeare Essay Assignment

For the essay, you will use a passage from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and create an original thesis that is both specific and original. You will then support your point with a close analysis of the quote you've chosen. You may introduce other quotes from the play (you won't be required to do this), but your main focus should be on the quote you chose initially. The length of your essay should be between 2-3 pages. You should include a Works Cited page (not included in the page count) that lists the play, but you may not use or cite any other sources. The essay and Works Cited should be formatted according to MLA Guidelines and use Times New Roman in a 12pt font.

Texts: Twelfth Night, or What You Will

you choose a specific passage and analyze it in fine detail, as if with a magnifying glass. You then comment on points of style and on your reactions as a reader. Close reading is important because it is the building block for larger analysis. Your thoughts evolve not from someone else's truth about the reading, but from your own observations. The more closely you can observe, the more original and exact your ideas will be. To begin your close reading, ask yourself several specific questions about the passage. The following questions are not a formula, but a starting point for your own thoughts. When you arrive at some answers, you are ready to organize and write. You should organize your close reading like any other kind of essay.

No outside resources should be or may be used in this particular analysis.

If you need HELP! getting started:

• Does an image here remind you of an image elsewhere in the play? Where? What's the connection?

• How might this image fit into the pattern of the play as a whole?

• Could this passage symbolize the entire work? Could this passage serve as a?microcosm-a little picture-of what's taking place in the whole work?

• Are there metaphors (words that represent something else without using like or as)? What kinds?

• Is there one controlling metaphor? If not, how many different metaphors are there, and in what order do they occur? How might that be significant?

• How might objects represent something else?

• Do any of the objects, colors, animals, or plants appearing in the passage have ?traditional connotations or meaning? What about religious or Biblical ?significance?

• If there are multiple symbols in the work, could we read the entire passage as ?having deeper moral or spiritual meaning beyond the literal level?