Write an essay on one of the following topics. Your essay should do the following: Introduce its subject and line of thinking State a clear, complex thesis Examine the text it discusses in detail, with a mixture of quotes and paraphrases Cite all of its references to the text according to MLA style Analyze the details it uses to further its argument Conclude with an explanation of how its analysis of the details proves the thesis 1. Memory. Early on in Dancing at Lughnasa we are told that the setting is memory. Think about various ways in which Friel plays with memory. The narrator is remembering the actions of the play. Characters within the play are remembering earlier points in their lives. Father Jack’s memory is a problem for his sisters in more ways than one. Come up with an argument about how memory functions, fails to function, misleads, or maybe leads very well, in Friel’s play. 2. Money. The characters in the play are all struggling economically. Is this a play about the material conditions of Irish people in the 1930s? If so, how do we make sense of all of the romantic and imaginative elements? 3. Gender. This play focuses on women living in a patriarchal society without the support of a man. What sort of community do they form? How successful is it? While it falls apart in the end, does that mean that the play is suggesting these women had no options without the support of men, or does it point to a sisterhood (literal, in this case) that survives for a while and gives meaning to the lives of the women it depicts? RubricShow more
